I made some this summer for my hiking adventures in the Sierras and Cascades. It's truly amazing stuff! My brother and I are ultra-lite backpackers...with Jerky and pemmican, we were able to keep our packs below 17 pounds, total...that's tarp, clothing, food, fishing gear (yeah, now that I'm a hunter and gatherer, I fish..totally!), and everything else, like camera and first aid...etc. We shot past those poor slobs with their fifty to sixty pound packs. They wondered how we could be so lite that it didn't even feel like we were carrying packs. When we told them we ate nothing but home-made pemmican, jerky, and whatever fish we caught, they turned up their poor, worn-out noses and sniffed that they would rather eat that dehydrated crap that gives me a total gas and bowel attack! Poor, uninformed, ignorant city-folk! How silly they are to be eating all of that food that is killing them with their diabetes, cancer, and other auto-immune disorders. They just won't listen, most of 'em. They know a "better way," even though that "better way" is going to do them all in. Not that I will necessarily live to an extremely old age. One thing I do know, though. I will be in better shape, and feel better, physically, while I AM here. Quality of life means more to me than longevity, anyway. And, there is still a chance that I will live longer because I thought to change my woe.
Now, I really love pemmican..it's very fatty...Since I now have a fat-burning metabolism, I love the stuff! I can sit and drink the fat leavings after I take a roast out of the pan...that used to be a big YUK! Now, that is not necessarily a good thing, either, though. Beef fat is high in the bad transfatty acids...omega 6...not good for us. That's because they are grain-fed for the last two weeks of their sorry lives. If they were range-fed, there would be the right percentages of Omega 3 to Omega 6 tranfatty acids. Home-made jerky...without all of the sugar...is great, too. I didn't have deer meat, which would have been better...next year, though. I'm getting a rifle this year and hope to bag one of the cute little Bambis...whenever I see them in the forest, I salivate about all of that meat on the hoof that could be in my stomach! I used to think they were cute. Now, I see FOOD! I see a lot of them where I live, in the Oregon Cascades. Someday, I hope to be proficient in using the bow...but, for now, I will blow them away with a high-powered rifle! Not that I want to kill them for the sport...I think that is highly wasteful and not in keeping with my natural environment or my place in the food chain. Nope! I want to eat them, when I get hungry! I even plan to thank them for getting in my sights, so I can eat them. That's what many of the "primitives" do. I wonder who is really "primitive and savage." I thank each fish that gets on my line. If he gets away, I just figure it wasn't his time to become food on my platter. I used to have a problem with clubbing them on their little noggins. Not anymore. I don't want them to suffer, if they are going to become food for me. I don't need the bad chemicals of their suffering, anymore than they need to suffer. I think I've spouted off for long enough. Would love to have this thread pick up and become a little more energetic.