Leg of Lamb West Indies- Compliments of my mother

Ingredients; 
5-6lbs leg of lamb
1 garlic clove
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tep dry mustard
2 tsp sugar
1 cup strong coffee
2 Tbsp light cream
2 Tbsp port wine
2 Tbsp flour
1/3 cup currant jelly
Method;
Cut 2 to 3 slits in leg of lamb without removing thin paper-like covering. Insert garlic in each slit. mix ginger and dry mustard.Rub mixture over leg of lamb. Place fat side up on rack in shallow roasting pan. Insert meat thermometer so the tip reaches the center of the largest muscle. Roast at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 3 to 3 1/2 hours or until meat thermometer registers 180 degrees Fahrenheit. After first hour of roasting, dissolve sugar in coffee. Stir in light cream and port wine; pour over leg of lamb. Baste occasionally during remainder of roasting. Place on a warm platter. Pour pan juices into 2 cup measure, skim off fat. Add water to make 1 1/2 cups. Measure 2 Tbsp fat back into pan, blend in flour, stir in meat juices and currant jelly. Cook and stir until think. Season to taste. Pass sauce with lamb.


It may seem like a long process but man o man does it taste good! This is a lamb recipe my mom is famous for! The sauce compliments the meat well and also tastes good on potatoes. Try it out! I'm sure you'll love it!

Meat Meat Glorious Meat!

Oh maybe that's just what my family thinks. We are grand meat-eaters and with my mom being basically a scientist of meat, we eat our fair share of good and... questionable meat. We found a few common things though. Almost any meat can be made to perfection. I think the only meat I've had that I haven't liked was Emu and Kangaroo but let's stay close to home for this one. Sheep. Lamb is the name for the meat from sheep. There are a many different cuts and many different ways to cook them. Here's a couple. Square Shoulder is a large cut from the lambs' shoulder that is best cooked when it is roasted. A blade chop and an arm chop are also from the shoulder but has much more versatility seeing they can be broiled, pan-broiled and pan fried.  The shoulders tend to be the tougher meat. Cheaper but often not the tastiest. Rib roast is, as the name implies, from the rib and best when roasted. Leg of Lamb is probably the most well know and is the absolute best when roasted. I know my family always has this cut with a turkey on Thanksgiving. Now for the best cut of all, at least in my eyes. The loin chops. They come from the loin (lower back) and will be your juiciest, tastiest and leanest meat cut. They are also the most expensive but trust me, its worth it. Check in tomorrow and I'll have some great recipes for you to try!!

Yep That's Terminal.

Don't worry no one is dying. Terminal in the sheep world is much different than the bad things we think of in the people world. In the general scheme of things there are two types of sheep. Terminal and Maternal. Maternal are the good mothers. The prolific ones that have lots of babies and feed them well. Terminal sires(dads) are the males you usually breed to these maternal dams(moms) to get well-muscled lambs to sell for meat. In the sheep world you need these types of lambs to make your profit, so terminal sires are very important. There are 5 main reasons why you breed with terminal sires. 1 growth rate; you want your lambs to grow to market weight (around 115lbs) fast, in less than 100 days. That's around 1.1lbs a day. 2 Feed efficiency. You want to make sure that whatever food you are putting into your lambs you are getting it out. 3 Muscling; you want well-developed muscle in the leg and loin. If your lamb grows quickly that's great but you want it to be in muscle not fat. Which is also reason 4. Muscle not fat!!! and 5; large mature size; you want the carcass weight to be around 49% of the lambs' weight. You don't want the weight stored in fat cover around the organs. Here in Alberta Lakeland College has been working on a project dealing with the five main terminal sires in Canada. Here is what they found;

Suffolk Terminal Sire

Canadian Arcott; best used to increase growth rate but also exhibit the highest level of fat.
Charollais; Used to increase growth rate and for general improvement of all traits.
Ile de France; Best used to increase muscle and lean meat yield.
Suffolk; increase growth rate, and the lowest level of fat.
Texels; increase muscling and lean meat yield and lower fat levels.
This may mean something to the shepherds out there but for the rest of you just remember that the lean juicy lamb-chop on your plate is all thanks to a great Terminal Sire.

Sheep Wash.

Wool. Its soft, sometimes a little scratchy and gets really dirty.
Every year just before a show we take on the task of washing our sheep for show. It can be a lot of fun but if your sheep don't like to cooperate it is not fun at all. Its a fairly long process but man do your sheep look good in the end. Here's how you do it;
Step 1; Get sheep. yes it obvious but still important. You will want to have a well-fitting halter and a secure place to tie the sheep to, preferably in the sun by a water source. Personally, we have built wash tables for our sheep. This is just a movable platform (we use hydraulics) and a neck brace for the sheep to be held (without any discomfort) and kept safe.
Step 2; Get water and soap. You will want to use lukewarm temperature water so that your sheep doesn't get too cold and the dirt will come out much easier than cold water. The soap. Here's a big hint: use blue dawn soap. The blue will partially dye the wool. No your sheep won't be blue but it will contradict the colour from the lanolin so the wool will be really white!
Step 3; Wash. Use water. Then massage in soap then rinse. It's simple but just make sure you get all the soap out. It can irritate the skin of the sheep. While washing you will want to use a damp clothe to clean the inner thighs of the sheep, the hooves, the nose and inside the ears. You want your sheep too look great everywhere possible. Just be careful not to get any soap in their eyes or too far into the ears.
Step 4; Dry. Firstly you can just towel dry the sheep to get the most of the water off. The rest you will either need to let dry itself or you can use a dryer. Kind of like a giant blow dryer. Its the same as what cattle showmen use.
Step 5; Trim it up. Using your carder and clippers you will want to just make everything even and clean even more. This is a chance where you can try and visually correct any flaws you may see in your sheep. Like leveling the topline or fixing a ewe-neck.

Step 6; Cover to protect. This is where you want to save your masterpiece. Trust me its the worst when you work so hard and the next day you go out and your sheep is really dirty again! You can buy sheep blankets or you can use plain potato sacks and cut them so they will cover the sheep's clean fleece.



Its a tough job but someone's got to do it. It will make your sheep look fantastic!!

Now for A Little Science (If you are squimish this may not be the blog post for you)

 I had the great privilege this past year to witness something amazing in the field of agriculture. Dr. Ilena offered for me to come visit her while harvesting ewe eggs for in-vitro-fertilization. This is a task that is taken on mostly by purebred breeders due to the cost of the procedure and it is easy when preferred rams are over seas. Do you do any in-vitro work on your farm? with cows or horses or goats maybe? I was able to see how to harvest eggs. See the eggs are harvested, then fertilized with semen from the desired ram, then put into the ewes for the lambs to grow. To harvest the eggs there are many steps. First the ewes go throw a number of fertility treatments to ensure that the eggs are the healthiest and it will be the perfect time to harvest. Then they are given a relaxing drug to make sure they don't go through any stress that may kill the eggs in the procedure. The first step of the harvest is to give the ewe anesthesia so they won't feel any pain. They are quickly shaved of their hair on the lower side of their abdomen. Some antiseptic is put on the site where the incision will be and then a little cut. through this cut goes a laparoscope that will help to find the uterus and bring it to the outer side of the body. This is what I think is REALLY cool. The uterus is brought out of the body through the incision. OUTSIDE OF THE BODY!! HOW COOL IS THAT! sorry I get excited with science. then a small hole is made in the uteron horn the pointy long parts off the sides of the uterus. through this hole a small tube will flush some saline solution through the passage ways to another incision were a petri dish catches the fluid that is now carrying the eggs. All the incision are sewn up and the outer site is again washed with an antibacterial. they ewe is then pulled off of the anesthesia and monitored for the next few weeks to make sure they don't get an infection even though the whole procedure is kept clean and sterile. The solution is put under a microscope and all the debris is taken out of the solution and the eggs are put into another special dish that will soon be put with the semen and fertilized. I just really think this stuff is cool. And the amazing part?? The same procedure can be done on humans!!!
Have you ever done this with your flock or herd? Have you had good success?? Do you think this is as cool as I do???

Ok Now for the 4H

I've been reading a lot of other blogs and have come to the conclusion that talking about your 4h club is a good idea. I have mentioned it previously but never talked much in detail. This year I have the privileged of being the club president for The Wild N Woolly 4H Sheep Club of East Central Alberta.

 

We are one of few sheep clubs in Alberta that is not also a multi-club. Also we are set up a little different that many other clubs. Starting in November and ending in October makes our club literally all year around. November is when we start up, set up our executive and plan out the year. May is when we have highway clean up and June is our weigh in day where our lambs are officially put into the 4h program. Then 60-63 days later we have our Achievement Day at the end of August. Then to wrap it all up, at the end of October we have our awards night. Our meetings are once a month on the second Sunday of each month. As president I have taken the initiative to make sure all our meetings are under an hour in length. Since our club has 14 members, 3 cleavers, 3 seniors, 4 intermediates and 4 juniors, it is easy to see that our club has a fair amount of young kids with short attention spans. And to be frank long meetings bore the seniors too. 

What's your club like? Where are you located? Are you part of a sheep club too?

Pick and Choose

Yesterday I went out to the field and started  picking my lambs for this upcoming 4h year. You may be thinking "Whaaa?" See in our 4h club our achievement day is at the end of August. This may seem really weird to you cattle 4hers who just finished wrapping up your 4h year. To be frank, my year has really just started. This year my 2year old ewe Mayonnaise had twin boys. I will be bringing her back with her lambs at foot to compete again. My Yearling, Ketchup just gave birth to a big girl who I named Heinz. And finally I just picked out my ewelamb for this fall. I picked Relish. (Do you see a trend in names here?) This is when I start getting excited and begin to dread 4h at the same time. First of all I'm excited to wash up my lambs and go to the show. What I dread is the few months before that can happen. This is the time where I get to halter train my lambs. They may not be as big as cows or horses but breaking-in a lamb is not an easy task.
Over my years in 4h I have learnt that there are two types of lambs on average. These types arise once you get the halter on them and try and lead them for the first time. The first; the jumper. Holding close to its name, these lambs flail about jumping up and down and often hit me in the face (Don't laugh kamikaze sheep are terrifying). The second type; DEAD. No they don't actually die but this type plays dead. It feels the halter on them and it falls over. Much like a fainting goat they just fall, lie stiff and hope that you don't notice them. Neither of these lambs are easy to train. Either they are running around in uncontrollable circles or they simply won't move and you find yourself dragging dead weight. I'm really not going to lie here when I say that halter training is my least favourite task in 4h. Sigh. Another year another dollar right? I do suppose it has taught my patience and understanding but in the heat of that frustrating moment it never feels worth it til achievement day.

What is it like halter training calves? I never have done so. Is it just as tough or are there more injuries than I would know? Please fill me in. I'd love to hear your animal experiences.