Women-led animal slaughter workshop.
Every student kills their own animal and learns how to employ every aspect of their bodies.
We source local, organic, pasture raised animals who lived happy and healthy lives.
Each student will leave with every part of their animal! This includes all meat and organs (except what we eat in class), hide, skull, sinew, bones, hooves, and more.
Here is a breakdown of the value that is included in this class:
$700-$1,000 (on average depending on size of animal) of organic pastured meat and organs
$100.00 of bones
$35.00 per hide
$10.00-50.00 in grassfed tallow
$$$ invaluable blood, organs, bladders, sinew, skull, cute pouches, etc
That is about $1,000.00 in value of the animal alone! But this class also teaches you the skills of how to kill and tend to every one of the gifts these animals have, so that you can continue harvesting animals on your own.
Topics that we cover:
-information on animal husbandry - regenerative grazing for soil, animal, and ecosystem health
-how to herd, catch, and move an animal for slaughter with the least amount of stress and fear
-how to efficiently and humanely kill an animal with just a knife, wrapped in song, prayer and ceremony
-how to catch blood and keep it well
-how to gut cleanly (either in the field or hanging, depending on your needs), and how to sort out the organs for food and non-food uses
-how to skin the animal and process the hide to preserve it until further use (like for tanning or rawhide)
-how to break down the entire animal with just a knife (no electic saws or hand saws necessary)
-which cuts of meat to use for roasts, jerky, stew meat, grind, or “hot and fast” searing
-how to portion out and wrap meat for freezer storage
-basic methods of off grid meat preservation (hanging, curing, brining, smoking, etc)
-how to use a meat grinder
-how to prepare each organ for maximum nutrition and taste
-making bone broth
-rendering fat for food and/or topical salves etc
-how to find, remove, clean and store sinew for rope and thread
-how to skin the lower legs, and how to make them into adorable little pouches, sewn with sinew
-how to find, remove, clean, and prepare the pericardium heart sack into a beautiful pouch
-how to find, remove, clean and prepare bladders for many different uses as a receptacle
-how to remove and process the eyeballs for painting pigment and magick
-how to remove hooves for rattles, buttons, etc
-5 different meals worth of gourmet recipes using different parts of the animal, including parts that aren’t often thought of as desireable, like liver, spleen, raw blood, kidneys, adrenal glands, and eyeballs.
-PLUS lots of breaks to eat our world famous blood cookies and blood nog!
Class includes:
Three days of hands-on instruction with Harmony Cronin
Three gourmet lunches and two dinners cooked up by Sarah Bellum using animals we’ve killed, fresh organic vegetables from our garden and other organic staples (a great opportunity to learn our favorite recipes, tips, and tricks!)
A canvas tent with wood stove for communal sleeping (or bring your own tent)
Taking home every part of your animal!
Sliding scale $950-1400
Non-refundable deposit required
Discounted work-trade spots available
Please email gatheringwaysschool@gmail.com for information