ABAC’s Wildlife Society hosted its 12th annual Beast Feast on Feb. 21, with this year’s event drawing in a larger crowd and giving attendees a chance to taste meats they don’t usually eat.. This year’s event had a more nostalgic feel, reflecting on good times with both new and familiar faces.
After entering, attendees anticipated the unpredictability of what they were about to eat. This is the core of Beast Feast: expanding your palette by experiencing foods you might normally consider as “forbidden fruit,” especially for those who do not hunt or who rarely have access to these meats. If there was one thing everybody in the room knew, it was that sometimes, forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest.
Tables were decorated with naturally crafted centerpieces. Some sported decorations like pinecones, animal skulls and empty buckshot shells — which may have had something to do with how the skulls were acquired. The decorations reflected part of the Wildlife Society’s mission: encouraging appreciation for nature.
Appetizers traveled around to tease the people in attendance, including lemon-peppered gallinule and smoked goose crackers. Then, of course, guests got to chow down on meals that were out of this world.
Attendees were given a choice of water, lemonade, or specially made sweet tea. For the food, attendees formed four lines on both sides of the buffet to begin filling their plates. Upon getting seconds, I realized the two sides of the buffet were not identical. Some dishes appeared only on one side, and different foods were being swapped in throughout the feast. For everyone that didn’t fill up, that meant more dishes to try.
Dominating the feast were dishes crafted from venison and beaver. Sure, you could have venison or beaver backstrap, or, you could chomp on something with style, like deer and cheese wontons, or “almost angry” beaver bites.
Other parts of the buffet featured other denizens of nature’s great outdoors in their tastiest of forms, like armadillo stew or raccoon mixed with bacon and the sweet taste of pineapple and apple. Similarly, there were a notable number of mixed dishes of this caliber, like the returning cowboy casserole, but also ones without meat, like pasta salad or macaroni and cheese.
With the combination of simple and mixed dishes, they developed a traditional southern “homecooked meal” vibe. This goes especially since every part of the buffet was not only provided but also *made* by the students and their individual recipes with the given meats.
“The armadillo stew was by far the best thing there,” said Carson Barnes, a student at ABAC.
Another student, Mekhi Isom, stated, “I liked the venison biryani, because it reminded me of curry.”
Later on, one of the Wildlife Society’s advisors, Dr. Jason Scott, expressed that not only do the ticket sales help the Wildlife Society’s events become possible, but the students themselves are highly engaged with their content. Everybody took a moment to also acknowledge ABAC graduates in the room, but an even bigger round of applause went to the past Wildlife Society officers that were present, too.
Everybody was eligible for a door prize based on their ticket number. For anyone feeling lucky, raffle tickets were being sold for prizes like fertilizer, knives, and even some guns.
“I feel great!” Kevin Lee said after winning a 12 gauge shotgun, “I don’t usually win anything! I’ll add it to the arsenal.”
Dr. Scott also auctioned off big things like a day of mulching from Legacy Land Services, a thermal hog hunt, and yet again, a 6 man troop of wildlife students ready to work for 6 hours, raking in hundreds of dollars.
All in all, the 12th annual Beast Feast was a huge success. With many in attendance, everybody had fun eating, talking about good old times, and even got to take home leftovers.