Postal Customer
Ottumwa Publishing
641-208-5505
ottumwapost.com
•••••JANUARY 10, 2024•••••
Problem Solved We are again at that time of year where we are running out of room in the freezer. This is not entirely a bad problem to have. It means there is plenty of food ready when we need it. There just is no room for any more. If my wife wants to make up a big batch of lasagna so we can eat half of it now and freeze the other half, we do not have that option. She likes to do this on occasion, so something is ready when neither of us feels like cooking, which is frequently. The problem has been caused by a sudden influx of deer meat. Each year, I like to process one deer for ourselves, mostly for jerky and steaks. It is not hard to eat one deer’s worth of meat in a year’s time. I prefer a nice fat doe which will yield about 75 pounds of packaged meat. Since I am lazy, I take my deer to a local processing plant. Most people have pork or beef fat added to their deer burger as it has very low-fat content. This is fine if a person plans to use the meat as a replacement for hamburger in recipes, but not for jerky. No fat is needed and will allow the ground meat to spoil more quickly. In a few days, the deer comes (Outdoors cont’d on pg 2)