Less Fuss, More Flavor—and lots of garlic and fresh Greek oregano (recipe here).
I'm often asked if we eat any of the animals we raise here on the farm, and the answer is yes. We produce grass fed lamb and beef for ourselves and others. To us, there is no better meat than that which comes from an animal you know enjoyed a happy, healthy, natural, dare I say spoiled? life.
Sadly, this is not how most of the meat animals in this country are raised. Factory farms and horrid conditions abound.
Local Harvest is an excellent resource for finding naturally and sustainably produced meat, vegetables, fruits, dairy products, and other foods in your area.
The Shelburne Farms' Children's Farmyard is an educational farm within the working farm, where visitors can milk a cow or goat, collect eggs, and learn how to carefully pick up a chicken, feed the animals, and maybe even witness a sow or a ewe giving birth. The natural cycle of a farm also, undeniably, includes the other end of life. A poster on the wall of the Farmyard carefully explains the life of a Shelburne Farms lamb and finishes with a photograph of a beautifully plated dish from the Inn.
It is true that lambs are about as cute as food gets, and that makes some people uncomfortable, but, "we raise animals for human consumption here," says Sam Smith plainly, a farmer and educator at Shelburne Farms [a 1,400-acre nonprofit environmental education center, working farm, Inn, and National Historic Landmark]. "People need to recognize where their food is coming from."
It is most important to Sam—and to Shelburne Farms—that the flock be managed to the highest environmental and humane standards, leaving the animals on pasture and the lambs with their mothers as long as possible. "I raise them in the best way that I can, and I try to educate people," Sam says. "You can't force people to do anything, but you can educate them. And I think the farmyard is probably the best place in the world to educate people about what they're eating."
(You can read my rave review of
Cooking with Shelburne Farms, which includes a fabulous recipe from the book for grilled lamb burgers with roasted red pepper, parsley, and kalamata olive relish
here.)
Almost everything I do on the farm—whether it's spreading
sheep manure in the
organic kitchen garden, tending to our
flock of laying hens, or hiking down to the barn to check on
the pregnant ewes at two a.m. every night during
lambing season—in some way revolves around food. Really good, real food.
We're proud of the animals we raise, and when we sit down to a beautiful meal like this, or when our customers tell us our lamb is the best they've ever tasted—and that two "I don't eat lamb" people they served it to went home with leftovers—we know that all of our hard work is worth it.
You don't need a holiday to serve this healthy, flavorful, lemon- and oregano-infused leg of lamb dinner (we had it last night), but it's definitely worthy of a celebration.
My recipe is adapted from the delightful cookbook,
Falling Cloudberries: A World of Family Recipes by Tessa Kiros, and after making it for the first time two years ago, I haven't cooked a leg of lamb any other way since. The chunks of roasted lemon and creamy cloves of garlic are addicting, and braising the Swiss chard and raisins in the roasting pan juices for ten minutes while the meat rests gives you a ridiculously tasty side dish.
Unlike traditional roasted leg of lamb recipes, this one cooks for several hours, but the actual prep work is minimal—and the entire meal uses just one big pan. If you happen to have any leftovers, they taste even better the next day.
Lamb fan? You might also enjoy these other recipes:
