deer hunting

My last post for Simple, Good and Tasty was about cooking and eating beaver. I figured it would bring a few juvenile comments, but I didn’t expect to start a debate about cruel hunting practices. One reader took offense to the use of traps in killing the beaver, and it started a good conversation about ethical hunting and trapping practices, and making sure the animals we hunt don’t suffer unnecessarily. 

It's that time of year again, deer-hunting season is wrapping up. Thousands of Minnesotan's brave the frosty-cold mornings to sit in tree-stands and ground-blinds each year and wait for a big buck or nice doe to come into range. Over opening weekend alone this year, the DNR had approximately 73,000 registered deer. For anyone who partakes in this tradition or just knows someone who does, you are probably painfully aware that hunting can be anything from stimulating and invigorating to totally disappointing and everything in between. There is no debate that even a good, well-seasoned hunter will have to play the inevitable waiting game, which can be hard work in itself. In the end, the hard work and perseverance pay off and there are a lot of freezers out there chuck-full of venison for the winter months to come.

A few weeks ago, in an earlier blog post, I joked that the most authentic way to find a pasture-raised, grass-fed turkey for Thanksgiving dinner was to hunt for it with a bow and arrow or rifle.

According to a recent article in the New York Times a new generation of meat eaters, who are interested in local, free-range, organic food, are doing just that.