Why wild venison and game should be a cornerstone of Scotland's diet

There are thinly shredded lettuce leaves, thick croutons crisped until golden brown and lashings of creamy dressing form a bed for slices of juicy white meat which has been pan-fried in the kitchen mere minutes before serving.

The only difference here is that this is not chicken, but partridge, plucked just this morning and full of a robust flavour which puts any mass-produced supermarket poultry to shame.

Pictured: Steven Wade, director at Woodmill Game (Image: Supplied)

“It’s very interesting to see people’s reaction to our products at farmers’ markets,” company director Steven Wade muses.

“Often, it’s a struggle because they’re set in their ways and will instantly say ‘I don’t like it’ before sampling it.

“Our mission has always been to introduce people to wild game and it is still our greatest challenge, but also the most rewarding part of it when it works.”

The story of Woodmill Game began in 1992, when Wade set up a small pheasant plucking business with a pioneering concept of offering oven-ready birds to take home.

The firm now processes some 40,000 birds a season, a high percentage of which are turned into a range of sausages, burgers, terrines, salamis and pies which aim to offer a more accessible way to get to grips with game.

Pictured: Burgers and sausages makes wild game more accessible for potential customers (Image: Supplied)

Also hugely popular are the team's venison products, be it the best-selling cottage pie topped with creamy mashed potatoes or lasagne which swaps out the traditional beef mince for a wild, Scottish alternative.

“Our approach is not to sell just lumps of meat for people to try and cook at home,” Wade continues later while showing the Herald around the facilities at the base of his operations in Lindores.

“If you do that, they leave slightly baffled as to how they are going to tackle cooking it.

“Instead, we try to think of ways to show what they can turn that piece of venison into.

“Initially, that was burgers and sausages, then ready meals and now a range of pies.

“The public is becoming more aware of the sustainability aspect of eating Scottish venison in regards to biodiversity, habitat and climate change.

“That message is getting through; now the final hurdle is getting people to actually taste it.”

Pictured: A selection of Woodmill Game burgers (Image: Supplied)

No stranger to the benefits of consuming more wild venison, it was the founding of a recreational deer stalking business in the 1990s that would later help to form the blueprint for Woodmill Game almost three decades later for Mr Wade.

“The animals we shot were producing quite a lot of carcases,” he explains.

“The only way to sell that volume of deer was through a wholesaler, but I wasn’t very satisfied with the payment terms we were offered.

“I became disillusioned with the concept that the UK's venison consumption was going up, and yet the wholesale price was going down, so I thought ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ and started retailing all of our own game.

“We have a great story to tell because all of our harvest is completely wild and sustainable.

“If you tie that in with the government's desire for us land managers to shoot more deer to control the population, everybody is on board with the concept of eating venison these days.

“It’s quite an exciting time to be a part of the industry.”

Throughout the day spent in the rolling hills of Fife, Mr Wade speaks of the highs and lows of running a business with the strong core ethos of retailing only wild meat as well as hopes that the Scottish government will one day turn their efforts to marketing venison with the same sense of pride and urgency as Scotch beef or lamb.

Sharing his passion for the cause is his son, Guy Wade, who also happens to be Woodmill Game’s biggest customer.

Pictured: Screaming Peacock founder Guy Wade (Image: Supplied)

As reported by The Herald earlier this year, Wade is the founder of the Screaming Peacock street food business, which has become a pillar of Scotland’s festival and events catering scene with a menu including wild pheasant burgers and venison hotdogs.

This means that both businesses are a family affair through and through, with Wade’s partner Charlie, who so expertly prepared this afternoon’s partridge salad feast also stepping in as head of recipe development this year.

Being a part of the small team Screaming Peacock or Woodmill Game, our visit reveals, is no mean feat.

Take, for example, operations manager Cameron McNeil, a bold personality and market stall regular who is described as “an integral part of the Woodmill wheel”.

Much like his talented team of colleagues, McNeil is a jack of all trades, able to pivot from covering summertime shifts with Screaming Peacock to expertly plucking and butchering wild game for Woodmill and convincing potential buyers to take a chance on Woodmill products.

Of public perceptions, he said: “Recently, I’ve noticed that a lot of parents who visit our stall will take the time to explain what we’re selling.

“That’s a huge game changer for us, because for years we’ve been trying to educate people so that they’re less afraid of trying something new.

“Since the pandemic, there’s been a lot more focus on where our food comes from, and because we’re part of the process from start to finish we have the answer to any questions we get.

“It means that we’re all really passionate about what we do, and the twinkle we get in our eye makes people far happier to buy from us than picking up packaged meats from the supermarket.”

While there is still a long way to go, the future brings with it exciting new opportunities with talk of a potential on-site cook school at the Lindores HQ led by Charlie and plans to build on their social media presence with how-to recipes that debunk the idea that game is difficult to cook with.

Wade said: “Selling game is a tough business and I’d like to think we work pretty damn hard at doing the best we can for marketing it in any way we can.

“It ain’t easy, but we will keep on because it’s something we’re all very committed to.

“We attended our first farmers’ market event at a cold, damp St Andrews Car Park in 2017.

“We turned over around £300 that day, and asked ourselves ‘is this really what our lives are going to look like from now on’?

“Seven years later, here we are still doing it with multiple markets planned across winter and our online shop up and running.

“Things look a little different now, but we’re in it for the long haul.”

For more information on Woodmill Game or to view their product range online, visit woodmillgame.co.uk.

On Instagram, they can be found @woodmillgame.