Venison: Always Wild, Never Farmed

Last week, on a very wet day, I went to see our huntsman, Curtis. He runs his own deer management business managing deer populations across the South West, one outing at a time.

When people tell me why they shop with Field & Flower, I’m always pleasantly surprised how many say it’s because of our venison. My friend Rhys basically lives off of venison and swears by Curtis’, and I think it’s a pleasure that we can facilitate this purpose driven shopping and eating. Over the past years I’ve become quite attached to our deer supply. This is due to there being beauty is in its simplicity, nothing is convoluted about how this works.

Here’s what it looks like:  

1. The issue: The British deer population is at its largest in over a thousand years, estimated to be around 2 million animals, with no natural predators to control their numbers. These swelling numbers mean deer destroy natural habitats, sweep through young woodland eating saplings, and even cause increased road traffic accidents. The natural balance is off - don’t get me started about how much we need more wolves!

2. Luckily, instead of a pack of wolves, we have a pack of people like Curtis. Curtis heads out at dawn and dusk, culling deer across the South West to hit sustainability and herd management goals. He’s recognised as an expert in his field and, looking in his larder, I’d agree.

3. The story could stop there, but it doesn’t. After processing, Curtis and his small team dry-age the deer in their fur to tenderise and develop, before breaking them down to order, for us and their other customers. This aging process is fundamental to creating an even more delicate product, and gives them time to allocate the right deer for the customers. Any big reds will go for dice and mince, while F&F customers are getting the good stuff – you can count on that!

What’s so special about Venison is that it’s worlds ahead in terms of sustainability in comparison to the rest of the meat industry. Instead of talking about limiting impact, managing emissions etc, the very act of harvesting these animals is immediately ticking sustainability boxes left, right and centre. The act of managing numbers of wild deer gives natural environments room to grow and regenerate, while also making sure crops of apples, fruits and grains aren’t decimated.

There’s also a huge trade off – swapping supermarket meat for Curtis’ venison one night a week not only gives the incentive down the supply chain to keep producing the venison, but it sends a message to the supermarket that their customer’s gone somewhere else for that protein. This is why we think it’s so important to buy wild venison, not farmed venison – for the same meal you are either opting in or out of all of these benefits to our British agricultural landscape.

This feels like a small change that can’t have an impact but look at what’s happened to free-range eggs in the past two decades – they now dominate supermarket shelves because the British public sent a clear message: We want to see more of this. It baffles me that anyone would farm venison when the wild deer are proliferating on the other side of the fence, so you’ll see us hammering the message home all year – buy wild and help mitigate this issue by shopping what is arguably the most sustainable meat in the country.

Gone are the days of venison being eaten once a year with blackberry jus and pomme fondant – we want to make it an exciting option for dinners right through the week – always wild, never farmed.