AS I SEE IT
BY MARIANNE HERON
We are being told to eat less red meat for environmental reasons. But there is an alternative, with a forest-to-fork appeal, which we could eat more of with a clear conscience.
Venison, once a staple in Irish diet, is making a comeback. “Definitely, in the last two years, demand has gone from zero to a hundred percent,” confirms Keith Grant, Master Butcher, who supplies venison nationwide from his shop in Roundwood, Co. Wicklow.
People ask for venison for two main reasons explains Keith: “For health, it’s good lean meat and for ethical reasons, they may not approve of traditional farming methods.” Deer, until they are hunted and shot, live wild.
The most popular cuts Keith says, are steaks from the haunch, diced meat from the shoulder and his own venison sausages.
Most venison available today is wild rather than farmed. Hunters should be licensed, use appropriate guns, be qualified in aspects of butchery and able to ascertain the health of the animal they have shot. They also need permission to shoot on private land or forestry owned by Coillte, while butchers selling venison also have to be licensed.
There is another reason to give this wild meat a try. Increasing the venison market can be helpful as part of successful deer management. There are no figures for the actual deer population in Ireland which has expanded exponentially and is out of control in some parts of the country, causing problems for farmers by poaching pasture and crops, damaging deciduous plantations and posing a risk to motorists.
Sustainable populations are important for healthy deer populations too. The type of breed varies in different parts of the country with Sika, Red Deer, Fallow and a few Muntjac. All of these considerations require an effective deer management policy. But deer me,(sorry) so far efforts to rein in the deer population don’t seem to have worked.
The Irish Deer Society (IDS), founded to foster deer welfare and habitat, are concerned about the increase in deer numbers and that the current deer cull is not achieving a balance in the national herd in some areas.
Their view is that this situation has many causes including a lack of hunting during Covid, a lack of competency in deer management and reluctance to implement a proper management plan. Another part of the problem according to Neil Forde of the IDS is that “forestry in parts of Wicklow and Kerry are substantially over-populated, and they require a very vigorous cull of female Sika. Yet, there is too much anecdotal evidence of leasees only shooting male deer on Coillte land”,
The update of the Deer Management Strategy Group report published this year by the Department of Agriculture suggests wide-ranging measures, including hunter training and expanding the venison market. Chief among recommendations are local deer management teams in hot spots, reviewing the open season, (currently August to end April for male deer and November through March for females) and looking at the possibility of a deer management agency.
An obvious question to ask is whether some form of birth control for deer might reduce numbers but apparently this has been tried in Britain and wasn’t viable. More shooting of deer isn’t the answer either, as it causes the animals to scatter.
Meanwhile, there is a contradiction between the amount of deer and the supply of venison. There are plenty of deer about just outside my gate, yet it is difficult to find any local butchers who stock venison, although it can be a competitive source of protein. It should be considerably cheaper per kilo than lamb and less that beef but isn’t always so.
It could be that butchers worry that venison might not sell. I hear that venison is more popular with urban customers than rural ones. Maybe country people remember venison the way it used to be, when meat from mature stags could be tough and strong flavoured, whereas now it’s likely to come from younger animals.
I am a venison fan and think it could make an alternative to turkey at Christmas, given the threat posed to traditional birds by the avian flu epidemic. I got some venison from a legitimate source (as you do). After marinading in wine and slow cooking with root vegetables ,the meat was delicious and melt in the mouth tender.
Yum!
