Our friends at Fatted Calf had quite the year! We are proud to see them grow, and we are immensely appreciate their involvement with the Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund and Good Shepherd Conservancy. Read on:

2022 was quite a year at The Fatted Calf. We watched former SF Manager George Mullen walk down the aisle and saw Napa Production Manager Peter Chenaux and his wife welcome a baby into their lives. This summer, after a two year hiatus, we restarted our program of hands-on butchery classes and made plans to continue this program in the New Year. Napa Assistant Manager Julian Giusti-Smith and Sales Associate Extraordinaire Alex Sethi both participated in butchering apprenticeships thanks to the Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund. We moved our SF store into The Ferry Building just in time to receive our Good Shepherd Ranch Thanksgiving turkeys, giving me many, many new gray hairs but also a new perspective and renewed excitement for our place in SF. In the year ahead we look forward to celebrating our 15th anniversary at our Oxbow location at the end of January and this summer will also mark our 20th year of cranking out sausage and slinging salami as The Fatted Calf. Every year brings challenges and changes but we will continue to work and grow so we can bring you even more good stuff in 2023. Thank you for your support and best wishes for The New Year!

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

FOR MORE INFORMATION
CONTACT: CATHERINE GREELEY
(718) 389-0985
Catherine@HeritageFoodsUSA.com

HERITAGE FOODS USA’S “GOATOBER” INITIATIVE GOES INTERNATIONAL

Heritage Foods USA is celebrating the sixth year of its annual goat project – GOATOBER, aka NO GOAT LEFT BEHIND, and is pleased to announce that this important sustainable food initiative is being joined by some of the UK’s finest chefs and restaurants.

The brainchild of Heritage Radio Network Executive Director, Erin Fairbanks, and renowned New York cheesemonger, Anne Saxelby, No Goat Left Behind was launched to address the growing problem facing New England goat dairies — namely, what to do with male goats.

In order to make cheese, animals on the farm must be producing milk. And to make milk, mothers must be giving birth and having many babies, consistently. Male offspring create a dilemma for the farmer — they obviously don’t produce cheese, and unfortunately, there is no established humanely sourced market for American goat meat. Male goats are often euthanized at birth. This is not only an ethical catastrophe, but a wasteful excess of good food.

Naturally raised goat is a seasonal meat. Mothers give birth mostly in the spring, and baby goats grow strong on the plentiful spring and summer grasses. They are ready for market in the fall. This is why Heritage Foods USA is working to change the tenth month of the year from October to #Goatober!

#GOATOBER

In 2010, Heritage Foods USA partnered with a dozen dairies and creameries in upstate New York and Vermont to purchase their unwanted male goats once they reached adulthood.

The confidence to commit to this investment came from enthusiastic handshake agreements with fifty New York City chefs who represent a bold landscape of fine dining and down-to-earth good taste. Participating chefs agreed to purchase a whole goat each week for the full month of October and feature it on their menu. (See the list below.)

The project has continued to grow and has developed into a celebration of all goat breeds — not only dairy goats — with the goal of increasing overall goat consumption and awareness in the US. Today, Americans still import most of their goat (and lamb) from New Zealand and Australia.

THE BRITISH ARE COMING!

This year we were delighted to hear from our colleagues in England, who have joined Goatober and are promoting goat dinners and events across the UK. James Whetlor of Cabrito Goat Meat, who along with Shotgun BBQ owner and chef Brad MacDonald, saw the success of GOATOBER US and decided to bring the UK together to join the initiative.

Says Whetlor, “It’s now possible to sit down in fantastic restaurants to a pile of harissa scented goat chops or goat Souvlaki, goat tacos or Indian style pulled goat shoulder, or a British classic of boned and rolled stuffed saddle.”

During the month of GOATOBER, restaurants nationwide including ETM Group, HIX Restaurants, River Cottage Canteens, Shotgun BBQ, I’ll Be Mother, and Romy’s Kitchen will be featuring a goat dish on their menus, and urging diners to try this delicious but often under-used meat.

For more information about Goatober UK please contact Hannah Blake at The Dining Room PR 07730 039361 hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk

Cabrito Goat Meat works with goat dairies to supply top restaurants. In 2014, Cabrito won an Observer Food Monthly Award for Best Ethical Producer and in 2016, Good Housekeeping’s Champion Meat Producer. Today, Cabrito supplies over 70 well-known establishments and counts Antonio Carluccio and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall amongst its fans. For more information on Heritage Foods USA, interviews, and all media requests, please contact Catherine@HeritageFoodsUSA.com

Oldest Domesticated American Livestock Breed, Shepherded in the Navajo Tradition 
One Of The Most Storied Animals In American History –  Nearly Eradicated By The United States Government

Heritage Foods USA is proud to announce that it is for the first time making Navajo Churro lamb a featured product for its retail and restaurant customers, a giant step in saving this rare and exquisite breed.

Navajo Churro lambs are prized for their incredible depth of flavor, as well as their long wool, which commands top prices in woven Navajo rugs. 

The Navajo Sheep Association, dedicated to the preservation of these sheep, says that “No other sheep population in the history of the world has survived such selective pressure with such dignity and spirit.” Theirs is indeed an epic story. 

From Noble Roots   

The Churro, America’s first domesticated animal, were brought to America from Spain by Francisco Coronado in 1540. The sheep were bred largely for food for the explorers and the missionaries who followed them throughout the region that is now Mexico and the southwestern United States. By 1807 a single flock of Spanish sheep could number 20,000. 

At that time Native Americans had no livestock agriculture of their own — there were no domesticated animals in North America yet. Native Americans were still largely hunters and gatherers, but they quickly learned how to raise sheep both for the meat and the Churro’s thick, double-sided fleece and long haired wool. 

In the 1860s, the Navajo-Churro sheep population was nearly destroyed as part of the United States government’s efforts to punish the Navajo people who resisted the new wave of Western settlers moving onto their land. The government ordered military action, led by American “heroes” Kit Carson and John Carlton, with instructions to destroy Navajo orchards and flocks. The results were a bloody swath of death and pain.  

The Return of the Navajo Churro  

Heritage Foods, in cooperation with John Sharpe, a pioneer in the preservation or rare breeds and the chef at the Turquoise Room at La Posada hotel — a gorgeously restored train station and historic site in Winslow, Arizona — is working to bring this breed back to the American market. 

Says Sharpe, “Having a commitment from Heritage Foods is helping us expand the awareness of Churro Lamb, and with solid interest for this unique and delicious product we may be able to sway more Native shepherds to join in and help on the supply side. This is progress of a truly historical proportion.” 

The Churro is smaller than many other sheep and is noteworthy for its especially herbaceous and savory flavor, with a lower lanolin content than many lambs, which can give the meat a gamy flavor. The Churro is also remarkably tender – even cuts like the shoulder and legs that sometimes call for braising can be roasted and served medium rare like the loin chops or the rib rack.  

Shepherding: The second oldest profession 

These animals are a reflection of the ground upon which they were raised. Heritage Foods’ Churro lamb is truly free range, raised in Navajo country and in the mountains of New Mexico, and herded in the traditional style. There is very little hay feeding in the winter, as they are grazed at lower elevations. 

Antonio Manzanares is one of the few shepherds left breeding Navajo Churro: “We trail through the mountains in the summer and back in winter. They can get a little wild, but they herd well. The Churro is a smaller animal, leaner than other sheep – I have many customers, such as John Sharpe, who swear that the Churro is a very different tasting lamb.” 

Also, says Sharpe, the back story helps sell the lamb — from its arrival to the New World, the drive to save the breed from extinction, and traditional shepherding practices. “My other shepherds are both women, and both weavers. Irene Bennally is actually a famous shepherd and weaver, she was featured in the New York Times – you can pay her and she’ll take you with her shepherding and camping.” 

Navajo Churro meat is available from Heritage Foods USA in chops, racks, legs, shoulders, shanks, bellies, and ground meat, as well as half lambs. 

For more information on Heritage Foods USA, interviews, and all media requests, please contact Catherine@HeritageFoodsUSA.com

Heritage Foods USA is a farm-to-table online butcher based in Brooklyn, dedicated to supporting family farmers raising livestock on pasture with old-school genetics. Turkeys, pigs, lamb, goats, chickens, ducks, and geese are all purchased nose-to-tail, and sold online in cuts to customers in all 50 states, as well as 130 of America’s best restaurants. Please visit us at HeritageFoodsUSA.com.  

An Aristocrat of Birds: America’s First Great Turkey Still a Champ!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 10th, 2016

2016 marks the 100th anniversary of Master Poultry Farmer Frank Reese’s turkey flock arriving to Kansas, a milestone for American farming, and one more great reason to celebrate Thanksgiving with a Heritage turkey.

Fans of Frank’s Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch turkeys include Alice Waters, who says “These birds are without a doubt the tastiest birds you can possibly serve,” and Mario Batali who proudly claims “I’ve served these birds for my Thanksgiving every year for the past 12 years and always will.”

Frank has become an icon of American farming, and has been featured in publications ranging from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to National Geographic and Time magazine. His story is the Rosetta Stone of the sustainable agricultural movement and the reason why the word “heritage” is synonymous with the word “heirloom.”

Frank’s birds are 100 percent antibiotic-free and free-range from the parent stock to the hatching to the harvest. They are not only a model of responsible farming, but also delicious – they bring a character of flavor and juiciness that cannot be matched. They also come with a sweeping history that is as epic as any American Tradition.

THE BIRD BROTHERS

In 1916, poultry farmers with the unlikely name of the Bird Brothers (their real name) won a blue ribbon at a poultry show at Madison Square Garden.

In 1944, the Meyersdale Republican (of Meyersdale, Pennsylvania) wrote that the Bird Brothers’ “success as developers and propagators of the best strains of Giant Bronze turkeys made the name of their firm known in nearly every civilized country in the world. They exhibited fowls at Madison Square Garden for 27 consecutive years, and never without taking blue ribbons.”

Frank’s birds are descendants of the Bird Brothers’ Hatchery turkeys from 1916, a flock that can be directly traced to 1843 and the legendary Boston Livestock Show.

In 1917, the mother of Frank’s future mentor Norman Kardosh – who Frank would meet at a poultry show in 1955, when Frank was just seven years old – received ten Bird Brother Standard Bronze turkey eggs as a wedding present, and passed them on to her son.

Long gone are the days when viable bird eggs were given as wedding gifts (or when there were poultry shows in the center of New York City), but back then, in a country driven by family farms, there was nothing strange about it at all. Norman’s mom had the eggs shipped to Kansas by railcar, where Frank would eventually found his farm. These eggs would be the beginning of a flock of Bronze turkeys that by 2016 would become the only breed of turkey whose lineage could be traced back over 173 years — including the last century in Kansas.

WHY IS THIS LINEAGE IMPORTANT?

In every family, there is pride of history and lineage. This is no different for poultry or livestock. These birds are the progeny of poultry that was bred for flavor.

Norman Kardosh spent his life teaching Frank how to raise poultry responsibly, because he knew he was leaving his legacy to Frank, and he stressed the importance of pure genetics. Norman said, “If you mess them up it will take fifteen years to straighten out... if it’s even possible.”

The Standard Bronze is the perfect bird — flavorful, healthy, and robust — and represents not just a line of genetics, but the farmer’s love and care in breeding the best turkeys in the world. A Heritage turkey is defined as a turkey that mates naturally, has a slow rate of growth, and lives a long time. Heritage genetics are the foundation for humanely raised livestock. 

The American Poultry Association is America’s oldest agricultural association and the keeper of the standards for poultry breed identification. Certification by the APA is the only label that matters when it comes to truly “heritage” poultry. Frank is the first sustainable commercial farmer to receive certification by the APA for his birds as purebreds, standards that they set in 1873. Frank is currently the only farmer selling APA turkeys under USDA certification. 

By the early 1970s, factory farming would take over, and turkeys became most commonly bred for traits that would genetically deform them and destroy their flavor — namely how fast and how big they could grow. Within twenty years turkeys that were loaded with chemicals to keep them alive and were so top heavy they could not walk had become the norm. In fact they were growing so fast that turkeys became so inexpensive as to nearly bankrupt the industry.

HERITAGE FOODS USA and Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch

In 2001, Slow Food USA Founder Patrick Martins put the Standard Bronze turkey on the Slow Food “Ark of Taste” — a metaphoric vessel designed to highlight agriculture on the verge of extinction — and suddenly found himself in the turkey business as well, launching Heritage Foods USA to help Frank expand and successfully deliver his flock, now numbering around 10,000 birds per year.

Thanks to the success of Heritage turkey sales, the Good Shepherd Institute, a 501(c)3, will break ground later this year. A collaboration with Frank Reese, Farm Forward and Heritage Foods USA, the Institute will work “to promote the preservation of standard-bred poultry in the United States and elsewhere in the world and provide education and research facilities to do so”.

Frank Reese turkeys are now available (for the 15th year) for pre-order for Thanksgiving 2016 directly from Heritage Foods USA, including the Standard Bronze as well as Bourbon Red, White Holland, Black Narragansett, Royal Palm, Jersey Buff, and Slate breeds. Birds deliver via Overnight FedEx on November 22nd. To order, visit HeritageFoodsUSA.com or call (718) 389-0985.

Regarding the 100th Anniversary of the beginning of his flock, Frank says, “We are incredibly proud to have preserved this lineage of America’s best turkeys. Something that started as a handful of eggs — a wedding present! — is now a thriving flock. And to be embraced by Slow Food and so many great chefs has really helped us get our message out to the public: genetics and responsible farming matter. Not just as something fashionable, but where it counts, on the table.”

Patrick Martins adds, “Frank is a real super hero in the poultry business. His farming practices should be a model for anyone who cares about taste and the survival and success of true heritage breeds. We started our business because we believed in Frank, and his birds have really sustained us. It is nearly impossible to compete with his birds.”

Taylor Boetticher of The Fatted Calf in California, one of the largest purchasers of heritage turkeys in America, says, “Promoting the importance of strong genetics is an important national issue and no one exemplifies this plight better than Frank. His turkeys are simply the best.”

For more information on all of Frank’s breeds, Heritage Foods USA, interviews, and all media requests, please contact Catherine@HeritageFoodsUSA.com

Heritage Foods USA is a farm-to-table online butcher based in Brooklyn, dedicated to supporting family farmers raising livestock on pasture with old-school genetics. Turkeys, pigs, lamb, goats, chickens, ducks, and geese are all purchased nose- to-tail, and sold online in cuts to customers in all 50 states, as well as 130 of America’s best restaurants. Please visit us at HeritageFoodsUSA.com.

Devastating Fire Sparks New Heritage Foods USA Initiative

Twenty years ago, the bulk of American charcuterie was cheap, commodity product. You could get a domestic prosciutto in a supermarket for half the price of Prosciutto di Parma.

More recently, charcuterie in the United States is following the same trend we have seen with wine, beer, cheese, and bread. The talent pool is expanding and quality ingredients are becoming more accessible.

Says Patrick Martins, founder of Heritage Foods USA: “Two decades ago, if you wanted to buy an imported beer, you paid a premium. American beer was cheap. Now the most expensive and sought-after beer is domestic, handcrafted beer, made in smaller quantities, with the best ingredients. 

“The same thing is happening with high-quality charcuterie. The domestic version will be the sought after product. Imports will dwindle. We’ll still love our Italian and Spanish hams, but they won’t be nearly as prevalent, they’ll be nostalgia. The market is changing right before our eyes.” 

THE SAM EDWARDS STORY

Last year, Heritage Foods USA — the Brooklyn-based purveyor of pasture-raised heritage meats — lost one of its greatest partners when Sam Edwards of S. Wallace Edwards & Sons saw his entire Virginia facility destroyed in a fire. Gone were his legendary smokehouse and thousands of hams. An entire network of family farmers and processors who depended on Heritage Foods USA and Sam’s business were potentially devastated by this loss.

As reported in the New York Times, the fire left Heritage Foods “grappling with a break in the supply chain. Chefs from Washington to New York are adjusting their menus.” Matthew Rudofker, executive chef at Momofuku Ssäm Bar and Má Pêche said of Edwards’ hams, “nothing can replace them.”

“Incredibly,” says Martins, “our extended community came together and helped turn a disaster into a new initiative to improve the quality and taste of American charcuterie. America’s best curemasters immediately began boosting their heritage production, or starting new, pasture-raised curing lines, even as we continue to offer Edwards’ remaining hams and help him rebuild his business.”

OLD-WORLD MEETS NEW

We are experiencing a charcuterie renaissance in America. The quality of cured meat is soaring.

The new trend towards artisanal cured meats has been written about glowingly across the food press — but most importantly, American curemasters are increasingly applying their art to pasture-raised, heritage breeds, and finally entering the final frontier of long-aged hams.

“It is very hard to make a prosciutto-style ham,” says Martins. “You need a lot of space, and a lot of experience. And you have to buy hams today that you won’t sell for over a year. It’s a pretty big barrier to entry. How many people in America make head cheese or guanciale? Thousands. How many cure hams in any real quantity? Two dozen.”

There are two approaches to making a great ham — the Old-World style, best-known as Prosciutto di Parma or Jamón Serrano, and the American traditional style that comes out of the deep South, with the added step of smoking — and since the fire, Heritage Foods is working with outstanding proponents of both:

Broadbent Hams, under the direction of Ronny and Beth Drennan, in Kuttawa, Kentucky, have won championships from the National Country Ham Association. They have recently added a new line of heritage breed, pasture-raised hams to their existing line of Southern Style hams, which goes back 100 years. They represent a new American style of prosciutto — lighter, with a uniquely sweet and salty flavor. The first wave will be available beginning this fall.

Cesare Casella was trained by the Norcini, the great Tuscan traveling butchers. He is a famed New York restaurateur, and Dean of Italian Studies at the International Culinary Center. His Casella’s pasture-raised salami is an astonishingly nuanced example of the artform. His line of Old World-style heritage prosciutto will be available beginning in February and are sure to be a formidable presence, bringing three-hundred years of Italian tradition to the vanguard.

Antonio Fiasche from ’Nduja Artisans continues a great tradition of Italian charcuterie. His family has run Ristorante Agostino in Chicago for over thirty years, and Antonio has led the charge towards expanding a curing business anchored by a wide variety of salamis and their family specialty, ’nduja, a spreadable, spicy, Calabrian pâté, which they have been making for five generations. 

Al Benton cures his hams in an ancient smokehouse in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee with little consideration for the modern world. Even though Benton is a household name in the South, he is still hands-on and present in all steps of the curing process. He is another famed traditionalist who is forwarding the cause of the American charcuterie renaissance. His strong, salty, smoky hams have always enjoyed a huge following.

In addition, the Heritage Foods roster of great curemasters includes Nancy Newsom, whose grandfather started a curing tradition in his old Kentucky home that allowed seasonal change to flavor the ham naturally; Armandino Batali in Seattle, who creates bold, charismatic salami; Johnny Hunter, from Underground Meats in Wisconsin; and Paradise Locker Meats outside Kansas City, whose injection curing process produces delectable maple sugar hams.

Long-aged hams, salami, and other heritage breed, pasture-raised charcuterie is available directly from Heritage Foods USA. 

For more information on Heritage Foods USA, interviews, and all media requests, please contact Catherine@HeritageFoodsUSA.com

Heritage Foods USA is a farm-to-table online butcher based in Brooklyn, dedicated to supporting family farmers raising livestock on pasture with old-school genetics. Turkeys, pigs, lamb, goats, chickens, ducks, and geese are all purchased nose-to-tail, and sold online in cuts to customers in all 50 states, as well as 130 of America’s best restaurants. Please visit us at HeritageFoodsUSA.com.

Heritage Magical Meat Tour Heads South: In Search of the Great Country Hams

Is southern charm one of the ingredients necessary to make a great country ham? You might think so if you ever met the Don and Doyenne of great country hams, the legendary Al Benton, and the unsinkable Nancy Newsom.

Part One: Al Benton, An Audience with the Godfather of Southern Cured Ham

It was teeming rain on the way from Nashville to Madisonville, Tennessee, the kind of rain that obscures the green, Smoky Mountains of Tennessee behind sheets of steam and fog and sounds like war drums on the roof of a rented car. It didn’t take much imagination to think we were driving through Skull Island, home of King Kong, or had somehow made a detour into the Heart of Darkness, a scene from Apocalypse Now. The truth, however, was far more comforting: We were on a mission to see the King and Queen of country ham, Al Benton and Nancy Newsom.

***

Benton’s Country Hams was the first stop on this pilgrimage to the cathedrals of southern ham, and we were greeted by the man himself in his small, roadside storefront.

“Don’t call me Mr. Benton,” he chided with a smile, “I’m Al.”

Al Benton speaks with an unerring southern twang that is like catnip to New Yawkers. And even though he teases at himself for being a hillbilly, he can’t hide his business acumen or old-school good looks — his smile is half Robert Redford and half Jimmy Carter, equal parts star power and earnest American. Speaking to him about his business is a powerful lesson in pride, good taste, modesty, respect for history, and the providence of good timing — both Al and his Kentucky counterpart, Nancy Newsom were lucky enough to catch the rising tide of foodies and enlightened chefs who recognized the soaring quality of their country hams just as cosmopolitan foodie culture was exploding.

While we spoke with Al, a steady stream of customers came in to buy bacon, ham parts, sliced country hams, and more bacon — young men wearing camo pants and trucker hats, soccer moms with their kids, a middle-aged man wearing a Grateful Dead t-shirt... ham does not discriminate. “The Southern Food Alliance,” Al mentions matter-of-factly, “is built on the idea that if you sat down at the table we are all the same. It doesn’t matter where you come from or what your ethnic background is.” Indeed, ham is the great equalizer.

Tommy — Al’s plant manager and right hand man (“Sometimes he’s up to his elbows in bacon grease, sometimes he is solving problems on the phone.”) — accompanies us with Al on a tour through his facility, which from the road looks no bigger than the storefront, but turns out to be a warren of rooms filled with hams hung to dry or curing in salt, a veritable bunker of porky goodness. The smell of hickory smoke kisses you on the face at every turn.

Al tells us about running into a burning smokehouse to literally save his bacon, screaming at the firemen “DO NOT USE YOUR HOSES, THERE IS HAM IN THERE!” and ruminates on his favorite places to eat: “I love Charleston, and New Orleans, but New York city, that’s the place, you can get everything... if I had one place to go there, though, it would be one of David Chang’s restaurants.” And why not? Chang’s Momofuku empire has been one of Benton’s great champions, and in fact, our pilgrimage follows the one made by Momofuku executive chef and prime mover Matt Rudofker just a week before.

There is no secret to the Benton formula for ham, it could not be simpler: “Just salt, sage, black and red pepper... we don’t use anything you can’t pronounce. You look at some of these industrially made hams – you cant even read the ingredients, they have so many and things you never even heard of.”

They use a wood stove in the smoke room, burning local hickory — “The wood comes in when it does. When people are running out of beer and milk and want to sell some wood, they come see me. That’s always the way it’s been.” The hams spend three days in the smoke room to get that intense flavor. Bacon takes about five weeks to make, moving from curing (brown sugar and salt) into cooler rooms and then a heated room; hams can age up to two years. “You have to age the hams – it’s like cheese, it starts mild and when you age it the flavor becomes sharper.”

* * *

Benton’s began in 1947, when dairy farmer Al Hicks curing hams for local farmers. “Ham was sustenance food for hillbillies,” Al Benton says of the very thing that has become a culinary legend.

In 1973, Al was a High School guidance counselor struggling to make ends meet when he decided he was going to give a go to what he knew best. “I quit my job and then it really sunk in – it wasn’t going to be easy to make a living curing hams.... so I wrote to everyone I could think of, anyone who could help, university professors, cooks, I wanted to hear everyone’s ideas, and I studied everything I could, but I could never improve on the recipe from the old smoke house behind the house I was born in — people really seemed to like it. At the beginning I was thinking about curing quickly, maybe one hour for a twelve-lb. ham – I thought if I was going to make it in this business I had to work very fast and quick-cure, which is what the business was. But my daddy told me ‘If you play the other guy’s game, you are always going to lose. Make it the best you can. Quality is what is going to sustain you.

“Blackberry Farms changed things, this was in about 1991. We had just two employees then. John Fleer was the chef at Blackberry and he was already something of a star – he had ben Mary Tyler Moore’s personal chef! John is such a good man, I never even heard him raise his voice, which is very rare among chefs... and he cared so much about sourcing. He called on day, he had bought some stuff from us, and I thought he was going to complain, but he wanted to see if it was okay to put our name on his menu at Blackberry. I thought there had to be a reason why not, but I couldn’t think of one. And then the phone started ringing, he had so many great chefs coming to visit him — Tom Colicchio, Thomas Keller — I guess that’s when I saw the Promised Land. There was a market for fine dinging with the aged country hams and bacon.”

Later that night, dinner talk turned to moonshine, music, and professional wrestling — Tennessee, and Memphis, especially, being mecca’s of the great sport, led by it’s own King, Jerry Lawler, who’s greatest rivalry was a Jewish comedian from New York named Andy Kaufman. But mostly we talked about food, and mostly about ham. Al spoke with great admiration for his colleagues Sam Edwards and Nancy Newsom, to whom he gives great credit for bringing traditional Southern ham north.

“People are really starting to care where their food comes from — Look, when McDonald’s is talking about cage-free eggs, they’re reading the tea leaves. It gives me pride that small folks have been able to make such a ripple in food culture.”

Part Two: Nancy Newsom, The Ham Maid’s Tale

Rolling into Princeton, Kentucky, is like being thrown back in time.

Newsom’s Old Mill Store was opened in 1917, and although it burned down and was rebuilt next door to the original locale, it doesn’t feel like much has changed. The poplar floor creeks like an ancient symphony, even the door whistles like a bluegrass concerto when it swings shut. Outside on the sidewalk, there are a dozen varieties of tomato plants for sale, and pretty much everything you might want for your garden. Inside, are every manner of beans and corn, and jars of country condiments, from Hot Chow Chow to Appalachian Piccallili. In the back corner, past the buckets of penny candy, is where they slice the ham.

But perhaps nothing is more important to the topic at hand — the raison d'être for a Heritage Pilgrimage that has flown all the way from New York and driven across two states in a torrential downpour —is Princeton’s fortuitous location on top of a watershed, where springs often pop up like wild weeds. Out behind the store, just behind the Newsom curing facility, is a running creek, which comes down from Big Spring as part of the Eddy Creek system, and eventually runs into Lake Barclay.

If the mold is the fairy dust that makes for the world’s best hams, the water and the moisture in the air plays as big a part in curing these hams as any human hand.

Unlike Benton’s, Nancy uses no climate control – her process is driven by the weather and the water in the air. She describes her hams as “ambient cured” — it is a seasonal experience, managed by God as much by man, and not an exact science. How long will the hams cure? How long will they smoke for?

“Well,” says Nancy, “It depends on the weather, and Kentucky weather can change every day.” More than that, the global climate has become unpredictable at best. “I have to rethink what I do every year.”

***

When the Heritage party arrived in Princeton, the rain had finally stopped and blue skies ruled the day. All that was missing was a ham sandwich.

Nancy Newsom greeted us with hugs and not a little love. We are not the first to travel across the country to meet her and see the wizardry firsthand — “Alice waters came here and said I want to meet the ham lady!” she tells us. Nancy has a sexy, knowing drawl, rich with Southern pride, and she radiates nothing but warmth and true authenticity. She is something like the Bonnie Raitt of ham.

Her aide de camp, Anita, a former journalist for the local Times Leader, laughs. She has seen a lot of Yankees stumble in on the search for the greatest ham in the world. Ham, after all, is the universal language, like music.

“This is like a world heritage site!” Patrick exclaims, with genuine excitement, effusing about our trip and his belief in travelers and troubadours who would stop at medieval inns and taverns and exchange stories with strangers before making the journey back out into the world, and it is true — when we leave the South to go home to Brooklyn, we will bring with us epic tales of gastronomic greatness and culinary voodoo. Seeing Nancy or Al Benton’s hams hanging in a drying room is what it must have been like to watch Led Zeppelin record “Stairway to Heaven.”

Hungry, and never tired of ham, sandwiches are ordered all around — but first, a tasting is in order, there are important decisions to be made. Preacher ham? That would be the “Sunday best,” sugar-cured but not aged. We try Nancy’s prosciutto-style ham, cured on the bone in the old-world style, and introduced by Nancy in 2007 to a spectacular response. It is silky and elegant and mesmerizing, but it is the cooked country ham that wins the day for the New Yorkers.

The cooked country ham has a slightly more course texture, and is cut thicker, but has a taste unlike anything else we’ve ever tasted. It comes on white bread with mayo or mustard, and a slice of tomato for those who dare dilute the impact of the ham. Drinks are the local soda pop: Newsom’s proprietary grape, and Ale81. For a few moments while we eat the room is silent, the sure sign of a successful sandwich.

After a taste of the local pulled cream candy — perhaps the single most concentrated source of sweetness per bite ever created — Nancy takes us behind the scenes to see where this Kentucky alchemy all goes down.

“We don’t cure after April, starting in January,” she says, reminding us that “seasonality is a Newsom hallmark.”

Nancy takes us through the curing rooms, now empty that the hams have moved on to hanging in the smoke house and drying rooms, but she runs us through her system, where the hams are covered in salt and maple sugar, and placed on wood tables for the first cure, lining up in either direction to make a gorgeous mosaic of interlocking hams, and vertically stacked to the ceiling, and then moved to the lower shelves after being rinsed and cured again.

Like Benton’s, the Newsom method is simple, but Nancy’s operation is a little bit more down to earth – smaller in scale and without the leg-up of climate control. There is little technology here, but a lot of magic.

She also has kind words for Benton — the gods of ham here are not in competition with each other, rather they live together in some rarified, smoke filled air. “I’m not a name dropper,” Nancy laughs, “mostly I cant remember them! But I do recall my daddy Colonel Newsom talked to James Beard on the phone all the time, and all they talked about was ham.”

It was James Beard, in fact, who was first to bring Newsom’s to the outside world in 1975. Julia Child was soon after, and the cult-like following was formed.

Peter Kaminsky also gets high praise and undiluted thanks from Nancy for his book Pig Perfect in which she was featured. Since then the kudos has flowed like sarsaparilla: Southern Living, Esquire, Forbes, Eater, the New York Times.... a featured spot on the PBS television show Mind of a Chef....the huzzahs are endless. She shows us with pride a photo of a ham that is now featured prominently in the Museo del Jamon in Spain– she sent two, one to eat, one to be on permanent display, like a Picasso sculpture.

After our tour, Nancy takes us to meet her son John and his family at their house, where the creek has crawled across Princeton and now runs through his backyard. He has two large smokers and a large kettle for boiling hams, and one is just coming out when we arrive. Never sated, we eat it like shipwrecked men. New Yorkers, it would seem, just can’t get enough of the genuine article.

When Nancy talks about her father and grandfather, the men who started the business, she talks about their presence still being felt. She talks about spirits and ghosts. Nancy is a natural intuitive and feels things, sees things, all of which bring the untouchable to the curing process. John pulls us aside to show us his collection of arrowheads, an amazing testament to the heritage of the area which lies near the beginning of the Trail of Tears, and if you don’t believe there are spirits here, then you just aren’t tuned in.

As is usual for the Heritage crew, the day ends with the kind of dinner suited for hungry warriors, tonight at a massive Southern-themed restaurant with a large gift shop upfront, a mini-golf course out back, and waitresses dressed in period costumes delivering outsized pork chops and giant plates of catfish. The reading of the dessert selection alone was something like an antebellum vaudeville act, a soliloquy of pies and cakes that left everyone sugar-high and dizzy just trying to make a choice.

But on the way home, listening to Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline in the rented car, there was general consensus that the best thing we ate all weekend were the ham sandwiches on white bread in Nancy’s store. In New York, we probably would have screwed it up putting it on rye.

THE GREATEST COMEBACK IN HAM HISTORY! SAM EDWARDS’ LEGENDARY SURRYANO OLD WORLD STYLE HAMS ARE BACK!

Over two years after the infamous fire that destroyed the legendary Edwards Virginia Smokehouse facility in Surry, Virginia, their renowned Surryano ham is finally back, and here to stay.

As reported in the New York Times, the fire left Heritage Foods “grappling with a break in the supply chain. Chefs from Washington to New York are adjusting their menus.” Matthew Rudofker, executive chef at Momofuku Ssäm Bar and Má Pêche said of Edwards’ hams, “nothing can replace them.” The road back to market for Sam and the Surryano has been quite literally an American culinary epic, but the hams will be ready for preview this June.

Sam Edwards’ old-world style Surryano hams are the stuff of legend, served in some of the best restaurants in America, even as they were being devoured by regular folk who were in love with old-world style hams sourced from the best Heritage pork in the world.

The role Sam plays in the Heritage movement cannot be underestimated — Sam is still the number one buyer of Heritage pork in the country, and one of the greatest advocates for using high-quality, traditionally farmed pigs for his storied Surryano.

After the fire, Sam began curing anew with admiring curemasters in Kentucky and North Carolina, creating new collaborations with a tight-knit group of craftsmen, using Sam’s original recipe, but now enchanted with the charming inconsistencies and magic that every unique smokehouse and curing facility brings to bear on the mojo of these incredible hams.

“It’s about mother nature,” says Sam. “We are using the same recipe, but as any chef will tell you, you can tell someone how to make the soup, but that’s not enough. You can’t replace the terroir. We keep an eye on time and temperature, and I keep a close eye on everything, but the new hams will have their own character.”

Surryano hams are aged for 18 months. These are not quick-cured commodity hams, so this comeback is not only a testament to the patience and industry of a great culinary artisan to overcome adversity, but a vibrant example of a great American art form. The Surryano ham is comparable to a prosciutto or serrano ham, but traditionally salty balanced with a richer, decidedly American, smoky flavor.

“My family has been doing this for over 92 years,” says Sam, “and some people are just discovering the opportunity to use rare Heritage breeds and focus on a higher quality version of cured meat.”

We’re thrilled to announce that 2019 marks the ninth year of our annual goat project – GOATOBER, aka NO GOAT LEFT BEHIND!

Goat is actually the most widely consumed meat in the world — and America is slowly learning what the rest of the world already knows — that goat meat is delicious, lean, versatile, healthy, and sustainable. Goats are environmentally low-maintenance, and easy to raise.

James Whetlor, the James Beard Award Winning author of Goat: Cooking and Eating and founder of the UK's Cabrito Goat Meat has turned Goatober, the month-long goat meat celebration held every year in October, into an international food festival bringing together dairies, farmers, NGOs and individuals who are passionate about ending food waste in the goat dairy system. This October, there are events and dinners all over the world with one aim: put more goat meat on the menu and put all male goats born into the dairy system into the food system.

No Goat Left Behind was the brainchild of former Heritage Radio Network Executive Director, Erin Fairbanks and renowned New York cheesemonger, Anne Saxelby. Together with Heritage Foods they launched the initiative to address the growing problem facing New England goat dairies — namely, what to do with male goats.

Naturally raised goat is a seasonal meat — they are ready for market in the fall. This is why Heritage Foods has worked to change the tenth month of the year from October to #GOATOBER!

In 2011, Heritage Foods partnered with dairies and meat farms in upstate New York and Vermont to purchase their unwanted male goats. Since then the project has grown to include over fifty New York, California and Las Vegas world-class restaurants, and it has become a major international initiative with a calendar of events in London and beyond.

Goatober was first introduced into the United Kingdom in 2016 by James and then mainland Europe the following year. In 2018 James made it his mission to take Goatober to new countries including Italy, Spain, France and Germany and this year the month-long October celebration will travel around the globe from Slow Food's Cheese Festival in Bra, Italy to Australia to the Caribbean.

James Whetlor says, “Goatober spreads the word that goat meat is delicious, ethical and sustainable… we now have events in the UK, USA, Europe, Australia and the Caribbean. It’s amazing and hugely satisfying to see what can happen when dairies, suppliers and chefs work together to try and solve the food waste issue in this part of the food system.”


Participating farms: Miz-inka Farm (Franklin, NY), Bright Farm (Dehli, NY), 4 Tin Fish Farm (Port Byron, NY), and Shannon Creek Farm (Manhattan, KS).

Restaurants will receive their whole goat at the beginning of each week starting on Tuesday, October 1st.

Find menus, event listings and up to the minute news at Goatober.com and make sure to follow and tag:
@GoatoberNews
@HeritageFoodUSA
#Goatober
#NoGoatLeftBehind
#NoKidLeftBehind
#EatThemToSaveThem

GOATOBER 2019

Events and dinners using goat meat in London, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Melbourne and Trinidad and Tobago

www.goatober.com @GoatoberNews

- London launch night at Brigade Bar + Kitchen with Pete Denhart, Gizzi Erskine, Calum Franklin and Karan Gokani in partnership with Wild Beer Co
- International chef residencies at Carousel, London from New York, Melbourne and Belgium
- Dinners and events in the UK including London, Newcastle and Cornwall

International events across the world

Goatober, the month-long goat meat celebration held every year in October, has become an international food festival bringing together dairies, farmers, NGOs and individuals who are passionate about ending food waste in the goat dairy system. This October, there are events and dinners all over the world with one aim: put more goat meat on the menu and put all male goats born into the dairy system into the food system.

James Whetlor, founder of Cabrito Goat Meat and International Director of Goatober says, “Goatober spreads the word that goat meat is delicious, ethical and sustainable. The hope is to move goat meat into the mainstream with the goal that all billy goats born into the dairy system, anywhere in the world, will go into the food system, rather than being wasted. Goatober now has events in the UK, USA, Europe, Australia and the Caribbean. There is also interest from chefs in India and Brazil to get involved. It’s amazing and hugely satisfying to see what can happen when dairies, suppliers and chefs work together to try and solve the food waste issue in this part of food system.”

Goatober London launch night at Brigade Bar + Kitchen on 1 October in partnership with Wild Beer Co.

On 1 October, four chefs will work together to create a goat meat menu at Brigade, a social enterprise restaurant set in a Grade II listed, former fire station on Tooley Street, London. Joining Brigade’s Head Chef Pete Denhart to each cook a course is chef and food writer Gizzi Erksine; executive head chef of The Holborn Dining Room Calum Franklin and Karan Gokani, director of Sri Lankan restaurant Hoppers. This special one night only event is £65 per person and includes a charity donation to Beyond Food Foundation.

Central to Brigade’s ethos is the idea of ‘good food doing good’. Through its partnership with Beyond Food Foundation, Brigade’s chefs work with members of the local community, using food as a catalyst to break the cycle of homelessness by helping vulnerable adults in London who have been at risk of, or experienced homelessness into meaningful and sustainable employment in the hospitality sector. Together, Brigade and Beyond Food have trained hundreds of apprentices into jobs and given thousands of homeless people new skills and their current cohort of apprentices – who are undertaking a two-year, fully qualified training programme at Brigade - will work alongside the chefs on the night of the London launch. www.thebrigade.co.uk

Pete Denhart, Head Chef at Brigade, commented: “Brigade’s menu centres on the best locally and sustainably sourced produce, cooked over woodfire and chargrill, so goat meat fits very naturally into that approach and we’re big fans of it. Plus, by buying in whole billy goats, butchering them in house and cooking a range of different dishes, we’re providing vital skills to our team. Being involved with events such as the Goatober London launch and having the opportunity to work alongside well-known chefs such as Gizzi, Calum and Karan is hugely inspirational and beneficial for our apprentices.”

Goatober at Carousel, London
For three weeks in October three international chefs will take up residency at Carousel showcasing how they cook goat meat in New York, Australia and Belgium, respectively. The open kitchen at Carousel in Marylebone, London, is home to an ever-changing line-up of talented chefs from around the world who share the same philosophy of amazing cooking, friendly service, a relaxed environment and a shared experience from one table to the next.
carousel-london.com | @Carousel_LDN 71 Blandford Street, Marylebone, London W1U 8AB 020 7487 5564

8-13 October at Carousel, London
TJ Steele, chef owner of Claro, Brooklyn, New York was born into an Italian family in New Jersey where he grew up cooking next to his mother and grandmother. He attended The Culinary Institute of America and moved to New York City in 2002. Within three years, at the age of 25, he was made Executive Sous Chef at Danny Meyer's landmark, award-winning Union Square Cafe. In 2012, TJ went to Oaxaca, Mexico to study, eat, and travel in the hopes of marrying his love of seasonal, farm-to-table cooking, with his love of Mexican gastronomy. In the summer of 2017, he opened Claro, a Oaxacan influenced restaurant in Gowanus, Brooklyn with an emphasis on seasonal cooking using corn, barbacoa, consommé and mezcal. Steele makes everything by hand, including the cheeses, chorizo and moles and masa. He is planting corn on his land in Oaxaca as well as working directly with Oaxacan farmers to source and import non-GMO heirloom corn.

Since opening, Steele has been awarded a Michelin star for Claro, named StarChefs Rising Star Chef and the reader’s choice winner for Eater Chef of the Year as well as Chef to Watch by Plate Magazine. The New York Times listed Claro as one of its top 10 restaurants of the year.

15-20 October at Carousel, London
Jesse Gerner, chef owner of a group of restaurants in Melbourne, Australia draws from a Spanish culinary influence after an inspiring six-month European road trip. Working in London, Jesse worked at Moro and River Café and immediately fell in love with Spanish and Muslim Mediterranean flavours. Upon returning to Australia, he opened Añada in 2008. Jesse has since launched Bomba Tapas Bar and Rooftop, Park Street Dining, Nómada Café y Tapas. A regular visitor to Spain, Jesse has cooked in some of its finest restaurants. Whether cooking alongside the chef at Barcelona’s Michelin starred Monvinic or celebrating 150 years of culinary heritage with the ancient Mutriku Gastronomic Society near San Sebastian, Jesse has honed his Spanish cooking techniques from the best chefs in Spain.

22-27 October at Carousel, London
Hendrik Dierendonck is one of Belgium’s best butchers and a meat connoisseur suppling some of the best restaurants in the Netherlands and also his own restaurant, Carcasse. His farm-to-table knowledge is behind Carcasse's Michelin star, which was awarded for Dierendonck's tender, flavourful main courses and imaginative, often surprising, side dishes. Craftsmanship, passion, terroir and 'nose-to-tail' are what’s important to Hendrik.

For more information on Goatober events including dinners at Palatino, 1251 and Bank Heist in London, Nancarrow in Cornwall, Broughgammon Farm in Northern Ireland and Cook House in Newcastle, visit www.Goatober.com and follow @GoatoberNews on Instagram.


About Goatober

Goatober originated in New York in 2011 and has grown in eight years to have events and participants all around the world, from London to Melbourne, from Amsterdam to Trinidad and Tobago. What started as a small campaign to prolong the lives of billy goats and to put a delicious, ethical meat on the menu has grown into an international campaign bringing together dairies, farmers, NGOs and individuals who are passionate about ending food waste in the goat dairy system.

Goatober, aka No Goat Left Behind, was the brainchild of former Heritage Radio Network Executive Director, Erin Fairbanks and renowned New York cheesemonger, Anne Saxelby. They launched the initiative together with Heritage Foods to address the growing problem facing New England goat dairies - namely, what to do with male goats? Male offspring create a dilemma for dairy farmers - they obviously don’t produce cheese, and unfortunately, there is no established humanely sourced market for American goat meat. From this senseless waste Goatober was created and with it a month-long celebration of putting goat meat on the menu of New York’s best restaurants. The campaign had quick success and now there are over 100 restaurants involved in Goatober from New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Heritage Foods, who The New York Times called “… the company at the forefront of the nonindustrial meat movement” is the largest distributor of rare and heritage breed meats in the USA. They are dedicated to supporting a network of over 50 family farmers who raise their livestock humanely, outdoors, on pasture and never with antibiotics or growth hormones. Its founder, Patrick Martins is also the founder of Slow Food USA and Heritage Radio Network.

Goatober was introduced into the UK in 2016 by James Whetlor from Cabrito Goat Meat and into mainland Europe in the following year. There are vibrant dairy industries across the UK and Europe who want to change the practice of euthanising and Goatober is part of the solution. The campaign aims to put a goat dish on restaurant menus and to encourage people to try cooking goat at home themselves, for all or part of October.


For more information about Goatober or for interview with James Whetlor at Cabrito Goat Meat please contact Hannah Blake at hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk or 07730 039361

GOAT wins James Beard Award

Goat: Cooking and Eating by James Whetlor (Quadrille Books, £20) has won a James Beard Foundation Medal for a best single subject book. The medal, awarded at a ceremony at the James Beard Foundation, New York, on Friday 26 April, in front of guests including restaurateur David Chang and American TV personality Tyra Banks, is one of the most prestigious in America. Promoting good food for good, the James Beard Foundation celebrates, nurtures and honours chefs and leaders making food culture more delicious and diverse for everyone.

Ex-chef James Whetlor is the founder of Cabrito Goat Meat, a Devon (UK) based company which has a one sentence mission statement: to put all male billy goats born into the dairy industry into the meat industry. Up until a few years ago most British Billy goats were euthanised shortly after birth. James thought this was, in today’s world of dwindling resources and environmental challenges, unacceptable and set out to do something about it. The award-winning Cabrito Goat Meat now sells to catering butchers and restaurants, from a network of farms across the country.

James is International Director of ‘Goatober’ working with partners in America, Europe and Australia and is consultant for the European ‘Food Heroes’ project, which aims to end food waste in farming across the EU.

Sarah Lavelle, Publishing Director at Quadrille Books, who commissioned Goat: Cooking and Eating comments, “This unique, vital book is genre defining and essential reading for anyone with even a passing interest in food and the way we eat today and is set to be the definitive guide on the subject for years to come.”

In GOAT: Cooking and Eating, James looks at the story of this versatile ingredient and offers 90 recipes from around the world that will answer the common question: ‘How do I cook goat?’ With dishes arranged by cooking technique James shows that goat can be cooked fast and lean, or slow-cooked in curries, stews, braises and roasts as well as make sausages, burgers, and kebabs. There is also a section for delicious seasonings, spice blends and marinades.

From Kid Shanks with Chickpeas and Chorizo to Goat Tacos, Steamed Dumplings to Schnitzel, GOAT encourages people to broaden their cooking repertoire as well as use more goat meat in everyday meals. Plus, there are original recipes from renowned chefs including Yotam Ottolenghi, Neil Rankin, Olia Hercules, Gill Meller and Jeremy Lee.

Alongside advice on sourcing goat meat, James highlights issues within modern farming today, the involvement of artisan tanneries to ensure the use of the whole animal and Cabrito’s charitable work with Farm Africa. Fifty per cent of James’ author advance and royalties from GOAT: Cooking and Eating will go toward Farm Africa’s work to transform agriculture and help farmers in eastern Africa increase their harvests, protect the environment and sell their produce in thriving markets.


-ends-


For more information about GOAT and Cabrito please contact Hannah Blake at The Dining Room PR hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk or 07730 039361

To contact Quadrille Books please contact Emma Marijewycz emmamarijewycz@hardiegrant.com or 020 7601 7500


Notes to Editors

James Whetlor of Cabrito Goat Meat worked as a chef for 12 years in London, before moving back to his hometown in Devon and working at River Cottage. During this period, he bought four goats to help turn an area of scrubland into useable pasture and learnt about the plight of the British Billy goat, in most cases euthanised shortly after birth. James thought this was, in today’s world of dwindling resources and environmental challenges, unacceptable and set out to do something about it. The award-winning business now sells to catering butchers and restaurants, from a network of farms across the country. www.cabrito.co.uk

Farm Africa is an innovative charity that reduces poverty in rural eastern Africa by helping farmers grow more, sell more and sell for more: the organisation helps farmers to not only boost yields, but also gain access to markets, and add value to their produce.

Farm Africa places a high priority on environmental sustainability and develops approaches that help farmers improve their yields and incomes without degrading their natural resources. Their programmes vary hugely, ranging from helping crops farmers to boost harvests, livestock keepers to improve animal health, and forest coffee growers to reach export markets, but core to all of them is a focus on the financial sustainability of the farmers’ businesses and environmental sustainability.

Many of the poorest farmers in eastern Africa earn their livings by selling livestock and animal products. But livestock farmers face huge challenges in making a sustainable. They have limited access to technical advice, to high-quality feed and vaccines needed to keep their animals healthy, and to markets to sell their animal products.

Farm Africa gives livestock farmers technical advice and training, helps them access animal health services, and helps them gain access to insurance for their animals so that they don’t risk losing everything when drought causes pasture to dry up. www.farmafrica.org

Goatober International Tour Dates:
30 September — Dinner at The Creameries, Manchester
1 October — Sustainable Restaurant Association Dinner
2 October — Dinner at The Jugged Hare, London
featuring Elizabeth Haigh, Yascha Oosterberg, Sam Bryant,
Stephen Englefield and James Whetlor
3 October — Dinner at Palatino, London featuring Stevie Parle
4 October — Dinner in The Netherlands with Meat the Male
4 October — Dinner at Broughgammon Farm,
Ballycastle with Paula McIntyre
5-7 October — Nantes Food Festival
8 October — Dinner at 1251, London featuring James Cochran
13 October — Dinner at Latteria Studio, Rome
17 October — Dinner at Claro, Brooklyn, New York
18 October — Dinner at Huertas, New York, New York
20 October — Dartmouth Food Festival
22 October — Food on the Edge, Galway, Ireland
24 October — Dinner at Flour & Ash, Bristol
25 October — Dinner at The Gurnard’s Head, Cornwall
26 October — Amorevore Food and Arts Festival, Ibiza
1 November — Dinner at Riverford Farm HQ

Goatober 2018 launches with events in London, Bristol, Manchester, Cornwall, Rome, Frankfurt, Nantes, Amsterdam, New York and Ibiza 

GOATOBER, the month-long goat meat celebration, has become an international campaign bringing together dairies, farmers, NGOs and individuals who are passionate about ending food waste in the goat dairy system. This October, there are events, dinners and talks from London to New York to Ibiza with one aim: put more goat meat on the menu and put all male goats born into the dairy system in to the food system.

Goatober 2018 is the most exciting yet as events in New York and Brooklyn see all the strands of Goatober pulled together. Until now there has been no coordination between the USA, UK and European events. The Goatober campaign now has senior level strategic direction with dairies, farmers, suppliers and chefs in dialogue and working together to share best practice, ideas and contacts to try and solve the food waste issue in this part of the food system.

In October 2018, there are Goatober events in London at The Jugged Hare, Palatino and the Sustainable Restaurants Association dinner; at Flour and Ash in Bristol; at The Creameries in Manchester and at The Gurnard’s Head in Cornwall. James Wheltor from Cabrito Goat Meat is speaking and cooking goat meat at the global food symposium Food on the Edge in Galway, Ireland. Working in partnership with the Interreg ‘food heroes’ project, which aims to end food waste in farming across the EU, there are events at the Nantes Food Forum and in Laval in France and in the Spessart region (near Frankfurt; Germany), The Netherlands, Rome and at the Amorevore Food & Arts Festival in Ibiza. In New York, there are dinners at Claro in Brooklyn and Huertas in the East Village, Manhattan, and an event with Farm Africa at Grow NYC in Project Farmhouse, a new sustainability and education centre exploring environmental issues through food, horticulture, arts, recycling and cooking.

Goatober originated in New York in 2011 and was the brainchild of Heritage Foods, the first and largest distributor of rare and heritage breed meats in the USA dedicated to supporting a network of over 50 family farmers who raise their livestock humanely, outdoors, on pasture and never with antibiotics or growth hormones. Its founder, Patrick Martins is also the founder of Slow Food USA and Heritage Radio Network. Patrick comments, “2018 marks our eighth year of Goatober. We offer cuts of goat meat to home cooks from coast-to-coast via HeritageFoods.com and work with more than 100 restaurants who participate annually around the country during the month of October. What started with the desire to help dairies and the destiny of male goats in New England has turned into an international movement to support the consumption of goat meat. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to co-host Goatober events with our partners in the UK and Europe this year who have taken this project further than we ever imagined.”

James Whetlor from Cabrito Goat Meat, a Devon based ethical meat champion and producer, has been at the forefront of bringing Goatober to the UK, comments, “This is a really exciting year for the Goatober campaign as it shows there is an international calling and drive to solve and end the systematic culling of male billy goats born into the dairy system and considered a waste product. By centralising the Goatober campaign and taking it global we can end this practice, while also making goat meat a mainstream product. We are already in discussion with Australia to join the campaign in 2019, so Goatober is something that’s going to get bigger and bigger.”

Marjon Krol, Project Leader at ZLTO (the Netherlands) for the European project Food Heroes, “Last year, in 2017, we organized for the first time a Goatober campaign in the Netherlands. Together with some top chefs we had a huge billy goat dinner in the Netherlands during the World Design Event in Eindhoven. It is great to see people’s reaction and to see that the attention for this challenge is growing. Within the Food Heroes project, we try to tackle food waste on several themes together with farmers and stakeholders. This year the partner countries within the project, Germany and France, are also taking part in the Goatober campaign to try to solve the food waste issue of the billy goats.”

For more information about Goatober please visit www.cabrito.co.uk/goatober and follow @GoatoberNews on Instagram.

About Goatober

Goatober originated in New York in 2011, when Erin Fairbanks, Heritage Radio Network’s former Executive Director, had an idea. While working for Heritage Foods USA in Brooklyn, she and renowned cheesemaker Anne Saxelby wanted to end the practice of euthanising young male goats that the dairy industry had no use for. From this senseless waste Goatober was created and with it a month-long celebration of putting goat meat on the seasonal menus of New York restaurants. The campaign had quick success and now there are over 100 restaurants involved in Goatober from New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Goatober arrived in the UK in 2016 and mainland Europe in the following year. There are vibrant dairy industries across the UK and Europe who want to change the practice of euthanising and Goatober is part of the solution. The campaign aims to put a goat dish on restaurant menus and to encourage people to try cooking goat at home themselves, for all or part of October.

About Cabrito

On moving back to Devon ex-chef James Whetlor called on his 12 years cheffing experience and contacts in London to set up Cabrito Goat Meat working with goat dairies to supply top restaurants including Quo Vadis, HIX Group, ETM and St John. Cabrito has won many awards including Observer Food Monthly Award for Best Ethical Producer, Good Housekeeping’s Champion Meat Producer and the Young British Foodies. Today, Cabrito supplies over 70 well-known establishments including Temper, Marksman, Morito and Pidgin. James’ first book Goat: Cooking and Eating is published by Quadrille (£20) and has been described as ‘genre defining’.

For more information about Goatober or for interview with James Whetlor at Cabrito Goat Meat please contact Hannah Blake at hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk or 07730 039361.  

Goatober 2018: How to make River Cottage's chops with cavolo nero, chilli and peanut butter
This month-long festival, now in its eighth year, is all about raising awareness and promoting the use of goat meat