I've created a custom edit template for a particular node type; node--deer--edit.tpl.php

Is it possible to print out the existing field values not through drupal_render($form['']) - like I would in a regular node template to show values? For example:

<?php print render($content['field_location']); ?>

instead of:

<?php print drupal_render($form['field_location']); ?>

I get nothing when I try; but there's a couple of field values I'd like to incorporate into the custom template just as text.