Lamb

Today we picked up the lamb from the butchers. They were Annie's triplets - Zwartbles X Suffolk. As always the meat looks good, the Zwartbles breed adds a sweetness and a tenderness to the meat and being a larger breed it also adds size to the chops and joints.

There was a greater variation to the weights than we expected. The largest lamb had started to grow away from the rest or the smallest lag behind, I not sure which, maybe a little of both, but the smallest carcass came back at just under 17kg, the largest 29kg !! The one in between was 23+kg which is about average.

This time we had the meat vacuum packed and labelled in the view of selling a few half lambs. ( Available to buy locally (as I am unable to post) @ £5 kg, please email me for details )

Being vacuum packed makes it hard to photograph but an example of 1/2 a leg joint from last year's lamb can be seen here .


We still have Freda's twins, for a couple more weeks at least. They are a mix of breeds. Freda (the mother) is from a Shropshire ewe and a Jacob ram. She was put to a Suffolk ram. The twins are smaller and stockier than Annie's' triplets and the meat has a slightly stronger taste.
As a breed they are definitely less friendly and less trusting than the Zwartbles.

This year we have chosen not to put the ewes to the ram but as 'lambing time' draws closer I miss the anticipation and the preparations...maybe next year.