The Holistic Goat Harvest Workshop will be an intimate and in-depth offering for people seeking to learn and participate in the process of humanely harvesting and butchering small ruminants. We invite you to reclaim the tradition of home butchery: building skills while creating celebration around harvesting local meat from the land.
Experience an extraordinary exploration of food and place, fostering self-reliance and community resilience. Led by Ivan Thrane, a Montana rancher with over 15 years of rotational grazing, raising thousands of goats, butchering, and cooking up goat meat. Inspired and supported by Chef Eduardo Garcia, participants will take part in the journey from the field, through the cooking and to the table. It will be challenging, visceral, reverential, stimulating, life-affirming.
The process will begin Thursday June 11th at 2 pm when we will gather and meet our herd of goats in their element, witnessing the positive role they can play in promoting the health and resilience of the land. Beginning Friday morning and continuing the full day we will experience, hands-on, the specifics of butchering and utilizing the whole animal with minimal waste. Participants will explore the different ways to break down an animal, as well as timeless traditions of cooking meat over fire and in the ground. Meals will be created during the day and feature regionally inspired and sourced ingredients. You will gain an understanding of an animal in context as a part of a healthy ecosystem, learning about the incredible complexity of the body and appreciate all the resources that one animal has to offer. This is an immersive, hands-on opportunity on our home ranch offered to empower, inspire and equip you with skills to take home. Participants are welcome to camp on the ranch, and 2 main meals will be provided each day.
Join us for a multi-day experience of hands-on learning, philosophical inquiry and nourishing meals, and stay for the weekend of festivities. Your ticket includes an invitation to join us for both the Saturday and Sunday of the Spring Greenup Celebration June 13-14th - while this portion is optional, it is an extension of the butchering workshop and we promise it will be worth staying for. Saturday will be a relaxed but purposeful day of further processing the organs, fat and hides of the animals we harvest, as well as preparing meat to be cooked in various ways for the Sunday community celebratory day of fun, festivities and feasting. Attendees will gain new skills, create lasting memories and receive a take-home gift bundle - more than anything, we hope you take home the feeling that you are a positive participant in a beautiful and dynamic world.