Goat Burgers for Pentecost

Saturday morning as I was unpacking my shopping bags full of fresh fruits, vegetables, free-range meat and eggs and the like I had brought home from the farmer's market, my cell phone rang. It was my friend L, calling to tell me that the cookout she was planning at her house was still on, despite the threat of thunderstorms that evening. "Whatcha doin'?" she asked.

"I just got home from the farmer's market."



"Get anything good?"

"Yes, I got some goat meat!"

Dead silence.

After about fifteen seconds, my friend found her voice. "Did you just say...goat meat??"
I then told her about a farmer named Cindy, who sets up a booth every week with an assortment of fruits and vegetables and meat. It's always fun to see what Cindy brings every week, because it's always different. A few weeks ago she had some late-season morel mushrooms that she had picked on a trip to Pennsylvania the previous week. (Click here to see what I did with those.) Before I knew her name, I would call her The Chicken Lady, because I've often bought roasting and frying chickens from her. My friend C calls her The Egg Lady, because you can almost always get good fresh eggs from her--but you have to get there early before she runs out of them.

(Those are Cindy's onions. The rest came from other vendors. But Cindy sells all those other things, too.)

Anyway, one Saturday a couple of years ago, late in the fall when Cindy was selling her wares for the last time until spring, she happened to have some extra goat meat that didn't make it into her co-op baskets. I've often thought of joining a co-op; you pay a flat fee and the farmer will fill a box for you every week or so with a variety of things that were harvested that week. Usually you don't choose what you get; it's just whatever the farmer puts in the basket. We've never joined one because Joe has certain vegetables that he absolutely will NOT eat, especially Brussels sprouts and beets. If I ever brought any of those home he just might move out. Well, Cindy had this extra pound of ground goat, and she gave it to me for free. That night we cooked burgers on the grill--some regular beef ones and some made from Cindy's goat.

It was out-of-this-world delicious.

So when Cindy told me last week that she would have goat this week for anyone who wanted to buy some, I made darn sure I was down at the farmer's market early because I didn't know how much she would have and didn't want her to run out before I got there. I ended up getting three pounds of ground goat and a pound of stew meat. (By the way, did you know goat is the most widely consumed meat in the world? Check this out.)

The next day, Pentecost Sunday, was our annual church picnic, but Moe wasn't feeling well and we decided to skip it and make goat burgers instead. (Moe is fine, by the way; we suspect allergies and not enough sleep.)

I mixed some kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, and garlic powder in with the meat and formed them into patties, just like I would with beef.

Joe is the grill-meister!

I was surprised to find locally grown peas this late in the season.

They weren't as tender and sweet as the ones I got a month ago, but they were still good.

By the way, have you ever had these? They were offering free samples of them at Costco last week. They're healthier than regular potato chips (supposedly) because they aren't fried. They're quite addicting.

Goat burgers go quite well with our favorite Virginia wine.

I still have a pound of stew meat and a pound of ground meat in my freezer. I haven't decided what to do with it yet; I'm not in a hurry to cook it because who knows when I'll be able to get more?

In the meantime I'll browse the Internet for recipes (like these--they recommend basting burgers with barbecue sauce.)

Today the boys have an extra day off from school because the air conditioning went out. They they'll have two more half days and they're done for the summer. I'm hoping to get the rest of my thank-you notes written, finish all of Larry's paperwork for high school, some appointments made, and a little laundry and housecleaning done as well. And hopefully, a visit to the pool. Oh, and I have to make cookies for Moe's class party tomorrow, which was supposed to be today.

How did you celebrate Pentecost?