Heritage Breed Ground Goat Meat

GROUND GOAT

Three 1lb packs — a lighter and leaner alternative — Shannon Creek Farm

$65
Product

Ground Goat
Three 1lb packs
Shannon Creek Farm, Kansas Flint Hills

Goatober is 14 years old! October is the natural season for goat meat, and as we have for over a decade, we are proud to feature cuts of goat as part of our effort to celebrate just how delicious goat meat is. 

Ground goat is simply one of the most versatile and tasty treats in the meat world, prepared as burgers, meatballs, or as a rustic ragu for pasta, not to mention the main ingredient in the best chili we have ever tasted. As an alternative to beef or lamb, it simply cannot be beat —  goat is a savory, lean, red meat with a clean, herbaceous finish, and an unexpected depth of flavor.

Although leaner than beef or lamb, goat meat is rich and flavorful and boasts light floral notes in every bite. Because goat meat has less fat, it lends itself to slow and low cooking including braises and barbecue — see our Cooking Tab for more information!

Goatober has come a long way since the great cheesemonger Anne Saxelby came up with the idea 14 years ago! Goatober was launched because dairies need to produce milk to make cheese, and the only way for an animal to make milk is to have babies. On goat dairies, whenever a male is born, unless it’s kept as a breeder, there is not much use for it since males do not produce milk and the market for male goats is not a large one in the United States. Some male babies are sold onto the commodity market to lead unhappy lives in confinement while others are euthanized.

We wanted to launch a project to keep all the kids on the farm, roaming the pastures, while also providing an additional source of income to the farmers. The natural mating cycle of goats is to be born in the spring and be ready for processing in the fall — that is why we call the project Goatober although it has gone by other names too like No Kid Left Behind!

Since 2010 Goatober has grown to become a celebration of all things goat, the most widely consumed protein on the planet!

  • 100% antibiotic free
  • Humanely raised on pasture by independent family farms

 

Farm
Shannon Creek Farm – Manhattan, Kansas

Joseph Hubbard is one of the youngest farmers in the Heritage Foods network. Joseph learned the art of farming from his family and raises sheep and goats on the vast Flint Hill pastures around Manhattan, Kansas.

The Flint Hills, a band of hills in eastern Kansas stretching into North Central Oklahoma, is a region that is not good for plant agriculture, but ideal for pasture raised animals. This ecological region is where the most dense coverage of intact tallgrass prairie can be found in North America including Big Bluestem, Little Bluestem, Indiangrass, Switchgrass, Prairie Dropseed, and Sideoats Grama. These tallgrass varieties are responsible for producing the tastiest grass fed animals on the planet.

Joseph raises multiple breeds of lamb for different reasons: Katahdin for their multiple birth and high growth rate, St. Croix for the natural tannin in their gut that wards off parasites and White Dorper for their muscling. Joseph is also a major producer for our Goatober Project and has been growing meat goats for Heritage Foods for almost a decade! His primary breed is the Boer goat. The Boer or Boerbok is a South African breed of meat goat. It was selectively bred in the Eastern Cape from about 1920. It has been exported to many countries, and has been used to improve the meat qualities of other breeds.
Cooking

How to Prepare

1. Drain the excess liquid from the package over the sink, remove the ground meat from the packaging, and pat dry.

2. Season with salt and pepper right before you begin cooking.

3. Heat canola oil in a hot pan. Once the pan is lightly smoking, carefully place the ground meat in the middle and begin breaking the meat apart. Continue to break the meat apart and allow the meat to brown on one side. Some ground meat is fattier — like pork and lamb — and may require some fat to be drained off as it's cooking.

4. Stir the ground meat carefully in the pan until it is cooked through. Drain and serve!