We are finally going to be back in goat meat. I’m just really hoping my whole family’s collective taste buds have matured and I won’t be the only one enjoying our home raised chevon. Fingers crossed because Dean was just the first , with seven more goaties to be going in the freezer over this next month and a half.
In addition to documenting the first real goat processing around here we also wanted to show off our new smoker, courtesy of my dad. I did promise to be an expert at all things smoked meat by the time he arrives in June so it wasn’t entirely an altruistic gift on his part. We did the Thanksgiving turkeys, and a whole bunch of other random stuff, including skin-on bone-in chicken thighs and flank steak for our friends today. The kids came to play and the Dad came to learn how to process a goat. He’s a fellow homesteader as well. All our smoker adventures have turned out well so far. We still have a long list of experiments and I can’t wait.

Josh was super helpful and he and Neil had a great time shooting the breeze while butchering the goat. Manly bonding time.
The cuts are hanging out in coolers tonight, then tomorrow I’ll get them into the freezer until I’m ready to give smoking them a go. Yes, the coolers are dirty, but I’ll be washing the meat before it goes into the freezer. I’ve got this. Another thought on cooking options is goat curry, again one of my favorites but one that requires a more mature palette than my family might currently have. Sigh. At least Tatanka is with me on this…

And can we just take a minute to marvel at Christmas Eve being a week away? It’s here and we made it. Life is so good.