Year of the Sheep!
All through last year, we had an exciting theme to celebrate—our farm turning 100. A century farm with two generations in the Fullington family and now in its third generation in our family, there were lots of stories to share, milestones to mark, and adventures to remember. It was a great year in many ways, and in 2019 our gambrel barn will also turn 100.
But as 2015 turned into 2016, we were wondering about a theme for the New Year. Looking back at our story, we realized that this was our 15th season raising sheep on the farm. And until February 7th, it’s also still the Year of the Sheep in the Chinese calendar. (It then switches to the year of the monkey, but since we don’t raise monkeys on our farm, we’re sticking with the sheep idea). Hence the theme idea of the Year of the Sheep!
Our forays into being shepherds started as a modest adventure based on frugality. Kara was interested in raising alpacas, and we visited several farms and met some beautiful animals (and their friendly owners). But a bred female alpaca costs $2,000 while a female sheep from a local farm cost $60. While we’d had chickens for two years, we had no personal experience with larger livestock, and Mom’s suggestion was to start with a couple of sheep to see if we even liked the project.
This kicked off what has so far been 15 years of fun, trials, precious moments, and plenty of hard work and adventures with sheep (never did make it back to the alpacas), which I’ll be sharing throughout the year as we celebrate what’s so special about these fleecy, four-legged friends on the farm. Stay tuned, it will be lambtastic!
We’ve set up a way on our website to share the lamb theme as well through a new blog I’m writing called “Year of the Sheep!” You can access the blog via www.northstarhomestead.net/blog1/ to see recipes, stories, pictures, and monthly sales available on cuts of lamb. If you have a favorite lamb recipe or sheep story you’d like to share, we’d love to hear it! Leave a reply in the comments section below each post—we may even share your recipe in our monthly email newsletter!
For starters, here’s a recipe I just posted on the blog to kick off the Year of the Sheep theme. It’s easy and delicious.
Roasted Spiced Lamb Ribs
Just tried this recipe last night–yum! From www.seriouseats.com
INGREDIENTS
• 1 (4- to 5-pound) side of lamb ribs or lamb breast
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander seed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground fennel seed
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 300°F. Season ribs all over with salt and pepper. In a small bowl, thoroughly combine smoked paprika, cumin, coriander, fennel, sugar, and chili flakes. Rub ribs all over with spice mixture and place on a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet or roasting pan.
2. Bake ribs for 1 hour, then increase heat to 375°F and cook until browned outside, tender within, and an instant-read thermometer registers 175°F, about 1 hour longer. Let rest for 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, pour off fat from pan. Set pan on burner and heat over medium heat. Add 1/2 cup stock and stir, scraping up any browned bits; pour into a medium saucepan and add remaining 1 cup stock. Cook over medium heat until reduced by half, about 8 minutes. Stir in mustard and season with salt and pepper. Off the heat, whisk in butter.
4. Divide ribs by cutting between the bones and serve with the sauce.
See you over at the blog for sneak previews into the Year of the Sheep, but hopefully we’ll also see you down on the farm sometime.
