A venison roast stews in a pot on the stovetop, with handfuls of cubed butternut squash. A winter supper that may be taken in as many directions as ends of veggies in the crisper drawer, preferred hunk of meat, or lack thereof. The venison in my dish was a gift from my sister, the huntress.
Ours is a hunting and fishing family; our parents hunted together every autumn. The wild game, the fish they caught, the berries and mushrooms they gathered, were a big part of our diet. My sister carries on family traditions, taking charge of the entire process of putting meat on the table, from shooting, to butchering, to packaging, to serving. Her meticulously packaged roasts and back straps and pounds of burger feed her all through the year with enough left over to share with sisters and elderly moms and other hungry souls.
My sister’s hunting rifle belonged to our mom, and up until the last year or so of my mother’s life, my sister would take her out road hunting in the fall, something my mother enjoyed immensely, as much for the opportunity to spend a day with her daughter, taking a long drive on the beautiful Montana backroads, as for the hunting itself, though she had sharp eyes for movements in the brush and was an enthusiastic and experienced partner every step of the way.
I never embraced the act of hunting the way several of my siblings have, but I grew up with the smell of raw game meat my parents hand-ground into burger or sliced into steaks or roasts. When I open the package and sniff, I am overcome with fifty-year-old memories. I am not turned off by the prospect of eating venison. It’s lean and tasty, nutritious, and unprocessed. To me it makes more sense, seems more humane, than the packaged meat from the grocery store.
To my sister the huntress, taking the life of a wild creature is serious business. When the bullet hits its mark, she offers up a prayer of gratitude (for she is a woman of faith as well), and when the meat is all packaged and stored away, the unused bones and hide and bits of fat go back to the forest, to nourish and nest the mountainside.
Venison Stovetop Pot Roast
1 small venison roast, dredged in seasoned flour
1 tablespoon cooking oil
Salt, pepper, Italian seasoning to taste
1 sweet onion, diced
1 celery rib, diced
1 carrot diced
2 cups diced butternut squash
Toss the roast in seasoned flour and sear all sides in hot oil in a deep Dutch oven on the stovetop. Add sliced onions and a little water, cover and simmer low a good hour or more until meat is fork tender. Give the meat a head start, then add cubed veggies of your choice. Roots and squashes are especially delicious.