About the meat, a subject almost as dear to me as hunting itself... this is how we did it
Bring a dozen helpers. Lots of axes, knives, and a tractor with a trailer. Cut a trail in from the nearest place that is possible to drive to (the power cutline)
Start by skinning the top side into three panels. Save the skin for processing into leather later. Debone. Place chunks on the trailer or on chunks of hide to keep them "clean". Flip carcass using a truck and ropes, repeat. Six hours later, voilà!
View attachment 523023View attachment 523024View attachment 523025View attachment 523026View attachment 523027View attachment 523028View attachment 523029View attachment 523030View attachment 523031View attachment 523032View attachment 523033View attachment 523034View attachment 523035A trailer full of three tonnes of meat and nothing but bones left in the bush. The bones will also be hauled out after the vultures are done picking them clean.
Fresh meat may be cooked on the spot, as we did for our lunch and as did an old forestry tracker who looked hungry and underfed, may be made into a stew, like we did for our supper in camp, or processed into sun-dried meat strips as most of the three tonnes was.
The meat is coarse, kinda like tough beef. Tasted good. Although some cuts are said to be "gamey", I think that's just because of the normally primitive butchering conditions. The bottom side of the carcass collected blood over night since we couldn't field dress or bleed the carcass, so the bottom side cuts might not be as good for fresh meat. It was almost all processed into skinny sun dried strips but we didn't eat any of that. The kebabs we had, cooked on the spot were excellent! And a stew we ate the next day was as good as any other stew I suppose. It was tender but don't know how long it was cooked. The heart, although as big as a 20L pail, was fine grained and delicious. I thought it might be coarse, but it had the same texture as beef or elk.
Each worker gets a share, weighed out on a scale. We delivered half of the meat to the other forestry camp nearby, where the same drying and distribution system occurred.
After the week we spent at the camp, we dropped off some of the Amadundamela forestry workers at their local villages. They were packing big potato sacks full of dried meat, and were very pleased to share with their family and friends.
