🎧 The Wild Venison Project

Episode summary: Eighty six year old Fergie MacDonald remembers shooting Red deer as a nine year old boy. The Second World War was on and food was scarce in his home village in the rugged Moidart peninsula, in the Scottish Highlands. It was of course a crime, as he freely acknowledges - the deer belonged to the local estate. But his family had to eat. His mother roasted, boiled and salted the venison and, as Fergie says, “you acquired a taste for it.” Today he’s still eating vension, but it comes from animals shot legally by his son John, who is a deer manager, stalker and butcher. John has been running his own wild venison business since 1998 and in that time he’s seen immense changes. He says there’s much more public awareness about the benefits of eating a lean, protein-rich meat, amid concerns about the environmental damage caused by red deer over population. John sells venison cuts to passing trade from his roadside shop as well as providing meat for the family’s hotel, Mingarry Park, run by his wife Emma. Emma says…