Venison For Dinner: Living a Homemade Life

Connecting with Canadian Field Team Member, Kate Schat, on family and homesteading, by encouraging her children to be regular contributors on the farm, Kate is instilling the family motto in the next generation, "work like dogs, eat like kings."

On our farm, we regularly talk about how we could not raise all the food we do without our kids. They know they are vital parts because they experience it all first-hand each and every day. To offer them freedom and room to experience what homesteading provides for our family, we encourage each of our children to make and use “high-value” items, like butter, cream, or lard, to make treats and snacks on a regular basis. Building their knowledge and confidence in their creativity of this process helps them better understand the effort it takes to produce the foods they enjoy – and instils our family motto – “work like dogs, eat like kings.” Being able to enjoy their own homegrown and homemade treats, like popcorn and ice cream, which are their favourite to make, help them understand the value of the work that they do on behalf of the family in milking and feeding animals, and makes it feel so worth it.

When it comes to mucks, my favourite boots are a tough call! Because we live in such drastically different seasons through the year, I tend to wear several different boots from season to season. For warmer weather, the Muckster II Mid-height Boot (in green with floral of course!) is my go-to. It's enough of a boot to protect my feet from livestock and muck, but not so heavy and warm that it is uncomfortable on hot days.  In winter, it's the Women’s Arctic Ice Vibram® Arctic Grip All Terrain Short Boot that performs the best for the weather we receive in British Columbia. The arctic grip on the soles is key in walking on areas with a bit of ice to keep me on my feet and not my butt! They’re black with a wee hint of pink, which is important when 2 of your sons have the same size feet as you but wouldn’t be caught dead in pink boots! As you can tell, I prefer a mid-height boot and this is because I do a lot of squatting while in the garden and milking, and a mid-calf boot gives me more ankle mobility to comfortably do this. My husband and older boys prefer a good tall boot as they do more hiking through water and snow, so the height helps keeps them dry.

About Venison for Dinner

Kate and Marius, plus their five kids, have always enjoyed living a homemade life whenever possible. Moving 1000 miles north in 2017 to Northern BC, Canada upped their game even more. They live on a 34-acre homestead and get a kick out of things like raising their own meat, dairy and vegetables.

IG: @VENISONFORDINNER

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