Recently three area residents got together with six other Iowans to form Iowa Healthy Edge Meats, LLC.

Karen and Daniel Palmersheim of Delaware and Dustin Wall of Delhi want to get the word out about their goat meat.

“It’s the vision of the members to market their product,” said Karen. “This summer we started to pull it all together.”

And by the end of October, the group will be on-line and promoting their sales globally. But they just want to promote their locally grown product statewide and to surrounding states.

“We are really in the infancy stages of pulling it together,” said Karen.

But there is a high demand for goat meat, especially in the ethnic populations, but more and more people want to try it.

“And people are wanting to know where to get it,” said Daniel, who is also the secretary of the Iowa Meat Goat Association. “There is more metric tons of goat meat sold in the world than any other meat.”

The Palmersheim’s, who have been raising goats for about six years, wanted to eliminate the middleman so buyers can purchase their quality product at a fair price. Wall, who has been raising goats for about a year and a half, joined the LLC because he felt it was a better market and closer than Shannon, Ill. where he used to send his goats.

“It sounded like a good business opportunity,” he said.

Karen thinks that the greatest thing about the group is that there is a lot of youth involvement and beginning farmers. Daniel, who graduated from Maquoketa Valley High School in 2006, attends Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo and is majoring in agriculture business. Wall graduated from Maquoketa Valley in 2000.

“We all have full time jobs,” said Karen and it’s just something the group loves to do. “We have to do some education (about goat meat).”

According to Karen a study was done that said a Mayo doctor said that goat meat was a positive alternative.

In the group’s brochure, they compare goat meat to beef, pork, lamb and chicken. Other than chicken, which has 120 calories, goat meat is the healthiest meat on the chart with 122 calories and the highest milligrams of iron (3.2) and protein (23, which is tied with beef).

“Our most popular items are the goat chops on a stick, legs and goat chops,” said Karen but the group does sell other cuts of the meat including steaks, ground goat and goat sticks.

“There are a lot of people out there that will pay for good goat meat,” said Karen.

Right now the group is seeking grants to help provide new jobs. For example, they just hired a marketing director, who is also a member of the LLC.

And the group is learning as they go. “It takes a lot of time, patience and manpower,” said Karen.

The standards for a good goat to butcher include grain feeding them and butchering them before they are six months of age.

“We’re starting to space out the breeding programs at the different farms for different markets to start utilizing the herds more,” s aid Daniel, who will inspect every goat before they are butchered.

“You have to have a passion for farming,” said Wall to be able to farm.

“You can’t just do it for the dollar signs,” added Daniel.

Karen believes that more passion is coming back with the younger crowds because of all the interest in it these days, especially in dairy goats.

Karen said that Donna Boss, of the Delaware County Economic Development, Connie Smith from Fayette County and the Farm Bureau have really helped the group out with ideas for promotion and other areas. Other groups include Delaware County Meats and the Edgewood Locker, who process the goat meat.

“The Farm Bureau has a lot of good ideas of how to promote (the goat meat),” she said.

For additional information or to learn more about the LLC, residents can visit their website at the end of October (www.iowahealthyedgemeats.com) or email Daniel at dpalmersheim@hotmail.com.