Who Has Goats?

[Old School 3319]

I'm mostly looking for a hobby. An opportunity to get my son involved with something, at least semi productive.. But really the big advantage is the grass they mow, less Bush hogging.

Rabbits are great to raise and breed they are relatively easy to care for and they will keep the yard mowed for you

 

[Seamaster]

I’ve entertained the idea of a goat to keep my lawn trimmed. And if it didn’t work out, I suppose I could stick it in a curry.

 

[STP]

Ha... We’ve discussed getting goats in the past. We have a couple uncleared acres that they could clean up. We have a friend who has one as a pet. It’s like a dog, and it’s even house trained.

 

[mawnansmiff]

I kept goats once. That was until I ate them all ?

Regards,

Jay.?

 

[pantsBoots]

Were you diggin on the radio too?

At least one ex-girlfriend's dad told me I was no good and as crazy as a loon.

 

[karam]

My family turns down anything other than beef, chicken, or pork. But, IMO other meats are mostly inferior.. so I see what they mean. I ate a lot of deer meat Hamburger Helper and such growing up, I usually resented it to some degree.

I can see where it has a lot to do with which goats you choose to eat.. same thing with deer.

Depends what part of the world you're from overall. I found living in the UK for 12 years that people there have forgotten what flavour is actually like. Chicken breast - the white, boring, tasteless, dry stuff - costs about 40% more than thigh - the dark, juicy, full-of-flavour cut. That's madness. Nevertheless, more for me.

I really don't get it, I find American beef far superior to European beef in every aspect, and all other American meats to be tasteless. Chicken especially is extremely fatty and tastes like water, American pork is pretty tasteless too. I can't understand how Americans put so much emphasis on dry aged beef from a mature animal (hence, bursting with flavour), and at the same time won't do the same with pork or lamb. Well-hung, and properly cooked aged lamb (=mutton) is insanely tasty. If you're really brave you can also have ram or billy goat (the male, ungelded animals used just as studs) but these are rare even for Greece, you need to be friends with a butcher who's friends with a farmer - a real farmer, not an intense raising farm as they use insemination -
to get them. Free-range, 16-month+ heritage breed pork that has been hung for a few weeks is insanely tasty. Same with boar (but if you get a bad boar...heaven help you, had a piece once that even my dog wouldn't eat).

Game is all about dressing, shooting and aging properly. I am not involved but a friend of mine does hunt and has sold me nice cuts from time to time.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

Depends what part of the world you're from overall. I found living in the UK for 12 years that people there have forgotten what flavour is actually like. Chicken breast - the white, boring, tasteless, dry stuff - costs about 40% more than thigh - the dark, juicy, full-of-flavour cut. That's madness. Nevertheless, more for me.

I really don't get it, I find American beef far superior to European beef in every aspect, and all other American meats to be tasteless. Chicken especially is extremely fatty and tastes like water, American pork is pretty tasteless too. I can't understand how Americans put so much emphasis on dry aged beef from a mature animal (hence, bursting with flavour), and at the same time won't do the same with pork or lamb. Well-hung, and properly cooked aged lamb (=mutton) is insanely tasty. If you're really brave you can also have ram or billy goat (the male, ungelded animals used just as studs) but these are rare even for Greece, you need to be friends with a butcher who's friends with a farmer to get them. Free-range, 16-month+ heritage breed pork that has been hung for a few weeks is insanely tasty. Same with boar (but if you get a bad boar...heaven help you, had a piece once that even my dog wouldn't eat).

Game is all about dressing, shooting and aging properly. I am not involved but a friend of mine does hunt and has sold me nice cuts from time to time.

Our chicken has gone to shit, in the last few years especially..


I cooked a wild hog a few years ago, and it wasn't anything to write home about.. I certainly wouldn't go through the trouble again, unless times got hard.

 

[Country Bladesmith]

Our chicken has gone to shit, in the last few years especially..


I cooked a wild hog a few years ago, and it wasn't anything to write home about.. I certainly wouldn't go through the trouble again, unless times got hard.

Wild ones require a little prep work. I split mine and then put the halves in an ice chest, and brine them for about three days in several changes of salty ice water. It’ll season the meat and pull out quite a bit of that iron taste. Big boars will never taste that great compared to the others, so I usually drag those off for the coyotes. I’m not for wanton killing of animals, I usually don’t kill something I don’t intend to eat, but I make an exception for hogs. They are now an infestation in our area, destroying crops, tearing up property, and generally screwing up the natural ecosystem here.

 

[Seamaster]

Depends what part of the world you're from overall. I found living in the UK for 12 years that people there have forgotten what flavour is actually like. Chicken breast - the white, boring, tasteless, dry stuff - costs about 40% more than thigh - the dark, juicy, full-of-flavour cut. That's madness. Nevertheless, more for me. I really don't get it, I find American beef far superior to European beef in every aspect, and all other American meats to be tasteless.

I can never understand quite how awful bacon is in America. My family there always ask me to smuggle in British bacon when I make a trip over. And America's aversion to lamb is equally baffling. It was once excruciatingly dismissed by an elderly American relative of mine (in less enlightened times) as "[n-word] meat". But American beef — peerless.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

They are now an infestation in our area, destroying crops, tearing up property, and generally screwing up the natural ecosystem here.

Same thing here.

 

[CoffeeAndBourbon]

Not all Americans dislike lamb. My family and most of my friends love it!
Chicken thighs all day over breasts too.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

And America's aversion to lamb is equally baffling.

I've always prefered lamb. But, down here, the nicer grocers have spent the last five years marketing lamb, starting with lower prices on lamb over beef for a few years, and now it is up to market prices, but always with a small selection... so they aren't moving as fast as they were. Before this, I had never seen lamb at the grocers, ever.
But, if I could, I would chose lamb over beef every time. But, of course, I prefer venison to beef also. I like beef, but it just doesn't have as much taste to us.

Yeh, fresh belly slabs are way better than over-cured and salted mass-produced bacon. But, again... it's harder to find, unless you know someone.

 

[Old School 3319]

Our chicken has gone to shit, in the last few years especially..


I cooked a wild hog a few years ago, and it wasn't anything to write home about.. I certainly wouldn't go through the trouble again, unless times got hard.

I raised chickens for several years both as layers and meat chickens. The big meat industry as produced a hybrid chicken that barely resembles a chicken if you stay with the traditional breeds they are not bad. But like most commercial food industries it is all about volume and the bottom line. We raise our own meat at my place and most of it is way better than the stores

 

[Seamaster]

They say Welsh mountain lamb is the best in the world, but the best I've ever tasted has always been Greek.

Grilled lamb chops would be my last meal if I had the misfortune to end up on death row.

 

[Old School 3319]

I can never understand quite how awful bacon is in America. My family there always ask me to smuggle in British bacon when I make a trip over. And America's aversion to lamb is equally baffling. It was once excruciatingly dismissed by an elderly American relative of mine (in less enlightened times) as "[n-word] meat". But American beef — peerless.

I prefer hog jowl over bacon anyday

 

[briarbuck]

There is WAY more selection of organic/free range chicken and eggs available these days. I stay away from the Big farms that produce chickens the size of Turkeys.

There is NO BETTER beef that US Beef (unless it's Wagu).

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I stay away from the Big farms that produce chickens the size of Turkeys.

I noticed about twenty years ago that you couldn't find a two pound chicken anywhere. My mom always had a two pounder for Sunday lunch, but now you'd be hard pressed to find one.

 

[Old School 3319]

I noticed about twenty years ago that you couldn't find a two pound chicken anywhere. My mom always had a two pounder for Sunday lunch, but now you'd be hard pressed to find one.

I raised the commercial chickens one time. They are a sad animal basically a small turkey that must be butchered buy 12 weeks of age or risk a lot of health issues. I prefer just the good old farm chicken and they are great for the bugs too.

 

[LOREN]

I would make sure the fence openings are small. Many years ago we had a couple of goats for pets. Even though we had ALOT of foraging inside the fence, one goat would constantly stick his head through the fence to forage, and with his tiny curved horns, could never pull his head back out by himself. Got to be tiresome.

 

[Seamaster]

Sheep graze in the meadows around my place. I'm forever untangling rams from my fence.