Transcript for the Piece Audio version of For the Blood Is the Life
For the Blood Is the Life
Transcript
2003-2004
Produced by Julia DeBruicker
9m43s
Julia
Today what we are doing is slaughtering goats. We are butchering them, and then grinding and pattying up their meat, because what we are going for is a fresh crop of goat burgers, raised locally, right here in the Appalachian mountains.
James
Good meat. Real good meat.
Julia
With us are two year-old male goats, which, because they?ve been gelded, are called withers. W-I-T-H-E-R-S. They?ll provide the meat, and here?s who?s showing us the ropes. First is our guide, Dylan.
Dylan
Hello. I am Dylan. Can I start over?
Julia
Next, Dylan?s uncle Dock, a pastor who moonlights in goat farming.
Dock
- and the Lord made it very, very clear in Genesis, chapter six, right after the flood. That?s when he gave permission. Before that, men didn?t eat meat. But he did give permission after the flood, and in fact as he said, ?anything that moves is food to you.?
Julia
Finally, Maggie Rose. Dylan?s sister and reluctant accompanist.
Maggie
I?m not doing the radio.
Julia
We are at the Frazier home, at the foot of Cowan Mountain in Letcher County, Kentucky.
Dylan
Hello, I am Count Dylan.
Maggie
Start over.
Katie
Oh, God.
Dylan
Alright.
Julia
Take three.
Katie
Do it right, Dylan.
Maggie
One more chance.
Dylan
I am Dylan, and I will tell you about killing goats.
Maggie
Eww.
Julia
Good start.
Dylan
First, they got up on the hill, brought a goat down to a little piece of a hill, and shot it.
Dock
Okay.
Julia
Yall ready?
James
Right there?
Dock
Mm hmm
Dylan
I?ve already got a .22.
James
You?ve got the man with you today, don?t you, Dock?
Dock
You?ve got the boss -
Brack
Make sure you got that gun on that thing, not me.
Dock
In the beginning, in the Garden of Eden, all the way up until the flood, men didn?t eat meat. Then after the flood, men ate meat, and in the millennial realm of Christ ? I don?t know if you know about that or not - but in the one thousand year reign that is coming, we won?t eat meat again, as is the period when the lamb will lay with the lion and the bear will graze with the cow, cause the king of kings and the prince of peace will be here, and when he?s here, there will be peace and harmony on this Earth, and there will be none, none of this.
(Gunshot)
Dock
Where?s Brack? Oh. Open up the tailgate, Brack.
Brack
Boy, he?s sure bleeding, ain?t he?
Dylan
Then brought it down ?
Dock
Right in the brain. Sure did, buddy.
Dylan
- and hung it up. Then cut it open and let it bleed.
Dock
That?s how it?s taught in the Old Testament. For the blood is the life, and so they were to let the blood out on the ground, and eat the flesh.
Brack
We used to just draw their head back, cut their throat. My daddy?d tie em up by the hind legs on the barn and cut their throat and let em bleed to death.
Maggie
Cause that?s the blood. The blood. God gave you his blood cause he died on the cross.
Dylan
They hung him upside down, and cut down. Down his belly.
(Saw)
Dock
Dad, we need that hatchet and your hammer.
Paul
? watch your saw, buddy. .. out from under there ? you?ll get electrocuted.
Dylan
I think then they cut off the head. Here, Brack. I got the box for ya.
(Saw)
Dylan
I?m just scooting your axe and your hammer over here.
Brack
Okay, buddy. You?re a good man.
(Hose)
Dylan
I?m boxing it so its ?
Dock
I saw you doing that. Don?t do that.
Dylan
- blood would come out. The blood. And I could see the guts and the heart and stuff - whoa, was that the heart that just came out?
Brack
No?
Dylan
I didn?t like looking at that stuff, because it was so much nastier than I could ?
Maggie
Ever imagined and germs?
Dylan
- look at. Soon as I seen the blood coming down, soon as I seen them hanging him and blood coming down on its side, I went and hid. I don?t remember.
Julia
Everyone else keeps working, however, and while they do, they teach us about goats. We learn that around the world, goat is the meat people eat most, and as the population of our country becomes more and more diverse, the US market for goat is growing. Also, unlike cattle or sheep, who need pasture for grazing, goats are browsers and foragers like deer, and so the mountains are perfect for raising them up. This is an idea that shows promise for small Appalachian farmers. And, there?s more.
Dock
Goat meat is, compared to cattle, is lower in cholesterol and lower percentages of fat, so it?s a healthier meat than cattle. What they ask for is under a year old. The best weight is between seventy and a hundred pounds. If it?s a doe, under a year old that?s not been bred. And so, that?s what this one was. He weighed ninety pounds. For meat market, it was time for him to do his thing.
Julia
Now Dylan takes a rest, and the men skin the goat by cutting off its hide with a knife.
Brack
What?d I do with that knife while ago?
Dock
In that chair.
(Skinning)
Julia
They take the meat down from the tripod where it?s been hanging, and set it on a table where they chop it into pieces and cut the flesh from the bone.
Brack
See here, if we was gonna make steaks out of this, we?d just saw this off like this, but since we?re gonna grind it, we?ll chunk it up like this. Take all the meat off the bone.
Julia
Turns out Dylan?s great uncle, Brack, was a butcher at an IGA grocery store.
Dock
He?s the skilled operator here.
Brack
I worked about fifteen years as a butcher.
Maggie
That?s my uncle.
Julia
I ask Brack where the meat they sold there was raised.
Brack
Believe it or not, most of it came from Argentina.
Julia
Why is that?
Brack
I don?t know, less it was cause they was getting meat cheaper and we?d send our meat somewhere else, from the United States. But most of it was packed and sent from Argentina. And I?m sure we was raising the same thing here. But you know how it works. This is what you call a filet mignon on the -
Dock
Is that right?
Brack
? on the beef. Costliest meat you can buy.
Dock
Yeah. I sent Jordan down. He?s gonna bring me a cooler and some ice.
James
You want some of it smaller, Brack?
Brack
We got an assembly line goin.
James
Alright.
Dock
Thank you, buddy. Thank you, Jordan.
Jordan
Where do you want me to put it at?
Dock
Right there?ll be fine. Thank you, buddy.
Jordan
Where?s the part that looks like hamburger? Is that it?
James
This is what we?re gonna -
Dock
You wait til we get to the grinder. We?ll show you what makes it look like hamburger here in a little bit.
Jordan
Who has the grinder? Who has the grinder to grind it up?
Dock
Who has the grinder?
Jordan
Yeah.
Dock
You don?t have one?
James
You?ve got one in your back pocket.
Dock
Man. Everybody told us ?
James
You?ve got one right there. You got two right there -
Jordan
No, I mean -
James
- your teeth.
Julia
Actually, it?s the women who have the grinder. They?ll come together this evening to finish making burgers from the meat prepared here today.
Dock
We do this part. We get it into the refrigerator, then she makes patties out of it. James?s wife and her two sisters and Jerri will be there tonight, so they?ll have a pretty good crew in the kitchen.
Julia
So, the meat we have been working on is packed off to the house, and we round up goat number two and start all over again.
James
Wanna watch?
Julia
Oh, yeah. It is only for special occasions that the Fraziers prepare their own goats for eating. Ordinarily, they deliver the withers to meat market, ninety miles away at London, Kentucky, where they are sold and then butchered elsewhere. The does they keep home to develop the stock. When they do fix goat meat, though, they like it as chops, meatloaf, burgers, chili, and in a slowly roasted barbecue. Ribs, however, don?t work so great. As Brack says, ?there?s nothin on em much.? All the families featured here are active in the Pine Mountain Meat Goat Association. Many thanks to the Abshers, Fraziers, Dollarhides and Sextons. I am Julia DeBruicker. Your county extension can help you to learn more about goats, and you can probably count on your neighborhood farmer/preacher to also lend a hand.
Dock
If you?d come on Sunday nights, I?m teachin Genesis, you?d learn all that stuff.
Julia
You?re recruiting me?
Dock
That?s my job.
Julia
We?ll close with two verses from the Book of Isaiah, chapter eleven, which describe a vegetarian nirvana still to come. For now, though, keep an eye to mountain-raised meat goats, for what may be an emerging local cash cow. Or cash fatling.
Dock
The wolf also shall lie with the lamb. The leopard shall lie down with the young goat. The calf and the young lion and the fatling together. And a little child shall lead them.
Maggie
And a little child shall lead em. Shall lead them, shall lead them, shall lead them!
Dylan
And they shall not hurt nor destroy, in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Maggie
Amen. And awomen.
With
Dylan Dollarhide, little boy and narrator
Dock Frazier, goat farmer and pastor
Maggie Dollarhide, little girl, Dylan?s sister
Katie Dollarhide, Dylan and Maggie?s mother
Brack Sexton, Dock?s friend and butcher
James Absher, Dock?s friend and fellow goat farmer
Jordan Absher, little boy, James?s son
Paul Frazier, Dock?s father
Julia DeBruicker, interviewer and narrator
