So I
have a tentative agreement for a cook which was confirmed at the CT Sheep &
Wool Festival in 2013. (I think it's because his wife is a fiber geek
& foodie too and the chance to combine both at one party helped her
convince her husband to assist in the insanity!) So now that I have adult
supervision, I felt more confident in starting to search for local farms that
might possibly sell me fleece(s) and a freezer lamb. I started collecting
business cards from farms in NJ, PA, CT, & Southeastern NY (Long Island
& around Westchester) at fiber festivals. Since we were going to host
this fiasco at Harry's house I was really hoping to find someplace on Long
Island.
After Rhinebeck last year, I moved in with
Harry. I started looking for a CSA (community supported agriculture) to
join. As I was digging through websites and news articles as well as
asking local friends for recommendations the Garden of Eve kept popping up.
So I went to their website and saw they were offering a winter
share and it included eggs and meat which was what I was looking for. I
took a closer look at their website and noticed sheep! Then I read "one show-winning purebred ram named Infinity,
who I brought back from Maryland on a charter tour bus." Wait a
minute! I HEARD about this on a local spinning list. OMG! This farm
is OWNED by the woman who brought a lamb back from MDSW on the bus. I
read on further and the site says they sell both lambs and fleeces. The
meat share says it could include chickens or lamb from the farm. This is
exactly what I was looking for my birthday. A farm with dual purpose
sheep that sell both fleeces and freezer lamb. And as an added bonus the
shepherd is a fiber person so spinner's flock!
So I called Eve and asked about a winter share for the CSA
and also asked her about market lamb. At first she was a bit hesitant, so
I explained to her why I was looking for a both fleece(s) and lamb from the
same farm. While chatting with her, I found out she belongs to the Spinning
Study Group of Long Island, the guild I just joined. And yes, she did
sell both lamb and fleeces. And yes I could tentatively reserve a lamb
for next fall, depending lambing this spring. She also shears in the
spring after it gets warm enough for the sheep to be without their winter
coats! Yay! I have located a dual purpose spinner's flock within a
hours drive of Harry's house, which is a much better commute than I thought I
would manage. Before I spoke to Eve, I was trying to figure out the
logistics of transporting a whole (hopefully frozen) carcass from either PA, S
Jersey, or upstate to Long Island! Another important question...
Um... Eve, do you have butcher or someone who can process the lamb
for me and how BIG do you estimate the lamb will be and how much meat?
Although, I'm trying to get closer to my food (the whole farm to table
thing) I'm really really NOT prepared to have Harry trying to slaughter and
process an animal in is backyard, never mind what his neighbors would say!
Plus... um... having an amateur slaughter the lamb kind of
defeats the whole purpose of happy livestock living a nice free range life and
before being humanely brought to the table. Success! She uses a neighbor
for her processing and gave me an estimate of the cost. She said it's
really hard to guess how big a lamb will by 4 - 5 months but gave me a range of
60 - 80 lbs live weight which would figure to about 30-50 lbs of meat.
WOW... that's a lot of meat. Eve told me to touch bases with
her around March to ask about fleeces, lambing, her shearing schedule,
and prices.
I thanked her and said I would follow up in March.
Yeah! Two birds with one stone! I have a farm share for the winter and source for fleece and lamb, who
doesn't think I'm out of my mind. Well maybe she does and is just too
polite to tell me. :)
