If you follow this blog, you know that I protect, as best as I can, the predators on my farm:  coyotes, hawks, owls, coons, bobcats, gators, and so on.  Obviously, this policy includes the peaceful, graceful, gentle deer.

Today, I would like to discuss with you a shift in policy. 

I went out this morning to check one of my winter gardens.  I planted this garden from seed with spinach, chard, cabbage, kohl rabi, collards, cauliflower, and a variety of lettuces.  The beautiful vibrant leafy green vegetables were almost ready to harvest. 

This morning, most of the vegetables were gone.  All that remained were a couple thousand deer-hoof prints down the long rows.

I grabbed my hair with both hands and fell to my knees in the sand.  If you heard a long anguished cry on the outskirts of town around daybreak this morning, that was me.

Usually, the dog chases away deer before they get close to the gardens.  However, I have a new batch of chicks out on pasture, and raccoons have been trying to tear down the fencing to get to them, so I locked up the dog with the chicks to protect them.  The deer took advantage of the dog’s incarceration by throwing a dinner party on my garden.  I can’t prove it, but I think the deer and raccoons are working together. 

Can I tell you something about cute precious deer?  Deer have teeth.  Deer have big spinach-chomping teeth.  And they have sharp hooves.  It looks like they hosted a rugby match on my garden.  Or a tractor pull, with mules.

So, here is my shift in policy.  I will continue, in principle, to protect the wonderful predators of my farm.  However, I WILL HARVEST every last bit of spinach, chard, greens, and lettuces that I just lost.  I will harvest it as chicken-fried deer steaks.

So, place your order now for “Venison Stuffed with Greens”.  I am locking and loading and going out now to harvest it for you.

P.S. For my vegetable-loving customers, do not worry.  We will still enjoy a bounty of delicious winter vegetables, coming soon.  I have more gardens.  Also, I typically grow 99 times more vegetables than I plan to sell, due to my former predator protection policy.