Grass-Fed Lamb Meat
We are proud to be listed on Eatwild's Directory of Farms. All our sheep are raised on our own lush green pastures which are free of chemical fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides. 100% of the meat is produced without the use of antibiotics or growth hormones, and it is flash-frozen in clear cryovac packages without any coloring or preservatives. From late April through late October, the sheep graze exclusively on a diet of mixed red and white clovers, vetch, birdsfoot trefoil and other legumes, along with mixed grasses, including: perennial ryegrass, orchardgrass, timothy, tall fescue, bluegrass, bromegrass and other varieties. Additionally, they have access to "browse" vegetation such as dandelions, dockroot, acorns, and brassicas, like chicory and turnip. We also frequently ration a bit of dried hay to help keep their rumen well balanced. In winter months they transfer to hay harvested from our fields while maintaining much of the same grass/clover mix that they thrived on during the summer growing season. Unlike feedlot animals, our sheep have constant access to fresh air and lots of exercise. Their bodies and rumens function the way they were designed to, and that means healthy, tasty meat that is tender, mild, and not too fat. We like to believe that happy, contented animals produce tastier meat, but technically speaking, grass-fed meat has higher concentrations of conjugated linoleic acids (CLA's) -- the only fatty acid shown to inhibit carcinogens; higher concentrations of beta-carotenes; and a higher ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids than grain-fed meat. Lamb meat has an even higher concentration of CLA than ground beef, veal, pork, chicken, or turkey (5.6 mg CLA per gram of fat vs. 4.3, 2.7, 0.6, 0.9, and 2.5 mg/g, respectively), according to the Food Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI.
For those of you who have memories of gamey-tasting, strong-smelling lamb for Sunday dinners, you will be pleasantly surprised when you taste Icelandic lamb meat. This is not your mother's lamb. It is delicately flavored, lean, and fine-grained with much less fat than the lamb you remember. In fact, the press on Icelandic lamb has been superlative lately. The October 2009 issue of Sauveur Magazine had this quote: "Free-range, grass-fed Icelandic lamb is exceptionally fine-grained and mild tasting; it is prized by chefs..." In the March 2010 issue of Food and Wine, Robert Wiedmaier, chef-owner of Marcel's and Brasserie Beck in Washington, DC raved: "Icelandic lamb is the best I've ever tasted. It's very pure, nonfatty meat." Whole Foods is the exclusive importer of Icelandic lamb in the US, but you can enjoy the same gourmet meat produced locally in New England.
If you are interested in purchasing some of our delicious lamb, please e-mail us to reserve your meat order for the fall. We only sell the whole animal, rather than specific cuts individually; you can expect approximately 40-45 pounds of meatcuts per animal. You can let us know what particular cuts you prefer, and they will be individually cryo-vac'd by our USDA inspected butcher for pick-up. For pricing and availability of freezer lambs, please contact us.