With the recent harvest of my elk, I wanted to share something with yall. . .
Did you know that elk have ivory?!
They do! There’s not many sources of ivory that are native to North America, but elk have one of them.
They have ivory teeth! But not all of their teeth.
Elk are ruminants, which means they have a ruminant digestive system, have an even number of toes, and don’t have top teeth. . . .except for their ivories.
Some people call them whistlers. Some folks called them buglers. I call them ivories or just elk teeth.
I have quite the collection of teeth from over the years. I think I’ve collected enough of them to practically be a dentist 😋🤣 I’m for hire. I work cheap, but you have to sign a waiver (I’m kidding, mostly).
I’ve seen many pictures of Native women’s dresses adorned with ivories and they’re just so beautiful!
Others use them for jewelry, which is also beautiful. I hope to have a ring made with one of my teeth eventually! But for now, my collection just sits in a bowl 🤣
Elk Ivory
The ivories in the photo are from the cow I harvested last week. Cows have significantly smaller ivories than bulls.
I know some might find it odd, but I love them! Every set of ivories I have remind me of a special hunt and the sacrifice that a beautiful critter made so that I may live.
The kids and husband got to accompany on my elk hunt 🥰
December is my favorite month, but not for the reason you’re probably thinking.
We don’t do Christmas, we don’t do trees and lights, or the sweaters and cookies (anymore). . . What I love most about December is cow elk season.
I am not a trophy hunter, though I do have a few heads on the wall (not monsters by any means). I strictly hunt for meat. And friends, if you’ve never had an elk steak in your cake hole, you’ve not truly lived.
This year I was blessed to get a crop deprivation tag from my husband’s grandmother. While the powers that be are trying to make people think the elk herds are suffering here in Southern Colorado, anyone with a pair of functioning eyeballs can see that they’re thriving. Some of the old timers I’ve been blessed to know tell stories about how elk weren’t even in this part of the country until the 80s when the department of wildlife brought in elk from Yellowstone and from the Vermejo in New Mexico, which is actually really close to us as the crow flies.
My husband’s grandpa would talk about how he remembered when the first walk started showing up at their ranch. It was cool to see at first, but now they’re a nuisance.
Anyone who has ever built a fence can attest to just how big of a nuisance they really are. And don’t get me wrong, I LOVE elk. I am still very much that giddy, childlike person in awe of these critters. I will never not exclaim ELK! every time I see one 🤣
But these days we have an entire herd on the ranch. They’re not always there, but when they are, they tear up fences and eat valuable grass that we need for the cattle. And in our part of the world, we just can’t support both cattle. So every year we are given an allotted amount of crop deprivation tags by the game wardens/Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
ANYWAYS. . . I got an elk.
It’s been cold here, so we quartered her and hanged her in the shed out back. I have been chipping away at quarters while my husband has been at work. I also had some wonderful friends come help me this week! We visited and laughed while the kids played and my friend’s husband and I cut away at meat.
My daughter also an amazing helper! She jumps right in and helps trim the dried bits on the outside!
Side by side comparison of a pronghorn shoulder and an elk shoulder! This elk was huge.
It brings me great peace of mind and joy to have all this in my freezers. My family will eat healthy all year long with this!
Here’s a time lapse of my daughter and I working on one quarter of the elk. This was a shoulder. I typically send all shoulder meat to the grinder.
We absolutely love elk meat. We eat it for almost every supper.
We eat more ground meat than anything else, so that’s what we make the most of when butchering.
We ended up with about 25 lbs of tenderize steaks. I have a tenderize that attaches to our grinder. It makes the steaks into cube steaks. We use this for chicken fried elk steak, fajitas, stir fry, and burritos…and whatever else I can think of to throw it in.
We got 4 bags of tenderloins. Elk tenderloin is about as good as it gets. There’s 2 tenderloins on critters. I cut them in half. I like to cook them “whole” rather than sliced into steaks.
We 8 bags of backstrap. Backstraps are the pieces of meat that run along the spine on the “outside” (if that makes sense). Forever, we sliced these into steaks. But one year I was lazy! I cut one into four chunks and tossed them in the freezer. When I cooked one, we fell in love. The way I cooked it, it turned out like prime rib 🤤 it was SO good. So now I also keep these “whole” rather than slicing into steaks.
We saved about 15 lbs of meat for my dad to make brats with. My dad really makes all the best stuff.
This cow was so meaty. She had meat in places I haven’t ever seen on elk before. She had a full on brisket, too! I was able to pull the whole brisket off to also give to my dad. He has it in a brine for corned beef…I mean, corned elk, which he’ll slice for sandwich meat.
I just finished up with vacuum sealing the burger!
We ended up with 70 lbs of ground elk!
We like to mix beef fat into our burger, which also helps to stretch it further. Elk is very lean, so adding some fat into is always a good idea.
I also saved out about 2 lbs of burger for supper tonight! We had frito chili pie 🥰
Now we are packing for a lovely little trip to the Bahamas! Stay tuned for all the shenanigans that ensue with that! 🏝🐷🥥
Do you hunt? Do you butcher/process your own meat? I’d love to hear how your family does it!
The steers + one open cow grazing at the ranch this summer.
We do!
This steer was born and raised right on my husband’s family ranch. We delivered it to my parents to get him dressed and in the cooler to hang until we are ready to process him. He will hang in the cooler until Thanksgiving time, when we can get back up to my parents’ to help butcher.
All four quarters of the steer hanging in the cooler
My parents started giving my brother and me meat as our holiday gifts. The gift of food is such a huge blessing ❤️ they usually do a couple hogs and a steer (my own family has since decided to avoid pork).
We make a family event of it. We spend a few days together making all the cuts, grinding all the burger, packing, and vacuum sealing.
Everyone gets a knife. Even the kids get in on the processing!
This steer will hang in the cooler for a few weeks. Then we will begin the butchering process. Unfortunately, my brother and his wife won’t be here to help us 😥
I will try to get as much footage and as many photos along the way as I can!
This is something we have absolutely loved doing as a family for years. It has become one of our favorite family get togethers. And the beef we get from it is beyond top notch ❤️
Below are more pictures of the dressing part of all of this. . .so just be aware, in case you don’t want to see the more “gory” side of all of this.
Last week I got to take the kids out with me on an antelope (pronghorn) hunt. My husband was at work, so it was just the three of us. Then later, my brother in law stepped in to help.
The kids were so very excited to get to go on a “real” hunt and it couldn’t have been a better set up for us.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get any field photos with the kids, because that’s just how it goes sometimes. But they were just so stinking cute in their camo!
However, the real fun and work began at home.
Every year we turn our homeschool/room into a butcher shop for all the critters we are blessed to turn into food.
The kids are such great helpers! These antelope are so small, there wasn’t much they could help with when I was cutting on the quarters. But they are both fabulous grinder operators and we decided to gring all of this meat for breakfast sausage. So they got plenty of grind time.
We are so grateful that God provided this delicious, healthy meat for us! We ended up with about 20 lbs of breakfast sausage. Tomorrow, we will vacuum seal all of it up and get it in the freezer 🙂
We find hunting to be the most cost effective way to provide meat for our family. We are blessed to usually get an elk or two and a mule deer every year. We always do all of our own processing/butchering, which also helps to cut down on costs. With a quick price breakdown, we estimated that this little antelope cost us around $2.70 per pound. Again, we made it all into breakfast sausage, minus the baskstraps. Keep in mind that this is organic and grass fed meat (because, you know, they’re wild 🤣). So, when those buzz words start getting added to labels the price sky rockets! We did add in about 5 lbs of beef fat, because these speed goats are so lean. Hunting is just our favorite and best option to keep meat in the freezer. It gives us great opportunities to spend time together and make memories and we get to eat the best and healthiest meat around ❤️
Middle Creek Mama 