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| Contributed Photo/Gloria Nelson Breeding cow “Reba McEntire” gets a closer look at the camera as she and her fellow buffalo roam the Medicine Wheel Big Game Preserve in Oxbow. |
By Lisa Wilcox
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — Fund-raising events in The County usually feature a menu with pasta dishes like spaghetti or lasagna, or more hearty meals like ham or prime rib. But for one organization based in Caribou, the menu for their annual fund-raiser will include a dish not everyone has tried.
The Northern Maine Veterans Cemetery Corporation will be hosting a fund-raising dinner at the Ashland VFW on Saturday, Feb. 16 from 4 to 6 p.m. Their featured menu item is buffalo prepared as either a meatloaf or roast.
The buffalo will be donated to NMVCC by Gloria Nelson and John DaRosa, owners of Oxbow’s Homestead Lodge. Nelson and DaRosa, both master Maine Guides, host many hunters and fishermen at the lodge throughout the year, and the partners also manage Medicine Wheel Big Game Preserve, home to about 40 buffalo.
Nelson and DaRosa have been raising buffalo on the 250-acre preserve since 1993. “Willie Nelson,” their patriarch bull, sires about 10 offspring each year with matriarch “Patsy Cline” and other breeding cows, all named after country singers. Subsequently 10 buffalo are processed in the late fall. The processed buffalo are around 30 months old with bulls taken by fully guided hunt and cows harvested.
Nelson advises that buffalo can no longer be hunted in wild herds, only on game preserves. The buffalo of Medicine Wheel Preserve roam freely over the acreage and fend for themselves as they would in the wild. The mighty animals are not tamed in any way and are grass fed with absolutely no antibiotics, hormones or steroids. The average bull weighs around 1,200 to 1,300 pounds and cows average around 1,000 pounds.
“The good thing about our buffalo,” Nelson said, “is that they are never domesticated and survive like moose and deer do. The bad thing,” she added, “is that you can’t do anything with them. They are undomesticated.”
Medicine Wheel dresses and packages the buffalo meat and sells out every year. The animals’ hides, unfortunately, are not used, as, according to Nelson, there is no market for them in the area.
“We have taken them to taxidermists in the past,” Nelson advised, “but no one was interested in them. It’s a real shame. There is so much that can be done with their hides.”
Nelson and DaRosa began donating buffalo to the cemetery’s annual dinner after they became acquainted with NMVCC Chairman Harry Hafford and his diligent work for the organization. The donation had additional meaning for DaRosa, who had befriended Oxbow native Hap LaValley.
A veteran of three wars and living a hermit-like existence, LaValley had no one to care for him until DaRosa stepped up to the plate. Nelson and DaRosa have donated a buffalo in honor of LaValley’s memory since 1999 and will continue to do so as long as they possibly can.
“You’d have to go some to find better people than John and Gloria,” Hafford praised.
Buffalo meat is touted as being healthier than beef with a higher protein and lower fat content. For those worried about the taste, Nelson advises it is similar to high-quality beef.
“It all tastes like filet mignon,” Nelson said.
This year’s fundraiser is especially important for NMVCC as it will raise money to buy replacement flags for the cemetery’s Avenue of Flags. It was discovered last summer that the avenue’s flagpoles could not properly support casket-sized flags after a windstorm damaged some of the poles flying the larger flags. Smaller, five-by-eight-foot flags had to be purchased and repair done to the damaged poles.
The cost of the dinner is $10 per person. A 50/50 cash drawing will be held and door prizes raffled off. Tickets can be purchased from any member of the NMVCC committee, or by contacting Hafford at 435-6024. More information can be found about Homestead Lodge and Medicine Wheel Big Game Preserve by visiting their website at www.homesteadlodgemaine.com.
