If you’ve spent even a moment learning about Native American culture it’s impossible not to have it impressed upon you how much of the animals they hunted were used, which is to say, literally every bit of it.
There seems to be almost a de-evolution over time in terms of how much of animals we let go to waste.
For example, our grandparents may not have worn buckskin clothing, but they certainly ate organ meat.
When is the last time you ate organ meat? Did you know that it’s potentially one of the single most beneficial things you could add back into your diet? Eating as much muscle meat (exclusively) as we modern humans, and especially westerners do is neither normal nor healthy. Including organ meats is one way to balance the amino acids and improve the nutrition profile of your diet. (By the way, I wrote up my chicken liver pate recipe, and I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t love it.)
And so on as you go back in history. Of course the more we waste, the worse things are for the planet and the worse things tend to be for us – who live best in concert with the planet not just extracting from it.
One of the things that always bothered me when I’ve hunted deer is that the hide goes to waste. I don’t know what the processor does with it, but I’d wager they don’t use it and I never asked to keep it since I didn’t know how to tan it.
So the next few days I’m going back to the woods to learn traditional brain tanning, which is using animal brains rather than harsh chemicals to break down the proteins in hide and make soft and usable leather.
I may not switch to wearing buckskin clothing, but knowing that I can use another part of the animal I’ve taken from the Earth is really important to me and is another skill in the quiver that could have who-knows-what benefits down the road.
Leave a Reply