Susan Larsen is in her kitchen prepping dinner. She’s done up like a lady with styled hair and a flowered shirt. She’s humming quietly as she collects ingredients on the counter. The 61-year-old retiree has elk steak on tonight’s menu. She tenderizes the steaks, adds seasoning and starts the grill. It’s no surprise she feels comfortable in the kitchen. The surprise is how she gets that meat into her kitchen.
Larsen’s husband doesn’t hunt. She does. So does her sister. Larsen is making a steak dinner from the first elk she killed in central Idaho. The bull resulted in 250 pounds of meat.
“It’s wonderful that I was able to help provide meat for our family,” Larsen says. “I gave half of the elk to my son and so it provided meat for two families. That’s meat for a year.