(ADVISORY: THIS STORY MAY NOT BE ENJOYABLE FOR ANYONE WHO IS SENSITIVE TO HUNTING.)
My son Justin first began deer hunting with me in Missouri in 2008 after graduating from college. It was a great opportunity to spend a week at Grandma’s and Grandad’s with the bonus of deer hunting. In the first few years, he hadn’t mastered the basics of deer hunting – sit still (a comfortable deer blind helps), stay alert (too comfortable of a deer blind doesn’t help), and gun handling (several days at the rifle range builds safety skills, and confidence). Pictures from those early years shows a dejected young man posing with other hunters and their trophies. However, over the years, Justin gained these skills and learned of one additional vital skill.
In 2017, my nephew Beau joined us at the Missouri deer camp for the first time. On Saturday of opening day, I bagged a young doe and a nice 9-point buck and my brother Steve bagged a forked-horn buck. On Sunday, Justin and my cousin Basil both bagged does. Beau was seeing limited game and certainly no opportunity to take a shot.
Our family has always “processed” our own venison. My mother graciously allowed us to transform her kitchen into a meat processing plant. In the early days, you worked your way up through the ranks from wrapping the meat in butcher paper and labeling with the hunter’s initials, cut of meat, and year, to packing the meat in plastic snack bags, to running the tenderizer, to slicing the meat, to deboning and trimming the meat for slicing.
On Sunday afternoon of 2017, we were processing the first three deer. I was deboning; Justin, Beau, Steve, and Basil were slicing; Scott was running three positions – tenderizer, bagging, and wrapping/labeling. We always start with the backstraps or loins, then the hams, then the shoulders. As I fished the hams out of the ice cold water in the meat cooler on the front porch, my hand came across two small delicacy known as the tenderloins. I put them into the processing pan and carried them inside. I simply lay them on Justin’s cutting board and said, “You know what to do”. Beau took a particular interest in this activity as Justin sliced the tenderloins, bagged them, and handed the bags to Scott with the words, “Wrap these for Paw!”. (Paw is what all of the grandchildren call their maternal grandfather. The moniker Paw was Bill’s second choice when Pat and the girls vetoed the suggestion that the grandchildren call him Big Daddy. Beau was surprised when Justin was giving all the tenderloins to Paw. He seemed almost indignant when he said, “Why are you giving all of the tenderloin to Paw?” To which Justin replied, “It’s the ‘Vital Ingredient’.”
I first learned of the “Vital Ingredient” while hunting with my father-in-law Bill in Marion County Texas in the 1980s. Bill loved to stay in his pop-up camper while at the hunting lease. Forever the optimist, he would bring all the essentials to the deer camp except meat, confident that the Lord would provide. On one particular hunting trip, neither Bro. Voss nor I had managed to get a deer, so it appeared that we might have to take the “drive of shame” back into Jefferson to join other unsuccessful hunters buying meat at the Piggly Wiggly. Fortunately, Bob, one of the day hunters on our lease, came into camp with great news – he had shot a deer, but couldn’t find it. Desperate for “camp meat”, Bro. Voss and I agreed to forgo our evening hunt to help Bob find his deer. Eventually, we found the deer, dragged it to camp, skinned and processed it, and packed the meat for transport back to White Oak. I was incredulous that Bob had left without offering us some camp meat. With a twinkle in his eye, Bro. Voss said, “I was afraid he might do that. That’s why I took the tenderloins and hid them by the carcass!” Later that evening, as Bro. Voss and I sat down in the camper to a delightful meal of fried tenderloin, he told me, “There’s only one thing better than fried deer tenderloin, that’s STOLEN fried deer tenderloin!” I guess the Lord does provide, sometimes in “mysterious” ways!
Justin grew up hearing the story of the stolen tenderloins. After a couple of years without success at the Missouri deer camp, he made a commitment to give Paw the tenderloins from any deer he was blessed to harvest. Soon thereafter, Justin began routinely taking a deer every year. In 2015, he harvested the largest deer every taken from our farm. Faithful to his commitment, he continues to “tithe” the tenderloins to his Paw.
On Sunday evening, as Beau, Justin, and I drove to the deer check station near Branson, we called Paw on speaker phone. When he inquired about the deer camp, Justin and I related our success hunting and told him that Beau was still struggling because he hadn’t committed to the “Tithe of the Tenderloins”! On the spot, Beau made his commitment with Justin and I as witnesses. We fully expect Beau to be successful soon!
Bradley Roberts Wyatt 