Pick your steak--Eating Local style!

We have a sliding patio door in our dining room.  It opens out onto the deck that stretches the full length of the back of the house (there is a similar door in the living room wall).  The deck, and the sliding doors, have a wonderful view of the field behind the house. 

Often times, as we are sitting at the table eating meals, we can look out and see wildlife browsing on whatever is currently planted in the field.  Right now, that's winter wheat, which is starting to green up quite nicely. 

We see lots of deer and bachelor flocks of turkey almost daily.  On occassion, we have also spotted a red fox, or a coyote out hunting small critters (as long as they stay away from my chickens, and cut down on the field mouse population, they are welcome to stay).  But normally it's deer and turkey, like these guys:

We've gotten a little possessive of the deer and turkey.  It's kind of like those fancy restaurants where you get to pick the exact steak you want, and then they cook that one, just for you. Nobody else gets to eat it, just you.

We do the same thing: all year we watch the deer. . .

. . . and the closer it gets to fall, the more we start to salivate.  By September we're seeing them as walking dinner platters. 

Mmmm, I'll have a nice slice of hindquarter, please.

 (DH did harvest this one a few weeks after the picture was taken)

By October, DH is camoed up and standing in a tree, bow at his fingertips, waiting for his steak to step out into a clearing.

 Not you, honey.

We only shoot horns until Nov. 15th.

After that, watch out for Mama!

(Yes, I hunt, as do our sons and daughters.)

In mid-November, the rest of the family joins him, firepower held securely on our laps as we watch for just the right one to walk by.  The rule on our property is "6 or better" for bucks (six antler points or larger) and

"full grown with no nursing fawns" for does.

Not these.  They get to grow another year.

So this afternoon, while the deer graze on the wheatgrass in the gentle Spring rain, I'm scoping out my target for November, with anticipation of next winter's venison steak.  Meanwhile, some 2010 harvested steak is thawing on the counter.  I'm going to have it tonight with some mashed potatoes and steamed carrots, I think.