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Animal Processing Workshop

Presented by Jeff & Ana Sanders     ~     Hosted by Brad Lancaster

 
*see below for identification of pictured items

This workshop is currently full, but we will be happy to accept names for a wait list in the event of cancellations.

During this two-day workshop students will learn to slaughter, skin, eviscerate, butcher, and cook a medium-sized animal (sheep or goat) in a traditional way, using little more than one’s knife.
Jeff and Ana will teach you how to:

• Identify all the parts of the animal
• Cook the edible parts, such as the muscles, intestines, some organs
• Process the hide, sinew, intestines, bones, and hooves to where they can used to make tools, clothing, musical instruments, or adornments. Examples include bone tools, sinew & intestine cordage, hoof rattles, hide glue, & more.  Examples of such items will be available and students will have the opportunity to work on these projects.

The workshop includes lunch & dinner, cooked by the students during the workshop. Vegetarians are welcome!

Cost: $40 per person
Date: Saturday & Sunday, February 18 & 19, 8:15 am – 6 pm
Location: Dunbar/Spring neighborhood (north of downtown). Address will be provided upon receipt of deposit.

A minimum of 7 students will be required for the workshop to run
Limited spaces available – pre-registration is advised
Reserve a space with a $20 deposit (non-refundable after February 1)

Students will be required to sign a waiver acknowledging and accepting full responsibility for any possible injuries that could be sustained during a hands-on workshop involving knives and exposure to blood.

To register or with questions, email admin@HarvestingRainwater.com or call (520) 777-0049

To download a copy of the flyer, click: Sanders Animal Processing Workshop

*The items pictured above are (from left to right):
Top Row: Back-strap sinew (cleaned and dried)
Second Row: Felted wool pouch, hoof and buckskin rattle, buckskin pouch with a scrimshawed bone button
Bottom Row: deer-hock pouch, bone needle, two styles of bone awls, bone knife
Bottom Right Corner (right of bone knife), counterclockwise: bone whistle, two bone dice, six bone gaming sticks, sinew bowstring, small-intestine cordage, sheep-horn cup, and chips of dried hide glue
About the workshop:

The focus of the workshop is to help people experience a lifestyle that is closer to the earth and the things we need to sustain life. Raising or processing one’s own food means that it is not shipped thousands or even hundreds of miles. The impact we create when we process our own food is seen more immediately and directly instead of being spatially separated from us. This way we are less insulated from the true impact our life has on the entirety.

Lessons learned with domestic animals are directly transferable to working with animals of any size, domestic or hunted.

Vegetarians that have taken past workshops have said that they would consider eating meats that are not processed industrially, as a healthful and ethical choice. Many of Jeff and Ana’s past participants are inspired to find farms where they may become more connected with the life of the animal and the meat they eat.

The workshop is very hands-on and includes a focused anatomy lesson.

We will use as much of the animal as possible in the time available. The workshop is more about the animal than about the food, for this reason Jeff and Ana have streamlined the cooking portions of the workshop so that less energy is used on cooking allowing for more time and energy spent learning about the processing.

Short bios for the instructors, Ana and Jeff:

Ana and Jeff live in southern Utah with their two-year-old daughter. Their lifestyle is very much rural with a focus of raising, hunting or obtaining locally a significant portion of our food.

Jeff learned animal processing at the Boulder Outdoor Survival School  (B.O.S.S.) beginning in 2000.  He has worked in many capacities at BOSS since 2000, and in 2011 was able to return to teaching full time in the field.  Last year he felt it would be valuable to expand the web of the animal-processing lessons and started teaching this workshop at primitive skills gatherings and for other organizations.
Ana has also taught at BOSS, focussing primarily on teaching primitive-living skills.  Currently, she takes care of a dairy cow which has provided the family with milk, cheese, yogurt and butter and also takes care of the garden and orchard. She owns a small business, through which she designs and makes jewelry with silver and semi-precious stones.