Our herd of Fallow deer grazes with the poultry on 25 acres of organic clover rich pasture. We are licensed by the Soil Association to produce organic venison.
Fawns are born in May or June but we often miss seeing them hiding in the long grass.
We have a "hands off" handling policy, the deer are wild. They stay outside all year round.
In the winter the herds' grazing is supplemented with our home grown organic oats and hay or silage.
The deer are quite mischievous (at full moon and other times!) and can be destructive (during the rutt and when they are losing their antlers). They have been known to open taps and valves, chew string, damage the poultry huts by rubbing and on occasions carry a memento of their exploits with them for some weeks! One managed to carry a brass tap on his antlers until the string disintegrated and it dropped off!
We only sell fresh venison in season, but may have frozen joints/casserole at other times of year.
We usually take out the prickets at around 18 months old for our venison. This is an ideal age for tender, quality venison. They are shot by a trained marksman to minimise stress, and gralloched, hung and processed on the farm. Hanging in the coldroom for 2-3 weeks develops flavour and tenderness before butchering.
We only sell fresh venison in season.
We occasionally have whole deer hung in the skin for budding DIY butchers to skin and cut up. These are only sold collected from the farm.
When the campsite is open, our venison burgers may be available. Definitely worth getting them on the barbie!
Box contents may differ - half box shown
Venison Box weights (Approx)
We are not doing any venison at Christmas but if you are a previous customer you should get an email when we have meat available or sign up below.
Sign up for Rutland Organics and/or campsite newsletter (takes you to cuckoofarm website).