Filling Our Freezer!

We have really been enjoying the moose meat. Even though this is late I thought I would post some pictures of what happens after the moose is shot. We spent several evenings after Ross got off work processing the moose Ross shot. We were so busy during that time, that we just cut it up and put into the freezer. Now that we have a little more time we have been pulling chunks out of the freezer to make jerky and sausage. We have been enjoying our new smoker as it makes excellent jerky, summer sausage, and smoked salmon! I have not been able to have any of the jerky or summer sausage as the mixes we have, have msg or nitrates/nitrites in it, all of which are on the list of migraine triggers for the migraine diet I am on. I just get to smell the wonderful smell of smoked jerky drifting through the house while the dehydrator is running! If anyone has a good home made jerky recipe or summer sausage recipe, we would love to try it! Here are a few pictures of the many hours we spent processing meat and filling our freezer.

This is how the moose is packed out of the woods. It is cut into quarters along with the neck meat, ribs, and of course the backstrap and tenderloin, and put into game bags in order to keep it clean, then hauled out in pack frames. This can be very exhausting and heavy work, but I am told my husband is a work horse and I have heard other men say they would take him with any day! When the meat is brought back home it is hung to age for a day to a week depending on how cold the weather is.

We had a student staying with us during this time. He had the "chance" to cut lots of meat, ours as well as others in the community. Here he is with Ross cutting moose in our kitchen.

This is just the neck meat of the moose. I actually think we had already ground up a little of it already. So just the neck meat of the moose alone weighed a little over 78 pounds.

Here I am grinding hamburger. One of my favorite jobs of meat processing!

Here are Mackenzie and Marina helping with stuffing the hamburger into the sacks for freezing.

A friend (who Ross was with when he shot his moose) came over to cut up his meat. Mackenzie and Marina are helping him clean the hair that might have stuck off the hind quarter before cutting it.

Dad's little helpers.

Marina really wanted a knife to help cut the meat, so Dad was brave and let her have one! We made her use a fork so she wouldn't cut her little fingers. She loved it!

Our girls love cutting up meat. Whenever we would drag out another quarter to get started for the night, they would flock around and say, "Can I help? Can I help?" They stayed up late to help us out and are turning into quite the meat processors.