2010 Freezer Lambs Are All Reserved, Place Your Order For 2011

Your Eastern Ontario Source for Lamb

Some 2009 Hawk Hill lambs at 2 months of age

We have 10 ewes lambing in May of 2010 and to date 5 ewes have had 9 lambs.  We have 2 purebred Tunis ewes available so far.  The ewe lambs and one of the ram lambs are being registered and made available as breeding stock. They are listing on our Breeding Stock page. We have 2 yearling Tunis ewes available.  We have 2 Cheviot/Hampshire lambs to date.  The four crossbred ewes will be saved for our commercial flock and the crossbred rams and one purebred Tunis ram were available as freezer lamb in the fall of 2009. These sold out very quickly. We thank our clients and hope they enjoy many a Hawk Hill lamb meal.

With the development of our flock, we are also setting up an on-farm food safety and traceability program to address increasing food safety concerns.

We offered our 2010 lamb at $6.50 per pound hanging weight for a whole or half carcass. Check back for our 2011 prices.  The price on custom orders will depend on cuts requested. There will be an additional charge for deboning cuts.

Some useful information regarding lamb cuts

Ordering whole or half a lamb for the first time can be a pretty confusing experience.  We have worked with our butchers and researched through cookbooks for some basic information that will help you through the process.  If you are still confused, don't hesitate to contact us to ask more questions.

Ground lamb:  Close to one pound of meat is retained in commercial meat grinders during processing and that meat is totally lost.  We recommend that you grind any lamb needed at home.  Probably the simplest method is to partially thaw stewing meat and run it in short pulses through your food processor.  It won't be perfect but your loss is reduced significantly.

Stew meat:  The best cut for stewing meat is the shoulder.  The hind leg has less fat and when used as stew meat leaves a tougher, less flavorful stew.  We recommend that you have the shoulder as a  bone in roast and cut the stew meat yourself or as a boneless shoulder and cut it yourself.  However if you have boneless shoulder ask for the bones back because cooking the bones in your stew greatly enhances the flavor.

Brochette cubes:  The best cut for brochette cubes is the hind leg.  There is too much connective tissue in other cuts to give you the cube size you require.

Organ meat:  If you don't like liver because all you have had is beef liver, try lamb liver at least once.  It's delicate flavor is so totally different than anything you have had before.

Bones:  Ask for the bones back as there is many a good soup meal to be had from lamb bones.  To fully develop the flavor from bones they must first be roasted in the oven and then used to make soup.  Boiling uncooked lamb bones in water produces very little lamb flavor. 

Questions and Answers regarding lamb sales

Q. How much meat is in a lamb?

A: Our lambs dress out at 45-50lbs hanging weight with a packaged (cut and wrapped) weight of about 70% of the hanging weight

Q. What is the difference between live weight, hanging weight and cut and wrapped weight?

A. An excellent description is found on the South Dakota State University site. The greatest loss is between live weight and hanging weight and we absorb that loss, not our clients.

Q. Why are prices not for cut and wrapped lamb?

A. In order to give our clients the greatest flexibility in the cuts available to them we use hanging weight as our baseline.  The cut and wrap weight can change dramatically depending on the cut especially for boneless cuts.  Charging for hanging weight standardizes the price. 

Q: What is the average price of a whole lamb?

A: Your price would average $300 for  whole lamb, cut, wrapped and frozen.

Q. When is the lamb available?

A. Lamb will be available in about September -October 2010.

Q. When should I order?

A. Reserve your lamb now for 2011 Our 2010 stock is now sold out and we are accepting reservations for our 2011 lambs.   We expect 8-10 lambs in  2010 and probably 20 lambs for 2011. In both 2008 and 2009 our stock was sold before weaning. In 2010 our stock was sold before birth.  If you want to ensure you get a lamb in 2011, we recommend you reserve early. We already have a client booked for the 2011 season. Make sure you specify the breed.  We will have pure Tunis, Tunis/Cheviot cross and Cheviot/Hampshire cross lambs available in 2011.

Download our order form and a cut chart. Excellent Lamb Recipes are available through the Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency.

Q. Can I buy fresh lamb? Or whole lambs for BBQ?

A.  These are special order items but are available. Fresh lamb or whole lambs can be ordered seasonally with sufficient advance notice.  The Tunis breed was developed for the light lamb market and a pure Tunis lamb would make a superb lamb to roast whole on the BBQ.  Lambs dressing out at 25 lbs would be available during the summer.  Contact us for this special order.

Q. Why should we order Hawk Hill Lamb?

A. We have selected breeds and breeding stock that will maximize meat production and taste with a focus on superb loin cuts.  We are very conscientious about livestock health, nutrition and animal welfare. Our butcher commented that our lambs were the best quality that he had processed all year.  Really nice to hear. However don't take our word for it -read the feedback we have had from our clients:

            Sent: October 18, 2009 9:19 PM
            To: 'Bob Garner'

(and no, you don't have to be called Bob to buy from us)

Here is another email received the next day:

Hi Laurie,

 

I just had to let you know,I made the Lamb Shank recipe from the

LCBO mag.And of course,along with the lamb,was your awesome home

grown garlic which I used.

It was AMAZING ! So delicious.The lamb was excellent !

 

I did find a Marsala blend at the grocery store in the spice section.So

I made a dry rub,along with some other ingredients..but WOW,

very yummy !

 

Cheers for now ,

 

Debs

And in a follow up email

Hi Laurie,

 

That is really interesting about the Canadian garlic industry, or rather decline of

it. And I would have never known about  the "hard necked" necked variety. So that

is a valued lesson for me. So YES !! I would love some of your seed .I have to say,

while I was eating the Lamb, the presence of the garlic was in the flavours and taste,

and not lost in with the other ingredients, as is what usually happens with the garlic

that we are used to. As I love garlic, I really enjoyed that aspect of the recipe too.

And I may ,or may not have mentioned before...but I can count on one hand the

number of times I have eaten lamb. So for me to really enjoy this meal, was something.

And I ( we) REALLY enjoyed your lamb.

 

I am not surprised at all by the comments made by the butcher. In order for a

lot of people to enjoy eating livestock, knowing about the quality of life for these animals is paramount. 

So for the butcher, I can't imagine what he sees pass through his business.

It is so apparent at Hawk Hill that ALL the animals have quality of life,and it shows

in the "end" product, whether it be a horse for pleasure,or a lamb or

beef for consumption.

 

Truly thankful,

 

Debs

Hawk Hill is a member of Savour Ottawa and the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario

For those of you that are wondering why Tunis have centered in our breeding program.  I invite you to read the results of the taste taste published in the March/April Issue of Hobby Farms magazine (which by the way is a nice little publication).  Tunis placed second of 9 heritage breeds and one commercial breed that were taste tested.

For those of you having problem reading it:

"Not All Lamb Is Created Equal

As you prepare your leg of lamb this season, keep in mind the results of Legacy of Lamb, the first heritage-breed lamb tasting, which was held last fall at Ayrshire Farm in Upperville, Va.  Approximately 90 food fans participated in the blind taste test which compared nine endangered-breed meats- Gulf Coast, Hog Island, Jacob, Katahdin, Leicester Longwool, Navajo-Churro, Santa Cruz, St. Croix, Tunis - and commercially available Australian lamb, making this the largest ever comparison of lamb breeds in North America.

"When we eat them, we are giving farmers an economic reason to conserve rare breeds and the important genetic diversity they represent." says Sandy Lerner, the event's host.

The meat was scored on flavor, texture, tenderness, smell and appearance.  The winner was the Santa Cruz lamb; second place was Tunis; and third place was Jacob.  The top two breeds each received nearly twice as many votes for first choice compared to the other breeds, although organizers said each breed collected a number of second and third placements on individual tally cards, making it difficult to say there was one obvious winner. 

Legacy of Lamb was produced through a partnership of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, Humane Farm Animal Care, Slow Food USA and Ayrshire Farm" published in Hobby Farms, March/April 2009