The weekend before Thanksgiving is whitetail hunting time here in \"da nort country\" and this year was a typical hunt for me. Two antlerless deer for the freezer, and no trophy for the wall. The wife and I always process our own to get the best possible venison. We take the best cuts - loin, steak, a few roasts - and the rest of the lean meat is ground for burger. We trim off all the fat possible to eliminate the \"wild\" taste and usually a lot of meat gets wasted with that. We have our own meat grinder, so this year after grinding our burger, we took all the trim and ground it up, put it in plastic baggies, and froze it for the chickens. I usually take out one package a day (the night before to let it thaw) and feed it as a treat to the breeding flock. The chickens love it. They seem healthier and we get eggs every day in very cold weather. Don\'t know why I didn\'t think of doing this years ago. Of course there is always some fat and trim left on the bones, so the skeleton is hung in a tree for the wild birds. The outside cats get the leg bones. Nothing gets wasted. Life is good.
