The Sunday Steep #4: Eighty pounds of goat meat

Plus, what does it mean to eat "ancestrally"?

Every post here on The Tea’s Made is free to read, but if you feel so moved, you can support my work by buying me a pot of tea. I’ll think of you while I sip and write!

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Hi friends,

As I write this, there are eighty pounds of goat meat in my freezer.

Eighty. Pounds.

It all escalated so quickly: after a “goat yoga” session at a local cider taproom a couple of years ago, I stalked befriended the goat farmer, Sam, and managed to wrangle an invitation out to her farm. Not long after, I joined her herd share, an arrangement in which I got to “buy in” to the herd’s dairy production and bring my own milk home, which I’ve had fun learning to turn into cheese and yogurt.

I even got to milk one of the goats, a sweet girl named Black Raspberry who I’d originally met during goat yoga.

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Naturally, I’ve been dreaming about goats of my own ever since that moment. We have a wooded area around our chicken coop that Eric has promised to me as an eventual goat paradise. Now, we just have to get through the pile of projects that building said goat enclosure would require.

It could take a while, and in the meantime I’m trying to summon up all of my (meager) supply of patience.

Which brings me to the goat in my freezer. While I’ve now become quite comfortable drinking and working with goat’s milk, and I’ve happily eaten goat in restaurants a handful of times, it occurred to me recently that I’ve never actually cooked goat meat.

I’m not planning to raise goats specifically for meat, but still, I figured, wouldn’t it be a good idea for me to get as comfortable as possible with all the products they can provide before acquiring some of my own?

The site of Future Goatlandia

So, when Sam’s kids were each selling a goat carcass (their county fair projects), I impulsively called dibs on both of them. Yesterday, Sam and her daughter dropped off two large frozen boxes of wrapped goat cuts. And today, I’m mainlining recipes for goat meat: curries and stews, shawarma and tacos, and…well, whatever else it is people make with goat.

Nothing like jumping into the deep end, eh? I can’t wait to share the details of my trial and error in a future edition of The Deep Steep - and if you have a favorite recipe to share, that would be a-mehhhh-zing.

At least THIS guy thought it was funny…photo by Lamna The Shark on Unsplash

In my mug…

I love a rich black tea, as you know. But the further I get into my 40s, the more I do not enjoy a caffeine buzz in the afternoon. There’s something about that pleasant, heady feeling that starts souring for me after about 2 PM, and can lead to an anxious, fidgety evening.

Decaffeinated black teas are my go-to solution for an afternoon sipper, and I really love the Decaf Paris tea from Harney & Sons. It’s smooth, rich and a tiny bit sweet, with a touch of vanilla and black currant. The scent is strong and fruity, so the delicate flavor is (for me anyway) a nice surprise.

I could drink this tea all day (and, okay, sometimes I do.)

On my book pile…

I mainlined books and TV shows critical of the food industry, like Food Inc., The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and the like in the early 2010s, but somehow I missed this 2015 title, The Dorito Effect by author Mark Schatzker.

So far I’m really enjoying the book’s explanation of how our tastebuds have been hijacked by Big Food, causing us to desire foodlike substances and artificial flavorings more than whole, unadulterated foods - which have, at the same time, become both less flavorful and less nutritious. A real double whammy.

Technically this book isn’t on a pile at all, but inside my phone: I’m listening to it on Audible. Just one observation about audiobooks in general, and I’m curious if any of you agree: I only listen to a handful each year, and it typically has to do with the narrator. I find nonfiction books particularly dicey in this regard. There’s something I find almost…smarmy in the affect some of these narrators assume while reading.

Is it just me?

In my hands…

I’ve been steadily working on my cardinal for the last week or so, and it’s very close to being done!

It’s funny how I can get out of the rhythm of embroidery and it feels like such a huge undertaking to get started again, but an hour after I pick up a project - after I stumble through the first few needle-threadings and have to find tutorials to remind me how to do more complicated stitches - I’m right back into it as though I never took a break.

This project was a good one to re-wet my feet with - it’s mostly made up of backstitch and satin stitch, which I never really forget how to do, but there are also chain stitches and broken chain stitches, for which I usually need a refresher. So it was a little bit challenging, but didn’t strain my brain too much while I was re-re-watching LOST with Clara.

And it’s worth mentioning that I don’t perform any of these stitches all that well, but I embroider anyway.

What do you keep on doing, without any expectation of getting great at it?

On the podcast

This week’s episode of The Tea’s Made was a joy to record and I’m so excited to share it with you.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Alison Kay, creator of Ancestral Kitchen and co-host of the Ancestral Kitchen Podcast, who shared candidly about her struggles with her weight, fertility and relationship with food, and how it led her to ancestral eating. Alison also helped define what “ancestral food” is, what it’s not, and how we can incorporate this philosophy into a modern kitchen. Alison is knowledgeable, wise, and also has a soothing British podcaster voice that you will want to soak up for hours. Just listen to this clip!

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My conversation was so meaty I decided to break it into two parts, so you’ll be hearing from Alison again next week. You can listen at the Spotify link above, or look for The Tea’s Made with Meagan Francis in your favorite podcast app.

That’s all for this week, friends. Leave a comment or just hit “reply” to this email, and let me know how you’re doing!

Warmly,

Meagan