Some like it wild

Most Americans will have turkey on their tables today, but with hunting season in the Midlands in full swing, hunters and their families and friends will be preparing a variety of wild game over the next few months.

But if you're not a hunter and don't have a hunter in the family, you can find meats like bison, venison, elk, pheasant and antelope in specialty meat stores, including a few in the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area.

Based on a sampling of butcher shops and meat lockers, there are more such products carried in stores or available on special order than there are consumers.

“The market for wild game meats is minute,” said Pat Costello, owner of Just Good Meat on 84th Street between L and F Streets. “Bison we sell a lot of, but we rarely get an order for pheasant or quail.

“People who eat wild game usually go out and hunt it themselves.”

But putting meat on the table isn't the main objective of most hunters, according to Responsive Management, a survey and research firm that specializes in natural resources and outdoor recreation. Only 22 percent of hunters now say they hunt primarily for food. In 1980, that number was 43 percent, according to Responsive Management.

It's illegal for stores to buy wild game from hunters. Bison, elk and similar meats typically are supplied by commercial operators, and the products must be inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture before hitting store shelves.

In addition to Just Good Meat, Stoysich House of Sausage at 2532 S. 24th St. and 2502 S. 130th Ave., and Frank Stoysich Meats at 5170 Q St. also offer exotic meats.

If meat stores don't stock what you're looking for — alligator or rattlesnake, for example — they usually can special-order it and have it available in about a week, sometimes two. But be ready to pay up, because exotic game doesn't come cheap.

For meats like bison, which is popular because of its leanness and comparability to beef, expect to pay up to $9 per pound, depending on the cut. Other meats not found in the Midlands are even more expensive, such as alligator, which usually can be purchased for around $15 a pound.

But that's not the biggest wallet-buster. Rattlesnake, which can be turned into jerky, grilled or used in soups, can ring up at more than $20 a pound.

Ken Stoysich, owner of Stoysich House of Sausage, said such special orders are rare, and usually come from people trying to have a little fun or looking to impress a dinner guest.

Stores or hunters aren't the only sources of a more common game meat, venison.

Omahan Josephine Militzer, 77, signed up for the Deer Exchange program this year, which is operated by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. The program, now in its second year, provides hunters' surplus deer meat to consumers.

“I've never bought wild game from a store, because I know if the deer isn't dressed properly, it has a very bad taste,” Militzer said.

Kit Hams, big game program manager for the Game and Parks Commission, said the exchange is a good way to dispose of deer meat hunters don't want. It goes to unsuccessful hunters, to consumers who didn't have access to the meat and to people having trouble affording meat.

Iowa native Rick Faust has never had a problem getting his hands on wild game. He hunts everything from deer to pheasant to wild turkey and is a firm believer of “whatever you hunt, you eat.”

Faust commonly uses venison in place of beef in recipes and even fools some of his “squeamish” adult friends into eating a chunk of venison sausage or pheasant, he said.

“I just let them eat it, and when I tell them what it really was they act all disgusted, even though they already said it tasted good,” Faust said. “You can't beat wild game.”

So far this season, 1,600 people statewide have registered to either donate or receive venison, Hams said. The state had 1,300 registrations in 2008.

The number of participants is expected to climb past 2,000, he said, but compared to the 80,000 deer estimated to be harvested in Nebraska this season, the demand for venison from non-hunters remains small.

Van Fleet Meats, a meat locker in Ralston, has processed 10 deer through the Deer Exchange program this year, said owner Tom Salistean.

Processing deer for hunters who want to give venison as gifts is a bigger profit source, he said.

“We process about 100 deer every season that are given as gifts,” Salistean said. “It works out tremendously.”

This report includes material from the New York Times.

Contact the writer:

444-1414, ross.boettcher@owh.com

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