History of The Fuerteventura Goat

the goats of fuerteventura

When you are out and about exploring the island there is an abundance of one particular animal that is very hard to miss, the free walking Goat! You may be thinking that for this beautiful island to have an affinity with such an animal to be somewhat, well, strange? Well think again and let me briefly explain how the humble goat has been instrumental in the development of Fuerteventura.

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Fact, up until very recently there were more Goats on Fuerteventura than people! Even the capital of Fuerteventura, today known as Puerto del Rosario, was called Puerto Cabras (Port of Goats) for many years. During a recent archaeological excavation goat bones were found and dated to around 3000 years old. Gadifer de la Salle, one of the early conquerors of Fuerteventura, wrote in 1403 that Fuerteventura was 'infested by goats' he added that you could quite easily round up 30,000 goats without making any significant impact on the overall goat population. He did though go on to say that the island was covered with trees and greenery, which as you will find out is a surprising contradiction! That said though its is easy to imagine that the climatic conditions of then compared to now could have been significantly different and we could easily have had more rain, permanent rivers and vegetation. Perfect for a thriving goat population.

Every Autumn the majority of the free-running goats are rounded up by the shepherds and their dogs in what is called "Apañada". Once collected, the goats will be marked and selected for farming, this process helps maintain a healthy (and happy) population. All in all Fuerteventura has more than 30 types of goats, which are split into the following 3 classes according to the type of keeping:

Jairas: stay in the farm and generate a lot of milk.
Cabras de Gando: strive around in herds and will be collected every evening for the milking.
Cabras de Costa: freely running goats which aren't milked and will be collected during an "apañada" to (in majority) be processed for meat, which has a good consistency.

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By far the most popular way of preparing goat is by using baby-goat meat, marinate it and make a succulent stew or by bake it very slowly with some herbs in an oven. If you decide to enjoy tasty goat in a restaurant, it is recommended to order these kind of dishes in advance. If goat meat doesn't quite tickle your taste buds then the various goats’ cheeses on offer are heavenly. Good places to sample them are the Centro de Artesanía in Antigua and Casa de Santa María in Betancuria.