Cape foodies get a taste of South Africa's boerbok, the super lean meat that has taken the world by storm, writes Hilary Prendini Toffoli

A typical West Coast day. Breezy. But Capetonians are accustomed to wind. They've come all the way to Lelieblom farm outside Darling to taste boerbok, South Africa's home-grown goat, whose low-cholesterol meat is causing such a stir overseas that it has even made it to the world's most prestigious food market - Harrods Food Hall in London - supplied by farmers in Dorset.

Most South Africans have never heard of boerbok, let alone the health advantages of this internationally famous goat. Which is why you won't find boerbok in any local supermarkets. It's a curious situation, and Jackie Jordaan, the main speaker at Boerbok Day, is explaining why. An indigenous breed, the boerbok has over the generations, with selective breeding by Jordaan's forefathers in the Eastern Cape, evolved into a hardy red-headed animal that is very different from the standard goat.

With less than a third of the fat of beef and fewer calories than chicken, goat meat has less cholesterol and it is now in demand in an increasingly health-conscious world.

"Eighty percent of South Africa's boerbokke go to KwaZulu-Natal," says Jordaan. "The Indians and Zulus buy them off the trucks, and slaughter them themselves. No abattoir and refrigeration hassles for the farmer."

Jordaan, 44, spent six years farming boerbokke in Cootumandra in New South Wales after being offered a job there by the Australians to whom he was selling boerbok embryos from his grandfather's farm, Buffelsfontein, in Somerset East. He'd never tasted boerbok until he went to Australia. "We ate sheep on the farm where I grew up. Cheaper."

His grandfather was Theuns Jordaan, and the other two boerbok breeders were Theuns Kruger and Theuns Botha. They started the project in the 1920s and it took decades of strict selection to produce the animal they wanted. Besides good meat it had to be white - so they could see it on the mountain - with a red head to protect its eyes and nose against the sun.

Only in 1959 did they feel they could launch the Boer Goat Breeders' Association of South Africa. In the first journal Theuns Jordaan described how some of the earliest boerbok breeding stock had been developed by his father, W G Jordaan, from a large, dapple-coloured male goat belonging to IB van Heerden of Kaalplaas in Cradock, and some short-haired female goats with light-red heads belonging to Mrs van Deventer of Somerset East.

It wasn't long before farmers all over the world were trying to get hold of this noble animal from the New Zealand breeders who'd got it illegally from South Africa in the 1970s. New Zealand boerbok farmers are such fans you can even buy a necktie there that reads "My Heart Belongs To A Boer Goat".

Finn-Erik Blakstedt, a Norwegian, got his boerbokke via New Zealand and Denmark in 2002. He now has 200 and serves roast kid in his restaurant at Ekeby 60km south of Oslo. Texan breeder Charles Turner was so excited about boerbokke he got from New Zealand in 1993 that three months later he launched the American Boerbok Breeders Organisation. It now has more than 7000 members and registers at least 45000 goats a year. Champion specimens like Turner's win thousands of dollars every year at livestock shows that attract audiences of 1500.

One American boerbok farming family in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, are keen bloggers. "We raise the beautiful South African boerbok as an environmentally sound method to combat the invasive plant problem while producing one of the healthiest meats in the world," write Linda and Clay Trainum. Back at Darling in the Western Cape it's the alien Port Jackson tree that Lelieblom's boerbokke eat.

When the Boerbok Day visitors go to see the goats in the kraal with farmer Michael Basson, they're as interested in us as we are in them. Inquisitive brown eyes, hooded and almond-shaped, stare at us over curved Roman noses framed by long, broad, smooth ears that hang gracefully downwards. They have stocky white bodies and heads the colour of chestnut.

"A boerbok is a bliksem!" says Basson. "You know why they call it a boerbok? Because when there's a problem a boer makes a plan and so does a boerbok. No fence can keep it in. It pushes its nose through the diamond mesh and keeps working at it until the hole is big enough to squeeze through."

"What lovely creatures they are!" says Pat Rademeyer, who's brought with her a large group from Slow Food Cape Town, a chapter of the Slow Food movement that seeks to preserve traditional and regional cuisine. She says she particularly likes the idea of eating hormone-free goat meat.

Lunch is outdoors at long tables and cooked by Basson's wife Karen, who hosts parties and Sunday lunches in the farm's charming old barn restaurant. Slow Food Cape Town chairman Stephen Flesch decides boerbok tastes somewhere between lamb and springbok. "Full of flavour. And there's nothing to compare with a meal on a farm like this."

Food writer Phillippa Cheifetz, who's eaten spiced goat in Portugal and at West Indian restaurants in New York, says the roast boerbok leg and mildly spiced boerbok curry is just as good. "I love this plain, simple country fare. For me boerbok is a bit like lamb only a slightly coarser texture."

The foodies at Cheifetz's table are planning to buy half a goat and cook it together. "It reminds me of that 36-hour dinner party Michael Pollan wrote about in the New York Times Magazine where they cooked a goat together. It created a wonderful sense of community," Cheifetz says.

• Following its successful reception at Boerbok Day, two Cape speciality food stores now stock boerbok according to availability: Gogos Deli in Newlands (0216710573) and Somerset West Fine Food and Wine (0218515795). Also available from Michael Basson on 0832369973.