slow roasted goat leg & our dear old friend

On the Friday before Christmas Pete took the boys to our local farm to buy eggs, potatoes and onions as we often do. I went out solo to finish some last minute Christmas shopping.

When I arrived home River opened the door with a solemn look on his face and said, "Mum you need to come and sit down". This has to be one of my least favorite strings of words.

I sat down with Pete, River and Sol and they told me that Georgina, our beautiful friend and hard working organic farmer had died the night before. We loved Georgina, she was part of our community, part of our family. At a guess, Georgina would have been in her late seventies and she had for the past year been unwell. Somehow she still managed to find the energy to tend her veggie garden with her friend George helping her.

It George and Georgina who arranged the leg of goat for us. We had never eaten goat before and they were excited to share some with us.

So, Pete and the boys returned home with the goat leg, eggs and vegetables and a feeling of sadness that we would not see Georgina again.

One of Pete and my favorite memories of Georgina is that it didn't matter the vegetable she pulled from the ground her recipe for cooking it was the same, "Darling look at this beautiful - insert name of vegetable - you cook it olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, a little bit salt. Beautiful" waving her hands around.

This post is in honor of Georgina who turned up to her garden in the wind, rain or sun and grew food for our community. She worked hard and smiled broadly, from her heart. We miss you Georgina. We are so happy to have known you and for our boys to have known you and witnessed the joy you brought to growing real food.

We cooked the goat leg a few days after Christmas. Never having cooked goat before I consulted Google for a recipe or two and adjusted this one (minus the chilli, sugar and pickling onions). Reading both recipes was helpful to learn that goat can dry out easily, hence all the wine and slow cooking. Our goat leg turned out to be moist and quite delicious, and to our taste very similar to lamb. We enjoyed the leftovers the next night wrapped in flat bread with salad and garlic, minted yoghurt.

Here's to real food and friendship, together they are nourishing in every way. x