SHAFAQNA – Fresh goat is on the menu at Midnimo Restaurant in St. Cloud, US state of Minnesota, an offshoot of Midnimo Grocery & Halal Meat that opened about a year and a half ago.
It’s the only place in St. Cloud that sells locally raised halal goat meat, according to Ahmed Abdi, a member of the Somali community who is advocating for more local goat farms with the help of the University of Minnesota Extension.
What’s available elsewhere is frozen meat processed in Australia or New Zealand.
But that meat is often more than six months old and is difficult to prepare. When boiling the meat, Abdi said, the water has to be dumped out at least twice and often has a strong smell.
“We shouldn’t have to get meat from across the world,” said Noor Yussuf, owner of Midnimo.
Yussuf works with a Somali farmer from Central Minnesota who raises goats. The fresh Halal meat is popular; more than 90% of Yussuf’s goat sales are fresh meat, he said.
But that farmer is unique in his processing of Halal goats, the St. Cloud Times reported.
“He’s at capacity. It’s not a large-scale sustainable model,” said Serdar Mamedov, an Extension educator.
Mamedov is working with Abdi and others to connect the local Somali community with goat producers in Central Minnesota.