Our rams' "one bad day" (Part 3)

What started more than a year ago has now come full circle.

This weekend we watched P-E butcher our first three lambs, after they had been hung in his cooling room for a week. 

P-E in action. That saw was just shouting out "let me saw your finger off!" to me...

Although we want to be able to slaughter and butcher our own animals at some point, it is reassuring to have a professional do it for now. A professional who is also happy to share his wisdom with curious onlookers!

Homemade and home reared liver pâté 
Most amazing ever and a nice break before kicking off major freezer filler action

After spending all morning in the car and standing around watching P-E, we prepared ourselves for a long afternoon and evening in the kitchen. One would not believe how much work is involved in organizing the meat cuts from just three animals. Good thing mamma is ever the well-organized accountant! She may be bossy, but in this situation it is a relief to be bossed around. :-) So while watching P-E do his thing, we separated the main cuts into bags and labelled them, making our life a bit easier at home. 

Bag number 5 contained or roast beef for want of a better description (we're not too fussed about
correct anatomy, as long as we have an inkling of what's in the bag...)

The reward for all that work was a few odds and ends (we're saving the proper cuts for when the rest of the posse return from the UK) cooked on the wood-fired stove. I swear it was some of the best meat I have ever tasted. No bias at all. :-) 

Guaranteed grass-fed and grash finished. Ta-daaa!

Random cuts, sublime taste

Our rams 'one bad day' (Part 2)

On recommendation from Mr.B (our sheep mentor) we took our 3, six month old ram lambs to his friend P-E for their 'one bad day'. It was P-E who made the whole experience very calming with his measured approach and the careful way in which he handled our beloved ram lambs. In the end, it happened so quickly, without any panic or distress that we returned home feeling a sense of pride that we had managed the whole process from birth to slaughter for the very first time.

Our 3 ram lambs including offal

As I mentioned in the previous post, we had began our journey to a more sustainable lifestyle knowing that we would have to one day slaughter our own animals to provide us with food. Firstly, we wanted to know that the food on our plate had had a good life and had been reared properly and secondly, it had been given a natural diet i.e grass-fed. Ultimately, we wanted to know everything about the meat we were eating. So for us this was a very important stage in realizing this dream.

The 'one bad day' started with us driving the ram lambs to P-E who owns a little farm not far from ours. P-E has a professional set-up in one of his barns. and with no one else around, in tranquil surroundings, we immediately felt at home. We brought out the first ram lamb and made sure the others could not see or fear anything (they were well-stocked with good grass to munch on). P-E slaughtered the first, removed the skin, bagged the intestines and removed the internal organs. The remainder of the body was weighed and then moved into a chilling room to hang at the correct temperature. It all happened so smoothly.

The skin being removed.

We wanted to make use of the entire animal, even down to the blood that was drained into a bowl for us. And we will use everything, if not to eat, then to use as compost, or for our other animals to eat.

The remaining two rams were slaughtered at the same time, with the third one brought out directly after the second, so it was not left on its own.

Offal cuts: lung, liver, heart and kidneys

Being our first time, we were incredible nervous and wanted to make sure that our ram lambs were well looked after and they were kept as calm as possible. In essence the ram lambs' best interests were a priority for us. We feel that we achieved this and are pleased with the outcome of our first lamb slaughter.

The "Not-So-Pretty" Side of Rearing and Eating Animals PLEASE NOTE: BLOOD AND GORE

Mr B is one of our most cherished mentors in all questions sheep, so I jumped at the chance to be his hangaround for a day at the slaughterhouse (actually a small family-owned abattoir deep in the countryside). 

Not because I have some morbid interest in seeing animals die. I have never seen an animal killed before. Or skinned and gutted and hung to dry... But since we eat meat as well rear animals, I wanted to understand more about the missing link between "bah bah black sheep" and the steak on my plate. At some point we might even want and need to do it ourselves. 

When I see the pictures I took, I have mixed feelings. 

On the one hand, I feel sad for the animal that was killed. You cannot but feel for it, or you'd be heartless. 

On the other hand, it was all a very peaceful and quick process. Mr P-E, the butcher, had a very calming presence and the animal was completely still. No bleating, no screaming, no thrashing about. Just calm.  

The other prevailing thought was how fast a living being turns into a piece of meat that most of us feel comfortable looking at. I made myself look throughout, from the shot in the head, the blodletting, the very first cut down its midsection, to the deskinning and the disemboweling. It wasn't fun, but it felt right. If I eat it, I should bloody well know how it is killed. 

Mr B holding his sheep right before it is slaughtered 

Letting out the blood after the shot to the head

Skinning the sheep

From sheep to carcass in 45 minutes

I wonder how I will feel about having our own lambs slaughtered sometime next autumn. I imagine it will be a pretty tough experience.

Filling a chest freezer or two

We finally decided to get another chest freezer. That makes two chest freezers, two normal freezers and two fridges. That sounds like a lot of capacity, but I am sure it will feel too small in a year’s time. 

Delivery man trying to calm his nerves after braving our road...

Most of the space is taken up by our bulk purchases of organic/ grass-fed meat. However, in a year’s time, we will need some of that space for our own meat! Although our rare breed lambs won’t be that big, an estimated 14 x 15-20 kg of lamb meat will probably fill up our freezers pretty quickly. 

These ladies will hopefully put a lot of food on our table (however macabre that may sound). 

In addition, we are currently topping up our freezers with all the berries that we can find. We’re preserving as well, but since we don’t use much sugar in our household, we would rather not try our luck by making preserve with ALL our berries, lest it should fail (low sugar/ honey content = more likely to spoil). We’re currently at 120 litres and counting, blueberries and lingonberries…

They're alright to pick, but cleaning is another thing...

Now we just need to find some space for the all the mushrooms we’re planning to pick!

Porcini deluxe. 

The Lowdown on Lamb Offal

Well, the butcher did ask us if the lamb kidneys, liver and hearts were for the dog... I now understand why. Sort of.

The reason we got lamb offal was simply the short notice we gave him. And since we're generally feeling pretty adventurous, we said "why not?".

So what was the verdict? Not too favourable, I'm afraid.

• Lamb kidneys behave like little bouncy rubber balls and taste of barn. A barn full of sheep. Pooping sheep. 
• Lamb liver tasted plain weird. The pâté tasted as if a whole bottle of shampoo had been dropped into the batter. Lil T didn't seem to mind too much though. 
• Lamb heart stuffed with lamb mince and wrapped in bacon was a winner though. Tasted of lamb, yet not too strongly. The free anatomy lesson was a bonus. Let's just say that some parts are easily recognisable. 

Anyhow, next up is organic, free range beef offal. Lamb was just a bit too weird.