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Farmer Hopes Area Will Embrace Eating Goat Meat

July 11, 2011 - Sumner — Coming soon to a farmers' market near you: goat meat.

On July 8, Sumner resident Candi Rousseau expects to become licensed to sell the meat of the goats she raises on Kidd's Hillbilly Farm.

The small farm, which currently boasts 38 goats, has been in operation for about five years.

For those who have an initial resistance to the unusual food, she comes armed with loads of facts about the benefits of eating goats, rather than, say, cows or pigs.

Compared to beef, goat meat has less saturated fat and less sodium, says Rousseau. It has more of the "good" unsaturated fats, as well as more iron, potassium and thiamine. Their meat also contains elevated levels of vitamin D, a vitamin that is found in the brush that goats love to eat.

"It's really healthy for people," she said. "It's like the next red meat."

Goats get a bad rap these days, says Rousseau, which she says is counter to an American goat-eating tradition that was far more mainstream in the days before the "big beef" industry asserted itself as the protein staple of the American diet.

From a biological perspective, goats are almost the same as sheep and cattle, their hoofed and domesticated cousins. Biologists even classify them in the same taxonomic family, Bovidae.

Despite this, goats get short shrift when it comes to putting them on your plate.

Americans consume an average of 64 pounds of beef, 48 pounds of pork, a pound and a half of veal and lamb, 53 pounds of chicken, 14 pounds of turkey and 15 pounds of fish per year, according to the USDA.

That's nearly 200 pounds of meat per year, per person. But goats don't even register on the scale.

Rousseau says that people are missing out when they turn up their nose at goat.

It tastes good, she says, but ask her to describe it, and she has a hard time putting it into words.

"It's not as strong as lamb. It's kind of like a sweet-tasting meat. It's a mild taste. It's so hard to explain," she said. "It's almost the same as venison for me. But it's probably a little sweeter. It's not gamey like venison. It's tender. It's very tender."

However hard it is to pin down the essence of goat meat in words, people around the world seem to enjoy it. Goat meat is a staple in the recipes of various cultures, including a hot stew in Mexico, curried goat in India, and, most famously, as a jerk goat barbecue in Jamaica. It is also popular in Somalia, Greece, and parts of Europe, among other places.

And yet, Americans haven't followed suit, even as they eat other animals by the truckload.

One problem for goat meat may be that it lacks a common euphemistic name to soften the perception of a slain animal. Rather than eating cows, pigs, and sheep, Americans instead dine on beef, pork, and mutton.

Rousseau says that the meat goes by many other names in international cultures.

"In northern Europe, they call it chevon," said Rousseau, who chooses to call her goat meat chevon. "Hispanic people call it cabrito. For Australians, it's capretto. I think in France, it's called caprine."

But in the United States, when a person asks for a helping of goat, it can be difficult to distance one's mind from the bleating barnyard animal.

Rousseau is part of a movement to bring goat meat back to American plates. Creating a vibrant new market for the product is important to those who primarily sell goat-based items like cheese, milk, yogurt, and soap.

"Traditionally, it used to be a big thing," said Rousseau. "There are a lot of goat owners; we're really trying to make it more accessible."

Rousseau's own goats reflect her personal livestock practices. They receive no hormones or antibiotics. She gives them access to brush grazing, and mixes her own organic grain for them, which she says makes for a better quality of meat.

Right now, if a person wants to purchase goat meat from Kidd's Hillbilly Farm, they have to purchase the entire animal on the hoof. Rousseau then helps to coordinate the slaughter and processing of the meat at a butcher shop.

Rousseau's new license will allow her to sell pre-packaged chevon from the farm, and from the farmers' markets that she attends, which can include markets in South Paris, Lewiston, and Norway.

"I've been thinking about how I'm going to do this," said Rousseau. "I think I'll probably do packages. The price is going to range from about $7 to $10 a pound. Hamburg, stew meat, things like that."

The jury is still out on whether Rousseau and her fellow breeders can convince a significant number of people in the Oxford Hills to give chevon a try. If they do, goat may one day rank up there with other meats that Americans eat without thinking twice.

Matt Hongoltz-Hetling, Advertiser Democrat, July 2011


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