Why do animals taste so good?
Published: Sun, 01/10/16
Last night I cooked V and I a venison stew for supper. There is enough left for tonight as well. That was one leg and shoulder and there is still both back legs, another shoulder and leg and one breast in the freezer.
It wasn’t a huge deer, just a young Roe Stag but it will still give us between 18 and 20 meals before we have finished it completely.
Oh, and it was free (apart from the electricity to run the freezer which I only turned on to keep the venison). I hate to think how much that much venison would have cost from the butcher’s. Anyone could have had a month’s worth of free meat, starting with the person who knocked the poor creature down and killed it. We reckon it had been lying beside the A30 on the way to Yeovil for at least a couple of hours before V noticed it and I went out and collected it. I have not doubt that at least 100 people and maybe many more must have driven past the carcase and either didn’t notice or could see no point in stopping and collecting it if they did see it.
For the vast majority of people meat comes in a package from the supermarket and there is very little association with an actual living, breathing animal. So, connecting a freshly killed deer with tasty suppers of organic, free range meat doesn’t occur to most people.
Okay, it is not for me to judge other people and in this day and age we can all just depend upon the supermarket.
Personally, I like to be able to display some self-reliance. It is also healthy to remind myself that for me to eat meat an animal has to first die and then be dismembered into pot sized portions. I know that there is always the option of going vegetarian but if God had not meant us to eat animals he wouldn’t have made them taste so damn good.
I also have the benefit of knowing how to butcher a deer. My mother taught me how to prepare a rabbit when I was a child. When you get the skin off a deer is actually just a scaled up rabbit, all the same bits are in the same places, just bigger.
I also have the tools to do the job. Nothing out of the ordinary, just a sharp knife and something that will chop through bones. My friend Josh made me a nice little sax a few years back which makes an excellent skinning knife. Many years ago my brother spent a few months on attachment with the Gurkas in Hong Kong. He brought me back a genuine Gurka Kukri knife as a present, and, yes they are every bit as effective as reputation has it.
Then there is the willingness to just do it. I do have to steel myself to cut into a carcase and the smell of blood does take a bit of getting used to. Sorry if I am making you queasy but if you eat meat that is what someone has had to do to put that steak or chop on your plate.
Stav training and practice is about developing self-reliance, the ability to look after yourself and those who might depend upon you.
What does it take to be self-reliant? Not just in terms of free meals, but in any aspect of life?
Firstly, the ability to notice opportunities when they occur. The day we obtained our deer V and I had been on a walk and V had noticed the deer near where it was subsequently killed. She drove to Yeovil later and noticed the carcase beside the road and suggested I go and collect it. You can’t be self-reliant with your eyes shut.
Second, you need to accumulate some knowledge and access to basic tools. You don’t have to know everything, just basic principles and them be willing to adapt to circumstances. It is surprising how quickly you learn when you have to.
Thirdly, you have to be willing to just do it whatever it is you need to do.
If I was able to run a ‘School of Stav’ then I would teach skills such as how to prepare an animal for eating. Maybe one day. In the meantime I do teach the principles of Stav and the martial aspect which includes basic fitness training and practical self-defence, both essential for self-reliance.
The three day seminars in the USA in May and in Somerset in June will look at how Stav can make you more self-reliant, partly through martial training but also by seeing how the principles apply to all aspects of life. My full programme at http://iceandfire.org/calendar.html
regards
Graham