Felted Dryer Balls

Windy Fleeces Dryer Balls are hand felted, no chemicals, no dyes….just natural, humanely raised wool. Order through our Etsy page: www.etsy.com/shop/WindyFleecesWoolery.

Arrival of fall lambs

We normally aim for lambing to begin in February, but this year lambing has started extra early! We ran the entire flock together through the end of July, thinking ewes wouldn’t begin their heat cycling until later in August, but are realizing Churros must cycle year round. Four lambs born so far, two first-time ewes and two who lambed earlier this year.  Likely more are on the way given how round a couple more ewes are right now. It’s fortunate the weather has been so mild – these 3 guys and 1 gal are off to a great start. Happy early little Christmas presents!

2012 fall ewe lamb

Zhin Chooh & 2012 fall ram lamb

Köfte with Garlic Yogurt Sauce

Sorry, don’t have any photos of these, but so delicious and easy we make them all the time. Great as part of a dinner with couscous and steamed veggies or as an hors d’oeuvre. This recipe is modified somewhat from an Epicurious recipe. I generally use whole wheat bread (that’s what we have in the house) instead of the white bread in the original recipe, and I prefer using ground mutton over lamb for a richer flavor. I’ve also used cilantro instead of parsley to change things up a bit.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

For sauce:
1 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon minced garlic

For köfte:
2 slices firm bread, torn into pieces
1 lb ground lamb or mutton
1 small red onion, minced or grated
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon baharat* spice mix
1 1/2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons salt

Make sauce:

Stir yogurt with garlic and salt to taste.

Make köfte:

Cover bread with water in a bowl and soak 30 minutes, then squeeze bread to remove as much moisture as possible.
Prepare grill while bread soaks.

Transfer squeezed bread to a large bowl and add remaining köfte ingredients, then mix well with your hands until thoroughly blended. Divide lamb/mutton mixture into 16 portions and form each into a ball. Roll each ball into a 4- to 5- inch “cigar,” rolling first between your hands and then on a work surface (be sure the köfte are thin enough for even cooking).

Place on an oiled baking sheet and broil under high heat until gold and just cooked through, turning over once, 4 to 6 minutes. Wrap in lettuce leaves and serve warm with yogurt sauce.

To cook over the grill, roll each ball into a 7- to 8-inch cigar, and slide a 10-inch wooden skewer lengthwise through the center of each köfte. Grill on oiled grill rack, turning over once, until golden and just cooked through, 4 to 6 minutes.

*Baharat Spice Mix (my recipe):

6 Tbs paprika
4 Tbs ground black pepper
4 Tbs ground cumin seeds
3 Tbs ground coriander seeds
3 Tbs ground cinnamon
3 Tbs ground cloves
4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp cardamom pods

Blend together and store in an airtight container.

More spring photos of the Churros

2012 lambs on the ground

Fall is for cooking

No more hot weather driving me out of the kitchen!

One of the benefits of having a freezer full of lamb year round is getting to try new and different recipes, and perfecting some of my favorites. So I plan to start posting some of those recipes here, particularly really great flavor combinations. Ever hear of Baharat spice blend? It’s a blend of spices, not unlike Curry Powder though with an entirely different flavor profile. Think coriander, clove, paprika, black pepper, cumin and cinnamon  with a dash of nutmeg and cardamom. It’s amazing as a dry rub over a roast, sprinkled on grilled lamb steaks, or mixed into ground lamb for meatballs or kofte. With a garlicky yogurt sauce to dip into and cool your mouth off, it’s amazing any time of the year. I’ll post the blend I use here soon, along with the kofte recipe.

And this weekend, I’ll be making a go at a very traditional Shepherd’s Pie, braising a lamb shoulder, turnips and carrots, and smothering it with potatoes. Root vegetables from our garden, lamb raised on our pastures, a home-cooked meal if there ever was one.

Another grand adventure to write about in future posts – over the next year we are going to be building a milking parlor and milk house and starting a flock of dairy sheep, along with opening a creamery to make sheeps milk cheese! I’ve started the process towards getting a cheese maker license, and plans and excavation are underway for putting the parlor and milk house. We’ll be sure to document with photos our process.

Bored with Farmville? Try the real thing…

going public?

What I’ve failed to blog about since April 1: digging fence post holes, fencing, trying to contain the lambs who can slip through any fence, mucking winter paddocks, caring for the chicks and poults, rolling round bales around, planting the garden, digging new garden beds, re-doing the interior of the chicken/turkey coop, weeding, hauling the chicken tractor around, more fencing, butchering the mean roosters and turkey tom who should have taken care of last fall, more weeding, more digging, mowing. Back-breaking work that can be tedious, but never boring, and is so vital to keeping the farm operational.

This Saturday is supposed to be shearing day…but today it’s raining and soaking all the sheep. Hopefully we’ll get a few days of clear skies so they dry out, otherwise we’ll have to postpone. Can’t shear a wet/damp sheep. Will post photos.

Lamb for your Easter dinner

We have limited quantities of lamb (2010 lambs, 7-12 months old) for sale right now, just in time for your Easter dinner! Lean, tender sweet tasting meat, pasture raised – much better than you can find in the grocery store, we think!

$225 for a whole lamb, $125 for half. There’s an additional $70/$35 slaughter cost for processing, or alternately you can have the lamb processed at an abattoir of your choosing. Please contact us at windyfleecefarm@gmail.com if you’re interested.

Young, post-modern farmers

A healthy new lamb

Another ewe lamb! This one is white/natural color with an auburn spot on the back of her neck and tips of her ears. She is the first lamb out of the first lamb born on our farm last year.

our first white lamb!

purebred Churro ewe lamb