The Greenup County Extension and Soil and Water Conservation held Woods and Wildlife for Your Wallet in conjunction with Kentucky Department of Forestry, University of Kentucky Forestry, KY Department of Fish and Wildlife, KY Woodland Owners Association and many local volunteers.  During the Covid 19 pandemic we were unable to continue this program but it revived bigger and better in 2022. Woods and Wildlife for Your Wallet is a program that offers concurrent sessions such as: Beekeeping, wildlife management, growing shiitake mushrooms, Master Logger Program, encouraging and managing a healthy forest.  The Greenup County Family and Consumer Sciences program set up a Cook Wild Kentucky information station in the trade show area with recipes, samples, and information related to wild game in Kentucky.  

 Many families in Kentucky use various types of wild game as a primary protein source for providing nutritious meals in their home.  Wild game provides a nourishing source of nutrition, but should be preserved properly and safely as a protein source for families.  Participants who visited the Cook Wild information station learned about topics including various methods of processing wild game, caring for wild game in the kitchen, and cooking wild game.  Handling of wild game from field to table can make a difference in quality, flavor, and taste. The importance of temperature control was a focus of education in effort to illustrate the importance of keeping food safe to prevent food borne illness.   

The University of Kentucky Nutrition Education Program (NEP) recently released a series of recipe cards aimed at helping the state’s most vulnerable citizens learn how to prepare wild game. The series, titled Cook Wild Kentucky, features numerous recipes with some of the state’s most popular wild game including venison, rabbit, fish, frog, dove and duck.

As part of this information station a cooking demonstration using the Cook Wild recipe series was incorporated to help demonstrate how to safely prepare wild game.  Participants were able to see and taste a recipe using venison as the protein source during the session.  During this portion of the program the focus was devoted to various cooking tips for preparing different types of wild game.  Wild game is a relatively lean type of meat due to the active nature of the species.   Participants learned various methods for cooking and preparing wild game without sacrificing any flavor or quality.  

The surveys revealed that participants will implement one or more safe wildlife cooking practices in their home this upcoming year.  Participants stated they enjoyed learning nutritious ways to prepare wild game instead of mainly being deep fried high calorie recipes.  The Woods and Wildlife for Your Wallet event brought forth a new opportunity for participants to be introduced to the Family & Consumer Sciences Extension Program.  Many of the participants were non-traditional to Extension and now have a broader basis of information regarding what the Family & Consumer Science Extension Program covers.