Meat and Recipes

Purebred Icelandic sheep in Virginia’s heartland

Delicious Icelandic Lamb Meat

Icelandic lamb is lean, mild, and delicious, with none of that “gamey” flavor often found in commercial lamb. The breed’s modest size is perfect for modern families who often don’t have freezer space to store a large amount of meat.

The October 2009 issue of Saveur magazine said, “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 & Wine magazine, Robert Wiedmaier, chef-owner of Marcel’s and Brasserie Beck in Washington, DC, is quoted as saying, “Icelandic lamb is the best I’ve ever tasted. It’s a very pure, nonfatty meat.”

In previous years, the few surplus lambs we’ve had at the end of each summer were just enough to fill our own freezer.

But since we’ve expanded our flock, we now have enough to meet our own needs and still have some to sell as locker lambs.

Our supply of locker lambs is very limited. Once they’re gone, there will be no more until the following year.

Sweet and Savory Coriander Lamb Stew

· 6-8 lbs. of Icelandic lamb shanks and/or necks (bones included)

· Water enough to cover the meat (about 4 quarts)

Put the meat in a large pot with enough water to cover the pieces. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, covered, until the meat is tender and falling from the bones (about 1 hour).

Remove from heat. When cool enough to handle, scoop out all the lamb chunks and remove the meat from the bones. Break up any large chunks of meat into bite-sized pieces. Return the meat to the broth. Give the bones to your dogs!

Cut up into bite-sized pieces:

· 3 large potatoes

· 2 large onions

· 6 large stalks of celery

· 1 lb. carrots

Add the vegetables to the pot of meat and broth. Return to a simmer.

As the vegetables are cooking, add:

· 6-8 bay leaves

· 2 x 6-oz cans tomato paste

· 1/2 cup red wine vinegar

· 1/2 cup sherry

· 1/2 cup soy sauce

· 1 TB crushed dried rosemary

· 1 TB ground coriander

· 1 tsp ground black pepper

· 1.5 TB minced fresh garlic

· 1/4 cup brown sugar

Cook until vegetables are tender (about 1 hour).

Enjoy!

We send lambs to slaughter around September-October. At this time, our lambs are about 4-6 months old and weigh about 50-80 lbs. Each one typically yields 25-35 lbs. of packaged meat.

We sell live animals only. Our price is $70 per lamb, including delivery to our local butcher. The butcher then charges $70 to process each lamb, including cutting, packaging, and freezing.

You can tell the butcher exactly how you want the meat cut. Do you want more roasts or more chops? More ground lamb or more stew meat? How thick do you want your chops cut, and how many do you want in each package? In a few days, your meat will be wrapped, frozen, and ready for you to pick up.

The butcher is only a 10-minute drive from our farm, so the lambs don’t have to endure the stress of a long, arduous trip.

If you want to do your own butchering, you can also pick up your live lamb here at the farm. For those with religious restrictions: Our male lambs are intact, and no tails have been docked. All lambs do have ear tags.

Icelandic lamb is naturally lean, with a very mild, delicious flavor. We use no hormones, steroids, or medicated feeds to promote growth, but try to raise our lambs as naturally as we can. Support locally grown food—buy your locker lambs from Ingleside Icelandics!

Our supply of locker lambs is extremely limited. Once they are gone, there will be no more until the following year. Please contact me in September to see what we might have available, or sign up now to be put on our waiting list.