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Rafe CarrollAmerican who feeds on animals hit to death
Date of Birth: 01.01.1971
Country:  USA |
Content:
- Roadkill Gourmet: The Extraordinary Life of Rafe Carroll
- Shock and Awe
- Roadside Delicacies
- From Necessity to Delicacy
- Wildlife on the Menu
- Field Dressing and Processing
- Sharing the Roadkill Gourmet Experience
Roadkill Gourmet: The Extraordinary Life of Rafe Carroll
Scavenging the HighwaysRafe Carroll, now 47, has found an unconventional way to save money on groceries and food. The family's main provider scavenges roadkill, dressing the carcasses and preparing hearty meat dishes. Affectionately calling himself a "roadkill gourmet," Carroll routinely checks the area around his Wenatchee, Washington, home and often comes across animals that have met their end under the wheels of vehicles, ranging from turkeys to bears. Carroll selects the best of the bunch to adorn the family Christmas dinner table. Vension roast is a common sight during the festivities.
Shock and Awe
"The gourmet" recalls the time a friend's son visiting his home inquired about the meat and was shocked to hear the response: "It's deer from the road." "He was in shock but then he was in even more shock at how good it tasted," adds Carroll, a lab manager in biotechnology. "Most people's reactions to my roadkill are shock and awe because most people think it's just squirrels and raccoons that get hit."
Roadside Delicacies
Carroll, hailed by some as a "country boy" gourmet serving restaurant-quality "roadside delicacies," believes that as long as you know what you're doing, there's nothing wrong with it. He also credits his father for instilling in him the passion for finding deceased roadside animals. One day, when Carroll was 10, his father brought home a deer he had spotted on the road, and they had it for dinner that night.
From Necessity to Delicacy
Years passed before the son followed in his father's culinary footsteps. Financial struggles after he and Kirsten married in 1993 pushed him to it. "We had very very little money," recalls Carroll, a construction worker at the time. "But free food programs weren't my thing." Interestingly, Carroll was taking a serious legal risk at the time, as retrieving and using roadkill was illegal in Washington State.
Wildlife on the Menu
Fortuitously, the roadkill gourmet has never gotten caught. He and his wife, Kirsten, a 46-year-old insurance specialist, and their daughters, Dawn, 27, Katie, 25, and Amy, 18, happily supplement their diet with roadside deer, elk, turkey, and grouse. "I take a lot of pride in what I bring home," Carroll said. "And I don't bring anything home that's not as good as what you would buy in the store." "I've done it so long that I can tell right away whether something's salvageable or not," explains Carroll. "Just like you might smell a chicken in the refrigerator before you cook it or eat it, one of the first things I do is smell the carcass and then I look and see how it's been hit."
Field Dressing and Processing
The family patriarch typically transports the animal to his garage, loads it into his truck, and drives it to a secluded spot in the woods, where he lets out the blood and gut. Kirsten discourages him from dressing the catches at home. About five large carcasses a year typically keep the Carrolls supplied with meat for months. A single deer yields 60 pounds of edible meat, but Carroll's biggest "catch" to date was a two-year-old black bear he found a mile from his home. "That gave us 125 pounds of meat," he said, adding that bear tastes like pork. "The bear grease is also good. I share it with my friends — they use it for making soap and frying doughnuts."
Sharing the Roadkill Gourmet Experience
Carroll enthusiastically shares his roadkill recipes, which include venison burgers, venison meatloaf, and well-done bear steaks. Carroll takes pleasure in feeding guests "roadkill" and never misses an opportunity to educate his dinner companions about the wisdom of his practice.
