The Village and Parish of Corscombe,

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For Sale and Wanted

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Wanted

Why is the lamb tasty? The answer lies in breed, speed and feed.

The lamb is 50 to 100% Jacob, which are the brown and white mottled sheep with horns you may have seen around, and the only sheep mentioned in the bible. Although its been around a fair time the Jacob doesn’t grow quickly so was abandoned by commercial growers and at one time became a minority breed, though never a rare breed. It has now made a come back as a more discriminating market appreciates its qualities of flavour and leanness. Most of my lambs have a proportion of commercial sheep in them to foster better size and shape without losing the Jacob flavour.

Speed and feed are interconnected. The lambs are mostly left to grow at their own speed feeding only on meadow grass except for mother’s milk when little, and oats and hay in the winter when there is little grass around. There is no intensive pellet feeding and no growth promoters. During their lives they are only indoors for a few hours when first born and a few hours if it is wet before going to the abbatoir, so they have had plenty of healthy activity and fresh air. They are not chased by sheep dogs, they follow a yellow bucket. This stress free environment is good for them, good for me, and good for the consumer. Only half the lambs are sold in the year they are borne, the the half is sold at the age of 12- 15 months and is called hoggett.

The pork is tasty because the pigs are Berkshires, a breed of smallish black pigs which is rare. If breeders are going to keep girl piggies for breeding there are always going to be spare boy piggies, and by providing a market for them you are protecting the genetic pool and diversity of the pig population. So keep buying my Berkshires! It is an old fashioned breed which although maybe fatty for some produces wonderful crackling, and during cooking the protective layer of fat transfers superb flavour to the lean meat.

In the case of the mutton, generally this is sold because the ewe is no longer fit for breeding off, having manifested problems rearing its lambs. The ewe can be any age, sometimes quite young, and the breed can be either Jacob or commercial.

The meat is supplied jointed ready for your freezer. You can specify it to be boned and rolled, and in the case of lamb, for the leg and shoulder to be whole or half joints.

2006 pork £3.60 kg i.e. £31.50 - £37 a quarter pig

various ages mutton £3.00 kg i.e. £30 - £40 a half sheep

2006 lamb (when available) £4.50 kg i.e. £31.50 - £37 a half lamb, boned and rolled – plus 50%