- By Jim Evans
- Around Town
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| A few years ago, my heart stopped functioning properly. A cardiac artery was blocked, and I felt some strange and scary symptoms. The blockage was relieved with a stent, and the hospital that installed it included a detailed lecture to all such patients. They don’t want to see us again. Heeding that information has kept me healthy, and I want to share what I’ve learned. | ||
As you know if you’ve been reading this irregular column, we with heart disease, sclerosis, bypasses, and stents must avoid saturated fats to avoid repeat visits to the hospital. This puts all forms of beef off limits, even the leanest burger meat, and even bison. Ditto for all forms of pork. Remember, that means bacon, too.
We’re left with breast of turkey and breast of chicken. This can get boring. But hark, help is on the way. We must think outside the box, the big box store, that is. Lansing Market, thanks to yours truly and Sandro, the manager, stocks rabbit in the frozen food case. It’s local, fresh, really delicious, and packaged more attractively than the hideous, freezer burned carcasses Wegmans used to get from Arkansas. You can look up one of my rabbit recipes in an earlier column — just type Hale and Hearty in the search box — or, if you’re any kind of a cook, just treat it more or less as if it were pot roast: cut it up, shake it in seasoned flour, brown it in canola oil, and simmer it for two or more hours in water with hominy, Basmati rice, couscous, or barley. An ideal slow cooker meal to come home to.
If you hunt, venison is a wonderful option. If you don’t, make friends with a hunter. Just don’t cook the meat past medium, or it will be tough.
Ever thought of goat? No, it’s not goaty like some processed goat milk or an old buck. (We sound ignorant saying billy goat.) Even the goat from Wegmans, which is frozen bucks and does bandsawed bones and all into cubes, from Australia, doesn’t taste goaty. It just doesn’t taste fresh, because it isn’t. It’s also fatty because of all the marrow cooking out of the bones.
Fresh, young goat is wonderful and healthy. The saturated fat of skinless chicken is 1.7 grams per serving; that of goat, 0.79.
I recently chatted with a meat goat producer, who offered some local contacts, which I pass along to you, since I assume you like to eat well in spite of dietary restrictions.
The web site to explore is www.SheepGoatMarketing.info, where you can learn a lot. tatiana Stanton — yes, tatiana starts with a small t — is a prime mover behind the sheep and goat business and smaller scale farming in general. She’s at Cornell and has a farm in Trumansburg. She sells meat and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or 607-387-5009.
Jim and Ann Phillips, in Cortland, produce meat and have a web site: www.triple3livestock.com. You can email them, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or call them: 607-753-0472.
Jacelyn Spoon has This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. in Groton: 607-898-9050. If you Google Blue Spoon Farm, you might hit LocalHarvest.org/store/M38823, where you can buy individual cuts of goat, which is unusual.
Most goat meat producers prefer to sell a whole or (sometimes) a half, cut, wrapped, and frozen, which is much more economical than buying a piece. It’s still expensive, because you’re paying for small scale production with lots of loving, hands-on care, not factory farming. But we’re talking about our health here, right?
Goats yield roughly the same weight as small deer, so you don’t need a huge freezer. Goats are also seasonal breeders, so meat may be harder to get certain times of the year. Enjoy!
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