Chicory and her ram lambs.
$12.99 a pound for lamb!
~We raised a lamb this year for our freezer. This is a first for us with my Jacob sheep.I have been selling my spring lambs for many years to others who raise them for the table but could not bear to do this myself.Recently I bought lamb for a special meal to serve my husband and on sale lamb cost more than $10.00 a pound! Given the price of lamb, the price of meat in general, and the fact that we have been raising sheep for so many years it was ridiculous I would be raising sheep and not have lamb for our own table. It just makes good sense for us to feed our own family well & healthy using the bounty God has allowed me to raise. The recipe above will hopefully entice you to consider serving lamb to your family.
As some Jacob Sheep breeders told us recently, "If you go Jacob, you'll never go back". (regarding eating the meat of Jacob sheep) and they were right! The meat of this primitive breed is not as fatty, nor does it have the taste & smell that causes many Americans to dislike lamb. "Americans aren't used to lamb, so it has an air of mystery." ~'Butcher's Guide To Well-Raised Meat ' by Joshua & Jessica Applestone
I've never had lamb. My hubby has, and he likes it. His grandmother had a perfect recipe for it, but the recipe and method was lost when she passed away.
ReplyDeleteI have often wanted to try cooking lamb, but i'm under the impression that it can be a challenge to cook and at today's prices i just am not willing to experiment with that much money or to waste the meat. lol
As far as getting the meat itself, do you take your animals to a slaughter house or do you do it yourselves at home?
I think either would be a huge challenge for me. I tend to get emotionally attached to animals quite easily. I admire the home farmer who can both raise the food animal under superb conditions and care, then be able to emotionally let go when harvest time arrives.
icebear, my husband slaughters the animals himself, and doses so very humanely. The animals have a nice life here and are not aware their time is coming to an end. I did not name this particular wether ( castrated ram lamb) because i had in mind raising lamb for ourselves this year.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I am very unfamiliar with cooking lamb mostly because it is so expensive. For many years I have sold all my ram lambs because one really cannot have many rams around, they are destructive . I noticed as soon as I offer them for sale I am swamped with calls to buy them and pretty much everyone buying them does so for meat.After buying lamb at more than $10.00 a pound and using a recipe that turned out delicious I realized I should be using our own home raised lamb. So worth it!
I am posting these lamb recipes on-line to encourage anyone who is scared of eating lamb to give it a try.
I do keep many sheep until they die of old age though and get quite attached to them.Thank-you for your comment, it was very thoughtful.