McKelvey Cooks Wild Game for Community

By DAVID RAINER

When John McKelvey took up rabbit hunting, he soon realized that when the hunting was good he had a problem at the end of the season – too many rabbits in his freezer.

 “I was ending up with about 140 rabbits a season and no family I know of can go through that many rabbits,” said McKelvey, the Newsite Chief of Police. “I decided to start a cookout for about 15 or so friends about seven years ago and it’s just grown way beyond our expectations.”

Before McKelvey’s annual wild game cookout concluded Saturday, between 650 and 700 people from Tallapoosa County ate their fill of wild game. For those who – for some unknown reason – turn up their noses at wild game, McKelvey also barbecues pork shoulders and ribs.

“It just keeps getting bigger every year,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t have between 800 and 900 next year.”

In his earlier hunting days, McKelvey had been a fairly hardcore deer hunter, but he changed his game when his two sons reached hunting age.

“I gave up deer hunting when my kids were getting old enough to go with me,” he said. “With rabbit hunting you can spend time talking and socializing, which you can’t do when you’re deer hunting. You take a kid deer hunting and put him (or her) in a tree stand and tell them to be quiet and still. If they don’t see anything, it doesn’t take long for them to become discouraged and they don’t want to go back.

“When we go rabbit hunting, they can talk and play with the dogs. It’s a social event with his family and friends. He’s doing something, not just trying to sit still for three hours. When you’re rabbit hunting, you’re going to see something.”

When McKelvey heads out with his pack of beagles, he usually turns his truck to the south.

“When you get north of Tallapoosa County, there just aren’t that many rabbits,” he said. “If you go south to the Piedmont area, there are lots of rabbits. I don’t know if it’s soil conditions or farming or what, but there are gobs of rabbits down there.”

One of his favorite places to hunt is a tract of land near Petrey in Crenshaw County. The land is 880 acres of prime deer, turkey and rabbit habitat.

“It’s a wonderful place,” McKelvey said. “You hunt with great people and there are more rabbits on that place than any place I’ve been. The last time we were there, we hunted maybe 15 out of 880 acres and we ended up with a pile of rabbits.”

McKelvey said he got the idea for a wild game cookout from Joe Smith, former sheriff of Tallapoosa County who is now mayor of Dadeville.

“Joe had been having a wild game cookout for a long time and me and daddy (Leonard McKelvey) had been helping him cook,” John said. “His cookout is always the first Saturday in March and it’s nothing but rabbits. He feeds anybody that wants to eat.

“We decided to have our cookout later in the year after turkey season. We decided if it was wild we would cook it. This is a way to enjoy hunting and you don’t waste the game. It’s a way to share the wildlife harvest with everybody in the community. It’s turned into a great social event. We have politicians show up to campaign and folks from all walks of life. Believe it not, there are people in Alabama who have never eaten rabbit or quail.”

McKelvey said there is no way he could pull this off without a lot of help.

“My wife (Regina) is running around picking up stuff for me,” he said. “Mom (Lola) and dad help getting everything together. Daddy got up at 5 o’clock to start cooking. Our sons (Wesley and Chris) help when they can, and I couldn’t do it without Donnie Hand, Keith Dean, Eugene Hill and Bill Nunnery.

“Bill is a wonderful guy who gets us permission to hunt a lot of places. He has so many connections through the Alabama Wildlife Federation that all he has to do is pick up the phone and call the landowner, who will ask what time are we going to be there.”

McKelvey said those who have never eaten wild game will have a mixed reaction to his cookout.

“Some love it, some don’t,” he said. “There is a myth that something wild just doesn’t taste good. If you can get someone to eat it, most of the time they love it. I put rabbit and chicken in the stew, but I don’t say anything about the rabbit. People eat it and they love it.

“When you think about seven years ago, we had leftovers. Now, we’re feeding more than 650 people. That speaks volumes about the community reaction. We just enjoy doing it and everybody goes away full and happy.”

McKELVEY CAMP (BRUNSWICK) STEW

Makes 10 gallons

Ingredients:

            10 rabbits

            5 pounds deboned chicken

            2 pounds deer or pork sausage (not link)

            5 pounds of onions

            2 gallons crushed tomatoes

            ½ gallon minced tomatoes

            ½ gallon ketchup

            12-ounce can tomato paste

            1 gallon English peas

            1 gallon whole kernel corn

            1 cup Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning

Cooking method:

Pressure cook rabbits and chicken until meat releases from the bones and run through meat grinder with coarse blade. Quarter onions and run through the same meat grinder. Combine all ingredients in large cast iron stew pot.

“I cook the stew the day before the cookout and let it sit overnight,” McKelvey said. “Then I reheat it the day of the cookout. It needs to sit. That makes it that much better.”

PHOTOS:

Top: John McKelvey checks the ribs on his rolling barbecue grill during his annual cookout in Tallapoosa County.

Center: Donnie Hand stirs up a batch of camp (Brunswick) stew that is a staple at the McKelvey wild game cookout.

Bottom: Leonard McKelvey scoops up a strainer full of fried rabbit to feed to the crowd that exceeded 650 people.

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