Our Honest to Goodness Farmhouse Shepherd's Pie Recipe

I didn't grow up eating Shepherd's Pie but it has become part of my winter dinner repetoire over the past few years. I've finally written down how I make it to pass out at the Farmer's Markets (and to help sell our ground lamb). I'm sharing it with all of you today. I'm one of those cooks who wings it and it usually turns out fine. All this recipe writing is a stretch to say the least. Kids love Shepherd's Pie and it makes a great dish to bring to a potluck!

Shepherd's Pie is one of those recipes that you can tweak and use all kinds of odds and ends from your pantry, fridge or freezer. In fact that's the fun of it. It's also great to make an extra one to put in the freezer for those nights you just can't bear to chop an onion or mince some garlic. 

I know that most cooks in the States probably do not use lamb. Heresy! How can it be official Shepherd's Pie if sheep aren't involved? Really now. Digging into the www I found that in England, Shepherd's Pie is definitely made with lamb. If it is made with beef, it is called Cottage Pie. 

Anyone else want to throw in their own tweaks for their version of Shepherds Pie?

Leyden Glen Farm's Shepherd's Pie

This is our “farm version.” It’s yummy and homey and will feed a crowd.

2 pounds potatoes
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter

1 pound ground lamb
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion - diced
2 carrots – diced into ½” pieces
5 cloves garlic - minced
1 cup chicken broth, lamb stock or white wine
1 tablespoon tomato paste
½ teaspoon dried rosemary
½ teaspoon dried thyme
Salt and Pepper
1 cup each corn and peas (I use frozen)
¼ cup parmesan cheese

Peel and chop the potatoes. Boil in salted water until tender and mashable. Drain. Add the milk and butter. Mash the potatoes, season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.

Brown the lamb, drain fat and set aside. Saute the onions and garlic in the oil until onions are translucent taking care not to burn the garlic! Add the diced carrots and sauté for 3 more minutes. Mix together the broth, tomato paste, herbs and salt and pepper. Add all ingredients to the skillet and simmer until carrots are done to your liking. The mixture should be thick. If too saucy, let some of the moisture evaporate. Add the frozen peas and carrots. Try not to overcook!

Butter a 9 x 13 casserole. Pour in the meat mixture and smooth. Spoon the potatoes over the top of the meat and spread evenly.  Place in a 350 degree oven and bake for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with the parmesan cheese. Broil to melt the cheese and brown the top.
Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

To make an Italian-ish version of this:
Substitute red wine for the white wine.
Substitute 1 can cannelini or Great Northern beans for the corn and peas.
Add ¼ cup basil pesto to the meat sauce mixture before topping with the potatoes.

Webs Northampton - Sunday March 27th from 1 to 4

I'll be there! Hope to see some of you. If anyone wants me to bring them some lamb, let me know. We can have a "meat-up"! Our farm number is available on our website link at the left. I have half legs for Easter and Passover, shoulder roasts for braising, stew meat, ground lamb, lamb sausage and more! 

Register here for the Webs event -- It is free!

Penny's Lentil and Lamb Soup - A New Recipe and a Story for You!

I've been cooking lamb since we first began sheep farming over thirty years ago. Now, with the development of our "direct to consumer" farm plan, I'm finding that consumers really need help in deciding what to cook with our lamb. It has taken me a while (let's just say I started this project over a year and a half ago) but I'm finally getting some recipes written down, cooked and photographed.

Taking photos of food isn't easy. Especially when it is brown food that is what I consider totally unphotogenic. Recipe writing and food photography is another one of my blogging journeys. I've discovered some good food blogs. Wow - is that another world as compared to knitting blogs. Here's who I like so far: David Lebovitz, Joy the Baker, my friend Janis's Bite Me New England (Janis is a great lamb customer and frequently blogs about cooking our lamb!),  Dorie Greenspan, The Sweet Beet, Michael Ruhlman, Matt Bites. There is even a food photography blog on the NYTimes website. The food blog world is huge! And it seems to be a big money generating world - unlike the knitting blog world which I seem to be segmented into. There is a food blogging convention! And Food Blogger Camp! It seems like a big pit that I could get sucked into if I let myself. I will just look in from the outside, for now! If you want an inside scoop on it, check out this post by David Lebovitz. It makes us knitting bloggers look like chump change. If you have any favorite food blogs my readers and I might like, leave them in the comments if you will! 

Now where was I? Oh yeah, Penny's Lamb and Lentil Soup, that's right. The back-story..... The Farmer and I lived in Colorado while I was in grad school at CSU. We pretty much had what I would consider no money. We lived on my grad school assistantship stipend and what he made doing whatever job he could find. We weren't married, much to the chagrin of my mother and father. In fact, she was so upset that even though she adored "him" she never would ask about him nor mention his name. (Remember that Mom?) My Dad, being the kindest Dad in the world, would once in a while send me a check so I could pay for my car insurance. 

 

Whatever.... Mom has gotten over it and here we are - still together almost 30 years later. She didn't have anything to worry about. I remember those days with such incredible fondness. We lived in the basement of a small little yellow house on Whedbee Street with my sheltie cross Haida. The Farmer said we were "worms" because all we could see out of the basement windows was the dirt ground above us. I was studying textiles, writing my thesis (on "Wool Production from Small Flocks of Sheep" - boy some things sure do not change!), and learning how to cook on a budget.

Considering that there were two of us living on a very tiny income, I had to learn to cook cheaply. Meat was a splurge and so we existed on a semi-vegetarian diet (much to The Farmer's dislike but hey - he wasn't cooking, was he?) I have always had a love affair with soup. I will admit, I grew up on Campbell's Soup - out of a can. I used to eat it for lunch every Saturday. My favorite was Scotch Broth with Cream of Tomato a close second. In the little basement kitchen, I had a couple of cookbooks -- a paperback copy of The Joy of Cooking for basics and  "The Moosewood Cookbook." Boy, was that cookbook the thing back then! I cooked my way through it for sure. I just loved those handwritten pages and funky little drawings. Still have it, still cook from it.

Colorado is where I learned about lentils. I had never eaten a lentil growing up. My mom wasn't big on cooking with beans except for her post-Easter "split pea soup" she made with the leftover ham-bone. I latched onto those lentils and turned them into soup. I would make a big pot of lentil soup and we would eat it all week long. Let's just say I overdid it! Nah, Kristin doesn't over do anything, does she? By the fourth night, he would look at me with disdain. I guess I don't blame him but to tell you the truth, I can still eat lentil soup five days in a row. I just love it.

Later on, when we both had jobs and were doing a little better financially, we took a memorable couple of trips to France on my frequent flyer mileage. We were in food and wine heaven, visiting so many fabulous little inns and restaurants. The places we visited would fill a book so I will stop reminiscing and tell you that in France I discovered the lovely little LePuy Lentil. Ahhhhh, a lentil that wouldn't get mushy and was a lovely shade of olive green. When I got back to the States, I found them for sale and I haven't stopped buying them yet.

Enter Penny Vurgulopolous. Penny was a Greek woman who worked in our mill store when I worked at TYC. Penny had a thick Greek accent, a wonderful loving Greek American husband named Chris, and in her basement, she had a SECOND KITCHEN that Chris built her so that she could cook and bake for the different parties she threw and church functions she attended. Penny came to work dressed in Chanel suits, dripping with gold jewelry, hair coiffed just so. Mind you - this was a dirty yarn spinning mill and she was selling close-out yarn. She was quite the picture! Penny was an awesome knitter (she wrapped her yarn around her neck to tension it) and an even more awesome cook. She constantly brought in her homemade Greek delicacies to share with the office staff.  I'll never forget the spanakopita, the baklava, the moussaka, the melty soft long roasted leg of lamb, the traditional deep red Greek Easter eggs.......

When Julia was born, I used to bring her to work with me when she was an infant. Her health was fragile and it was best she was with me. She was a good baby and would usually lie on the floor under my big office table playing with one of those dangly overhead baby entertainment things while I tried to figure out what was going on at TYC. Penny loved babies and she would beg me to let her hold and swaddle Julia. She would sing to her in Greek, play finger games. She was just so darn wonderful with Julia. Whenever Penny was working, Julia would "go to the store" with Penny. She would sit in her little seat next to the cash register and Penny would entertain her. One day I went over to check on her. Penny was feeding Julia some of her lentil soup. I almost died. Julia hadn't had a bite of any solid food yet and there she was sucking down the soup. I went with the flow and Julia survived! It was pretty priceless now that I think back on it. Whenever Julia was going to be at work, Penny would make her lentil soup.

So that's where the name for today's recipe comes from. Sorry for the long, convoluted trip it took to get here. This is a recipe that has evolved over the years..... from the first days of lentil soup in the basement apartment in Fort Collins to our farmhouse here in western Massachusetts. Now I fortify it with ground lamb or lamb sausage. It seems so natural considering the connection with my Greek friend Penny's lentil soup and the Greek people's love of lamb.

Penny's Lentil and Lamb Soup
PRINT THIS RECIPE

1 pound lentils (preferably French Le Puy)

¼ cup olive oil

5 cloves garlic

1 medium onion

1 small can tomatoes (14 ounces)

3 carrots

2 bay leaves

½ teaspoon oregano

1 pound ground lamb or lamb sausage removed from casings

3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Peel and mince garlic. Chop onions into small dice. Heat olive oil in a soup pot. Brown onions and garlic taking care not to burn the garlic. Remove cooked onions and garlic and reserve. Brown lamb in soup pot. Drain off extra fat. Return onions and garlic to pot. Add the tomatoes, and lentils and cover by one inch with water. Bring to a boil, then turn to simmer adding herbs. Cook for thirty minutes. Peel and chop the carrots, cutting them on a diagonal so they are largish. Add carrots and cook the soup until the carrots are done to your liking. Add the vinegar. Let the soup sit if you have time so the flavors will mingle. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Note: Substitute 3 Tablespoons wine vinegar and ½ teaspoon sugar if balsamic is not available. The key to this soup is the vinegar!

Vending at the Winter Farmers Market + an Irish Lamb Stew Recipe for You!

We’re going into our third year of selling our lamb meat at local Farmers Markets. This winter, Julia and I have been doing the Amherst Winter Market at the Amherst Middle School. It is a good space for a market (nice open room, not too crowded, pretty close to the center of town) but a bit off the beaten track. It’s been a challenge for everyone to get the word out about the market since it is its first year. Frankly, I think consumers haven’t really caught on to the Winter Market thing yet. Have you? With all the snow and ice, it’s a bit hard to think about buying from a farmer in the middle of the winter. But when we get them there, they do buy!


Most of the vendors at our local markets sell produce. In the winter, they are selling veggies that they store - carrots, potatoes, turnips, beets, onions, kohlrabi, apples, cider and radishes. I am so amazed by the products they keep hauling in the door. I can feel the energy and anticipation of the produce vendors building. They are planning, seeding and many will be bringing spinach and fresh greens within the next couple weeks that they grow in their greenhouses.


There are a few of us “meat vendors” at this market. It is funny to say but I really feel like an outsider to the group. I think all the meat vendors do in fact. We are a different breed, that I will admit. Leyden Glen Lamb is a new farm resource for the Amherst clientelle because we don’t sell regularly at the summer Amherst Market on the Common. I’m hoping and praying that they will give us a spot a few times in 2011 - fingers crossed. We did "guest-vend" a couple times at the end of the year and it was fabulous. 

I spend most of my days at the market telling the people about our farm and where the heck Leyden is. (Leyden is one of those teeny tiny towns that has very few people living there and nothing happens.) The other huge part of my day is teaching customers about the different cuts of lamb meat and how they should be cooked. I love this part of the job because I love to cook! I amaze myself sometimes with how I can sell an odd piece of lamb with enthusiasm and by sharing the knowledge I have developed through cooking lamb for over 30 years.


I’ve been developing some recipes to hand out at the market. Last weekend, I tried out a “St. Patrick’s Day” Promotion by suggesting to customers on my “signage” that they cook some Irish Lamb Stew to celebrate. This week, I worked on my recipe and have it down. I’m sharing it here with you first on the blog.

I did quite a bit of research on-line and in my cookbook collection about the “really truly” official Irish Lamb Stew. Most of the sources say that it should only be made with potatoes, onions, and lamb. For my version, I wanted to help the other vendors sell their product so I have included onions, potatoes, turnips and carrots in the recipe. It may not be totally “traditional” but it sure iss good. And besides, I like the different textures that happen by using different kinds of root vegetables. I made a second pot of it today to make sure I can follow my recipe and to photograph. Here is the lamb browning. It is difficult to take a good photo of this and I can tell I'm on another learning curve!

My thanks to Marie Duprey, knitter, blog reader, folk singer and three time "whole lamb" customer from eastern Massachusetts. She and her husband buy a lamb every spring just before St. Patty's Day to eat through the year. They start off their lamb year by making lamb stew for St. Patrick's Day. 

Since I now have to write recipes for our lamb website, I was happy to find a blog by Dianne Jacob called Will Write For Food. There was a great interview on it with Amanda HesserHow to Adapt and Write Recipes which I found very useful. Diane has written a book about food writing also called "Will Write for Food." Check it out.

Leyden Glen Farm’s Irish Lamb Stew

 Print the recipe

I love cooking lamb stew (or stew of any kind for that matter). The scent of the bubbling meat stock on the kitchen stove warms my insides as soon as I walk in the door from doing farm chores. I chop all the veggies in the morning after breakfast and begin the stewing process. After lunch, I add all the extra veggies that I have already cut up and cook the stew until the veggies are just done. I let the pot sit and cool on the stove to develop the flavor. It is always better the second day.  

Traditional Irish lamb stew does not contain any vegetables but potatoes, onions, and leeks. I’m not a traditional girl so I add some great winter storage root crops including carrots and turnips. They add an interesting texture to the stew and a bit of color since it can verge on mushy and brown.

Potato Notes: It’s nice to use a mix of both a floury potato (traditional bakers including Russet and Idaho) and a waxier potato (Yukon Gold and small reds). Add the floury potatoes in the beginning of the stew. They will fall apart and make the sauce thick. I add the waxy potatoes with the rest of the vegetables and only cook them until they are just done so they will hold their shape.

I use lamb stock as my liquid but I’m a sheep farmer and frequently have leftover bones to cook up a good flavorful stock. You can substitute water or beef or chicken stock for your liquid. A bottle of Guinness might add an interesting flavor. Feel free to use more lamb if you want a meatier, chewier stew. The small amount of meat in this recipe will give great flavor but if you’ve got a house full of die-hard carnivores, use at least 2 pounds of lamb.

What You Will Need to make Irish Lamb Stew for 6 people:

1 to 1 1/2 lb. Leyden Glen Farm lamb stew meat or 1/2 lamb shoulder (bone-in)
2 small to medium onions
1 1/2 lbs. potatoes (see potato notes above)
1 small to medium turnip
7 carrots
salt and pepper
2 T. olive oil
16 oz. water, lamb stock or beef stock
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf

Chop the onions. Heat the 2 tablespoons olive oil in a soup pot and brown the onions until translucent. Remove and reserve the onions leaving a bit of the juice in the bottom of the pot. Add the lamb and brown. Add salt and pepper. Remove the fat if your lamb is too fatty. The fat from the lamb will add flavor but too much isn’t pleasant.

Step One: Peel and dice the potatoes. I like to dice the floury potatoes small and leave the waxy ones in larger chunks. When the lamb is brown, add half the potatoes (use the smaller floury potato dice) and the reserved cooked onions. Add your liquid of choice (water, stock or beer) and dried thyme and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a very low simmer. Cook for 1 1/2 to two hours. It may be necessary to add more water to avoid scorching. By the end of the cooking time, the potatoes should have disintegrated and become the thickener for the stewy-sauce. If they haven’t, use a potato masher and squash them down to thicken the stew.

Step Two: In the meantime, peel the carrots and turnips. Cut into chunks about an inch square. Add the remaining waxy potatoes, carrots and turnips to the stew and cook until the newly added vegetables are to your liking. A half hour usually does it for me. Some people like their veggies more whole and crunchy and some like them mushier. You decide!

Crock Pot Instructions: If you want to use a crock pot, throw all Step One ingredients into the crock pot and cook until the meat is tender. On top of your stove, cook the remaining vegetables in water until they are as you like them. Drain them and set aside. About 1/2 hour before you are to eat, add the cooked veggies to the crock pot, turn it to high and finish it all up.

For either version: Correct the seasonings and if you have time, let the stew sit overnight to develop the flavor. A sprinkling of chopped parsley adds a nice bit of color and will make your stew more appealing. Serve with a green salad, a loaf of crunchy bread and a pint of Guinness.
 
How do you like your stew? Potatoes only or potatoes plus other veggies?

Harvard Mass, NYC Sheep and The Lamb Races Begin Again!

First off, I'll be teaching a Two Color Knitting and Steeking Class at the Fiber Loft in Harvard, MA on March 19th. Here is the link for more information. Hope to see some of you there. If you are coming and would to purchase some lamb for your freezer, I'll be happy to bring some down with me! E-mail me to set it up..... or to ask about pricing.

Second - don't forget all you NYC knitters - go check out the sheep at Times Square and send me a photo of you in front of them. I'll post it on this blog next week. I'm wondering if I will get any???? I'd be checking it out if I were closer! See the post below...

Lamb races are a peculiar occurrence that evidently happens in sheep flocks all over the world. They are something I wait for every year! Once the lambs get strong enough to become really playful, the races begin. Just before sunset, they get all riled up and start chasing up and down the barnyard...... never fail. A couple years ago I made a silly little video of them which you can find on my sidebar. Here are a few stills of the racing lambs running through the barnyard before dark.

If we have time on Sunday, and the weather cooperates, maybe I can convince Julia to help me with another video. By the way - we will be at the Amherst Winter Market at the Amherst Middle School tomorrow (3/5) from 10 to 2 p.m.

The snow that falls cleans up the barnyard but it quickly gets turned into slush by the feet of the animals. Mud season is going to be brutal here! Look how dirty some of the lambs are!

And then some of them stay quite clean. These photos were taken on the same day. Who can figure? I suppose it is like people - some spill all over the clothes and some stay pristinely clean! Funny to think about, isn't it?

And I have found another soul sister in agriculture and her name is Ella MacSweeney. Check out Ella's blog - Cowluck. Ella is a "presentor" on Irish radio. She co-hosts a show called "Ear to the Ground". If you check out her YouTube channel, you will learn a little about artificial insemination of cows. The ETTG YouTube Channel has many other fascinating videos and great Irish accents.

(And by the way, I bet you don't know this about me.... when I was in grad school, I took a "Sheep Production" course and I had to artificially inseminate a sheep. I don't think my Mom even knows that! I bet not too many knitwear designers have ever done that.... Wool - from conception to finished product! Maybe I should add that to my resume.)

Barn Chores

Last night, I kept waking up. It was the wind that was interrupting my sleep. It was howling away bringing in some very cold air after a day yesterday when it hit 45 degrees. I kept thinking about the sheep and the lambs knowing that cold, windy air and birth are not the best combination. After Julia left for school on the bus, I headed down to the barn to help out with the lambing chores. This lambing season, we are expecting at least 300 lambs. We are living and breathing lambing season at this old farmhouse. So far, there must be 125 lambs so things have been busy. And to be honest, we have pretty much lost count. 

Upon arrival, I checked in with The Boss (that would be The Farmer) to see what kind of help was needed. He said there were 3 sets of twins already. He was expecting a shipment of grain so I started tending to the twins who he had just found outside in the snow. 

 

The mama was attentive but these guys were definitely in need of some help. They were both trembling but when I put my finger in each of their mouths, there was a bit of warmth. All was not lost. We keep a supply of old towels rotating through the barn so I sat down with the lamb that looked the worst and used the towel to massage her legs and dry her off. She seemed to respond which made me feel encouraged. A little more massage and her head lifted off the barn floor. We decided to move the mama and these twins to a pen with a heat lamp and just watch.

So much of lambing season is watching. Watching and waiting. Trying to guess who will be next. When a ewe is close to lambing she will "bag up" which means her udder swells and looks like this.

After I finished with the one weak set, I took a walk outside to see what was going on. Lots of the little lambs like to hang out in the hay feeders sunning themselves when they aren't nursing from their Mamas. They are safe in the feeders away from the large sheep and can just snooze away uninterrupted.  Little lambs need lots of sleep - just like infants.

Further on down the hill, I found a brand new lamb. I must have missed its birth by seconds. The lamb had a bit of blood on her head which sometimes happens. The mama was attentive so I left it out in the sun and went back in the barn to do today's chores. 

When a lamb is just born and its umbilical cord is still moist, we dip it in iodine to prevent disease. We try to pen each set of twins and their mama so they can bond nicely. With the number of lambs we have had so far, we are running out of pens. Before the day old lambs can be released, their tails need to be docked and they need to be numbered with paint and an eartag. I'll show you this process tomorrow. After I finished yesterday's lambs' tails and marking, I started to release them to make room for today's crop. But before that, I had to check on the Mama outside who had just given birth. Yup, she had twinned. I picked both of them up by the front legs and slowly walked backwards into the barn. The mama followed nicely - I was lucky. She needed to be brought inside because it was really windy and cold - what we refer to as "lamb killing weather." The barn is a modified greenhouse designed for sheep and we put it up over 20 years ago. It functions well and helps the lambs live and thrive. This is one place that I let my love for aesthetics and beautiful things go - the barn is for lamb survival, that's it. It sure is nothing fancy but sheep don't care.

The first set of chilled lambs was looking better - in fact they were both up and trying to nurse. They are smallish but seemed to be doing well.

 

In the middle of all of this, the grain truck arrived to deliver the grain for the mamas. Our sheep eat primarily farm-raised hay but when the mothers are milking, they need a little more protein and energy which the grain supplies. Some people think sheep are stupid but I'm here to tell you differently. The adults all knew that the truck was there with the grain. They could hear it being blown into the bins and the combined baaaahhing was deafening. The trucker stopped in to see the lambs and have a quick chat with The Farmer. He was curious about the greenhouse and how warm it was inside. He then headed out and promptly got stuck in the snow. The Farmer helped dig him out and finally he was on his way.

In the meantime way down the field, two more ewes had just twinned. The Farmer put me in charge. I was in over my head. I couldn't tell which lamb belonged to which sheep and neither could the ewes. I had to get the lambs inside so I played lamb leapfrog - I picked up two lambs and moved them down the field about 10 feet. In the meantime, the mothers were tending to the other two. I picked them up and the mothers followed stopping at the first pair. I set the second set down 10 feet closer to the barn and kept repeating the process until the 4 lambs and 2 ewes were safely inside the warm barn. I watched and watched but couldn't tell who belonged to who. Can you tell?

We decided to pen them all together and hopefully by this evening the Mamas will sort out who belongs to whom. 

After I got all the babies taken care of, I fed and watered each pen full of new life. I filled up the water tank outside for the second time in the day (nursing mamas drink a lot of water!) and came home to write this blog post. I'm waiting for the bus again and then Julia and I will head on down the barn to see what else is going on and if The Farmer needs our help. 

That's the way it goes around here during lambing season. A lot of the same thing, over and over again with little bits of lamb life and death drama thrown in. It's not for everyone, for sure. Julia keeps threatening to move to "the city." We tell her, "that's fine" but this is where she is living now. I'm thankful that we can share lambing season with her and all of you. Good day everyone.

Lambing Continues and The Storm Subsides

All of these forceful winter storms have given me some great opportunities for taking photos of our sheep. Man, sheep in the snow - what could be prettier I ask? But I don't want to let you all think that this farm life is all just cute sheep photos all the time. That would be me telling you all a virtual lie. One thing I don't want to do is sugar-coat this farming thing, further adding to the wool-obsessed knitter's myth of getting a few sheep and living happily ever after. Don't get me wrong - I love sharing the photos of the sheep with all of you, knowing that many of you are knitters or crocheters who really have the sheep and wool love going on. I am so thankful to all of you for reading and spurring me on to keep learning about photography.

Our lambing barn is five miles from our house on the farm that The Farmer grew up on. The greenhouse barn lays about 1/4 mile down a dirt road. There we keep all The Farmer's large equipment in some equipment sheds that also do double duty as sheep barns when needed. The equipment includes two tractors, two trailers to move hay and sheep, mowing and baling machines, large hay making accessories, and lots of round bales of hay weighing about 800 pounds each. I am really not interested in the machines nor do I have the talent to operate them. The time I become interested is when something breaks, work can't get done, and it costs a fortune and takes forever to fix one of these big machines. We both have to drive four wheel drive vehicles that are high off the ground. If we didn't, we would never get anywhere. The Farmers starts his day early, heading off to the barns before Julia heads to school.


All this snow has just totally complicated our busiest time of year. It is hard to get into the barn because we don't have a plow. We just push our trucks through the snow, hoping not to get stuck. If we do, one of the tractors is used to get us out. It's actually all rather comical. I usually head down to the barn after Julia goes to school to check in and see if my help is needed. I don't have the natural talent of working with the animals that The Farmer does but I do my best. When I arrive, I get the low-down on how many lambs are born and what's going on. Often we are faced with lambs that are very weak, a mother that may be down or unable to produce milk to feed her lambs. Sometimes the lambs are almost gone - chilled and near death. Over the years, The Farmer has learned how to deal with these common problems and is quite good at assessing the situation. There are different things you can do to get a lamb going again and if I get a chance, I'll tell you about them another day.

One thing The Farmer frequently does is use a tool called a stomach tube. He passes a rubber tube down the throat of the weak lamb into the stomach. He can then give the weak lamb who has no sucking reflex milk. This thing has got to be one of the greatest inventions for sheep farmers. We have saved so many lambs with it, I can't even count them all. During lambing season, there is always one on the counter, one in the truck, and one at the barn.

One of the most important things with a weak lamb is to get the lamb warm again. The Farmer keeps his truck running and tucks the chilled lambs on an old jacket near the heating vents. If he has to go somewhere, they ride with him. It is easy to tell if a lamb is cold - you stick your finger in their mouth and if it feels like an ice cube, we know we have trouble. Sometimes we are lucky and the heater in the truck does the trick and the Mama Sheep accepts her lambs that we had to warm up.

Sometimes that is not the case. Either the mother has died or she is not capable of producing enough milk to sustain her babies. Sometimes the lambs are just too cold and by the time we get them warm, the Mama won't accept the babies. That is when we have to step in. And those are the lambs that end up in our house. We keep the woodstove going and set the lambs beside it. Sometimes they are injected with glucose to bring them back to life. Sometimes we give them a warm bath in the sink. It's all a learning process, even thirty years in. There are many sheep farmer tricks -- just as many as knitting patterns I would say. Lots of them are available on great websites operated by many land grant state universities.


I'm letting you in on these things because I have been getting comments from readers about how cute the lambs are in the house and "isn't it sweet that we keep the lambs in the house?" I really wanted to dispel these myths and tell you that the lambs that end up in the house are there because they have to be.


There is no longer a Mama available to take care of them and so they become "bottle lambs." We step in and become their mamas. We feed them "lamb milk replacer" in recycled water bottles using a special tip called a lamb and goat nipple. I swear the milk replacer smells exactly the same as the formula I used to feed Julia. When the lambs are old enough, we can wean them off the milk and they will then eat hay and a little sweet grain. As soon as we feel they are capable of surviving in the barn, we take them back and put them in a separate pen to acclimate them. In a couple days, we let them out of the pen and they blend in with the rest of the sheep. I say that lightly because bottle lambs usually don't blend in totally. They are always a little more friendly and when they are little they are very noisy - running up to us begging for a hit of milk - just like an infant.


Yesterday, Coco and Chanel moved down to the barn. I can't say they are very happy there but in a few days, they will be used to it. We still have a set of twins here sharing the study with us who are a bit too small to move back to the barn.

If you are local and have a chance tomorrow, stop on over at Greenfield High School between 10 and 2. We'll be setting up shop at Winter Fare - Greenfield's once a winter farmers market. Good weekend everyone!

Continuous Cycles

We've had a continuous pot of chicken soup going on the stove since the week before Christmas. I don't know about where you live but there's been a bit of the nasty cold thing going around. I was lucky enough to get it twice. I am recovering but now my family is down with it. More chicken soup is simmering away.


Late in the day yesterday, The Farmer and I sorted out the last of the 2010 ram lambs from the flock of lambs that have been in the pasture in front of our farmhouse. We've got our last appointment at the processor until probably sometime late in the spring or early summer. Marrying supply with demand while working with nature (sheep begin breeding in August and there is a 5 month gestation cycle) is a constant struggle. We have pretty much thrown up our hands and are just going with the natural flow of the life cycle of the earth and the sheep.

Supply and demand of our lamb meat is one giant problem we will never completely be able to overcome. It's not like when I was in the yarn business and we just had to make sure we got our orders in on time for prompt delivery. Most consumers just do not think about where their meat comes from. They totally disconnect the plastic wrapped, styrofoam-trayed meat in the grocery store from the animal that it came from. I know because I was one of them. I never thought anything about lifecycles of animals, birthing, slaughtering, diseases, grazing, graining or anything else I have learned so much since we began our flock of sheep many, many years ago. I feel it is kind of my job now to educate customers at the Farmers Markets about life cycles and supply. I personally don't think most customers are at all interested - they just want their lamb stew in the winter and their ground lamb in the summer. But I'll keep trying.

Speaking of, do you have any Winter Farmers Market in your area? Here in the Pioneer Valley, there are quite a few (we are doing the Amherst Farmers Market at the Middle School a few times a month). CISA has organized 3 special markets in Greenfield, Springfield, and Northampton. They are fun because they are inside and have a festive atmosphere (music, prepared soups and coffee). Check out your local winter markets if you have the opportunity. It's amazing how many veggies are available all winter long!

2010 was a wonderful year here at our farm. The photo above shows the two big accomplishments - the growth of our Leyden Glen Lamb business and the studio/porch addition to the Farmhouse where I ran my "Getting Stitched on the Farm" classes. I thank all of you for coming on this journey with me and for being so supportive. A special thanks to all the wonderful students who braved our dirt road and spent a few fun-filled days of knitting, color, and farming with us.

I'll be announcing the upcoming "Get Stitched" classes on Saturday, January 15th. If you are one of the people who has e-mailed me, check back then.

Crazy Cute Cards for Knitters Available Here on Kristin's Blog

The perfect gift for the knitter on your list - Kristin's Lambs in Sweaters. Or to send to your knitting friends - my Merry Knitmas card. Read all about them and order here.

For all you locals, my family and I will be selling our Leyden Glen Lamb, my holiday cards, and books at the Amherst Winter Farmer's Market at the Amherst Middle School from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m on Saturday the 11th. Stop by to pick up a leg of lamb for your holiday feast and to save shipping charges on cards and books! It is a great market with all kinds of local produce, meat, greens, and more. Music too!

And the Winner is!

Boy - you guys are great! I had 390 people enter the November Giveaway Contest. I am still reading through all your hopes and dreams and wishes. It seems that the question really did strike a chord with many of you. I may write a little more about that next week.

The winner is Susan. Now here is the funny thing - when I read her entry, I said to myself "Boy, it would be really great if this woman won." But I don't cheat - I take my contests seriously and use a Random Number Generator.

Here's what she wrote:

I can't even begin to explain how hard this is for me to answer. I'm 27 years old, and I take care of my disabled 66 year old mother alone. My boyfriend lives in California - we've been dating for 2 1/2 years. It's very hard for me to imagine forgetting about familial obligations. I'm from Appalachia, and it's very ingrained in me. I guess my dream would be to first know that my mom was somewhere safe and happy in order for me to feel like I could truly enjoy my own dream. I went to graduate school in the Midwest, and it was very hard for me. My dream would be to own a home near Snowshoe Resort in WV, spending time sleeping late and staying up late pursuing my favorite rejuvenating hobbies: knitting, yoga, and reading. In this dream, of course, the boyfriend will be able to be there, too. Who am I kidding, I would love for my mom to be there, too, but I would mostly just appreciate knowing that I have help and don't have to take care of her alone anymore.

So, Susan - Congratulations to you! I've already emailed you - I hope this makes your weekend.

By the way - My family and I will be selling our lamb meat at The Amherst Farmer's Market on the Common tomorrow from 7:30 to 2:00. Please stop by to say hi if you are in the area. We are really happy that they are letting us be "guest vendors" even if it is going to be freezing and windy! We will be bundled up.

Since it is getting close to the holidays, I thought I would remind you of one of my tutorials to make a "Holiday Birch Village." This is one of the most popular blog posts I have ever done and it gets linked by big sights a lot. Here's one of the houses Julia and I made last year. I already have a date with some good friends of mine - we have made these houses together the last couple of years and we're doing it again in a couple weeks. It's a great afternoon if you want to just relax with friends and do a little crafting.


Here is the link to the tutorial: Holiday Birch House Tutorial here. I've got to get trouncing around in the woods for supplies. I love that! Good weekend everyone!

Selling Lamb and Stitches in Hartford 10/30 + 31

The mature ewes have been grazing a field up the road which hasn't had an animal on it in probably 8 years. Early in the spring, The Farmer ran his brush-hog over it so he could get rid of the thorns and weeds. Although they all grew back, some grasses came back too. So finally, last week, he set up the fences and the older sheep have been making good work of it. That is "Frank" our new Romney ram in the front. It's our first season with him breeding and we are anxious to see what his babies look like in February.


Do you see how the leaves have disappeared? Right now the only color left is from the oaks which are a deep beautiful red and russet and the beeches which turn gold and toffee. After they are done, it's gray until April! YUCK!

On November 7th, Chef Daniel Martinez of Bistros Les Gras in Northampton is doing a Fete d'Agneau! Guess who is supplying the lamb? Yes, you got it - Leyden Glen Farm. We are so excited to have our lamb featured at this fabulous restaurant in a 6 course fancy schmancy meal! The Farmer and I will be going - it is a Sunday evening. I am so excited I can't stand it! You can download the PDF menu from their website here. Maybe some knitters will come?

We had a busy lamb Sunday. Besides selling two ewe lambs to a new customer, we also sold two whole lambs to families who will be enjoying them all winter long. One was a first time customer whose husband had grown up on a sheep farm in Pennsylvania. They just love homegrown lamb and have no time or land to do it themselves.

The second couple was Janis and Rich. Janis found out about our lamb business here on this blog. You see, Janis is a great knitter and former yarn store owner. She also is an amazing cook. She and her husband Rich are on their third lamb so far this year! They love our lamb and we love selling it to them! To find customers who really enjoy pasture raised lamb and who keep coming back - well, it's just fabulous.

Janis and Rich are so passionate about food. They love to make all kinds of experimental dishes. It sounds like they spend their weekends cooking and taking trips based on food. They told me last winter they made cassoulet and it took them a whole week - from making the duck confit to making the homemade sausage! Wow - sounds amazing. I sent them off with some lacinato kale (my favorite kind of kale - it is dark green and really tasty) and some leeks I pulled from the garden. I guess it is a perk coming here to the farm!


We talked cookbooks and food blogs - they sure do know a lot! I love what I learn from my customers and what I learn from all of you! Janis suggested Hank Shaw's blog - oh - something else to distract me! I showed her Dorie Greenspan's new book Around My French Table which I am loving! I told her about Hugh F-W and River Cottage. Every time they come, we both learn something!

Janis writes a great food blog called "Bite Me New England." She frequently posts lamb recipes and chronicled their trip to the farm here. Check it out! And you must check out her knitted chicken hat here! Cluck! Cluck!

Stitches in Hartford Saturday and Sunday. Stop by the Westminster Booth and I'll give you a freebie I had made up just for the show! See you there!

The big October Giveaway #2 ends just before midnight on October 31st. Check out how to enter here.

Local Food and Yummy Pears

We're coming to the close soon at most of the Farmers Markets we sell our lamb at. Julia and I have finished our Bernardston and Northfield Markets. The markets in North Amherst (Saturdays), Northampton (Tuesday), and South Hadley (Thursday) continue for a few more weeks. I'm really looking forward to some downtime this winter. The markets take up a huge part of our lives in the spring, summer and fall. They have been extremely important to us as we are still working on establishing our retail customer base for our Leyden Glen Farm Lamb Business. This winter, we'll be exploring some other ways to market our lamb meat. We'll most likely keep doing some of the markets. It is a great way to find new customers and network with other farmers and local chefs.

We're pretty excited that Bistro Les Gras, a fabulous french restaurant run by Daniel Martinez and his wife in Northampton, has become a regular customer of our lamb meat. It's a great place to eat if you are local and looking to support local food and have an amazing meal. We celebrated my birthday there and it was exceptional!

I've been enjoying the local pears this year. I finally have found out how to tell when they are done. In the past, I have kept them out on the counter and then missed the perfect time and they have turned to mush and become chicken food! Ben Clark of Clarkdale Fruit Farm told me that if the tip of the pear, just near the stem is slightly soft, then the pear is ready to eat. Oh, I am so happy to know this!

My friend Jeanne Duval paints beautiful pictures of pears. Me, I'm enjoying photographing them. And eating them with a little slice of blue cheese - YUM! What a great taste combination.

When I teach color classes, I use this simple example of how to see and work with color. You can do it easily in your home. Take one object (or group of objects) and lay it on a surface. Here are the pears on a brass plate.


Here are the pears on the brass plate on top of a floral cloth.


Here are the pears on a blue ceramic plate.


Here are the pears on the blue plate on the cloth.


If you do the same kind of exercise, you too will learn how colors work together. If I had taken a photo of green apples, red apples, or oranges, think about how the images would look different.

Which is your favorite? Remember, the first October giveaway ends Thursday at midnight. The contest winner will be announced Friday at noon-ish.

It's That Season....

Sheep are seasonal breeders. Oh, yeah.... you all are probably wondering what the heck that means, aren't you? Simply put, most ewes come into "heat" or "season" in August when the days begin getting shorter. Ewes come into "estrus" every two weeks or so. Their gestation period is five months. In the past, we have always kept our rams in with our ewes all year round. Lambs usually began arriving around Christmas and things really got busy in January. This year, since we have so many different groups of sheep and several different rams, we decided to get a little more organized and control which ram breeds which group of sheep. In June, we separated the 4 rams and sent them on holiday to a pasture in Bernardston far, far away from the mature ewes.

A couple weeks ago, The Farmer brought the Border Leicester and Romney rams up to the group of mature ewes. The ewes were in heat and the boys got busy. In this same group, we also had some older ewe lambs (they were born in January). On Sunday, we penned the entire group up and spent a few hours separating the ewe lambs from the flock.

We moved them in two groups in our trailer down to our field in Bernardston where a Cheviot ram and a cross-bred Dorset/Texel ram lamb were waiting. The ewe lambs will be bred to these smaller sheep. The theory behind this is that the smaller ewes will have smaller babies and it will be easier for them to deliver. Of course, some of the ewe lambs may already have been bred by the Romney and Border Leicester, depending if they were mature enough. This photo is of a Border Leicester Cross ewe lamb. I think she is quite beautiful. I love the open face.


We have another flock of younger sheep in the fields outside our farmhouse and that is just a giant breeding free-for-all. These are the lambs that we are growing out for our meat business and they are much smaller thus probably not mature enough to be become pregnant. We'll be keeping most of the girls for replacement breeding ewes but the boys will be going into our meat business.

We'll see how all this goes next February when the lambs start arriving. In the meantime, the sheep continue to graze the fields and fertilize as they go.


I guess that is more than you probably want to know about sheep production for today. If you want to learn more, check out this web-page. If you are into Facebook and want to become a "fan" of Leyden Glen Lamb, here's the link for our farm Facebook page.