February 18 Whole Farm CSA

Full Share: Carrots, watermelon radish, Newham little gem lettuce heads, rainbow chard, cilantro micros, spicy mix micros, dill

Half Share: Carrots, watermelon radish, Newham little gem lettuce head, rainbow chard, cilantro micros, spicy mix micros

Mangalitza x Red Wattle x Yorkshire pigs this year!

This 3rd week of February is the first meat distribution for most of our whole farm csa members, and we’ll start with lamb for most of you!  Our lamb is Gotland lamb, anywhere from 50% to 85% depending on the ewe they came from, and that breed is from the isle of Gute in the Baltic Sea. Swedish heritage lamb. We love Gotland for their hardiness and easy birthing, friendly nature (perfect for farm camp moments!), medium carcass weights, and delightful wool that we’re having LaVonne at The Wool Mill spin in to yarn at the moment.

More Lamb News:  Lambing is scheduled to start up on March 1st, though typically we’ve had one or two ewes go in to labor a week early, so perhaps as early as a week out.  We’ll keep you posted on their progress, and do pay a visit to the ewes and their lambs soon.  Bella may bark a bit, but she just wants a belly rub.  Magda just wants a belly rub and saves her energy to bark at the nighttime sounds and smells.  Smart old gal!

One other thing coming are lambskins:  A trial run with a tanner from Gallatin Gateway, so that we can make use of all of the lamb product that in the past had been composted.  Those will be at the farm stand soon.

We have a lamb shoulder this week, and bone in or out, this cut does have a fair amount of fat and connective tissue that is typically slow cooked and perhaps braised.  If you want to make this cut into kabob meat for skewers, go for it, but remember the fat content, and flare ups on a grill are possible, monitor for that!   We found a couple of recipes that are worthy:

https://www.notquitenigella.com/2024/04/17/slow-cooked-lamb-shoulder/

The lemon paste, made from lemons preserved in salt may not be in your pantry, but extra salt and lots of lemon peel should be an adequate substitute.  You should have some recent rosemary in your pantry, and I’m sure some garlic on hand too.

And this recipe from the cookbook Gjelina, by Travis Lett, is more involved, but maybe that cold snowy Sunday Dinner day we can only hope for…

The Watermelon Radish are a bright spot in the winter meal and here are a few ideas from Love and Lemons:

From pickling to roasting: https://www.loveandlemons.com/watermelon-radish/