October 1, 2005
Dear Customer -
This has been a good year for Touchstone Farm. We had a record number of lambs born, and our artificial insemination project has borne fruit in the form of 42 lambs to expand our breeding stock. We're quite pleased with the results and hope that as the flock grows you'll notice continued improvement in the quality and size of your lamb orders.
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This letter is coming to you almost a month later than normal. I apologize for this, but the press of both farm and off-farm business has kept me extremely busy this September. Because of our AI project to expand our breeding stock, we had a number of lambs born late in the season, so a good deal of the lamb we have available to you is considerably smaller than normal. This is an advantage to you (though a slight disadvantage to me), in that those of you who normally order a half lamb order can order a whole lamb this year and get roughly the same amount of meat (on a lb per lb basis), but at the more reasonable whole lamb price ($5.50 a lb vs. $6.50 a lb). In order to take advantage of this offer, please place a whole lamb order and in the 'custom' box please type "small whole." These lambs are offered on a first-come, first-served basis (we have about 10 of these lambs available). Those of you who normally order a whole lamb can just place your order as usual and we'll guarantee a full-sized lamb as long as our supply lasts. |
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AI Lambs |
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If you’ve already
placed your order and received a
confirmation e-mail,
you're all set, and we thank
you for your promptness. If
you haven’t yet ordered for
this year, I urge you to do so soon, as we
only have 17 lambs left.
For those of you who would like
to place
the same order each year, I
would suggest that when
filling out the order form
this year you put a request
in for a "standing order"
in the custom box in the
order form. That way we
can automatically reserve a
lamb for you each year and keep your
order up-to-date, so you
needn't worry about us being
sold out before you had a chance
to place your order.
The quickest way to order is to click here to be taken to directly to our lamb order page and place your order using our on-line form. We'll coordinate a pick-up or delivery time that is convenient for you. All lamb orders are COD. Our prices once again, are $6.50 a pound for a ½ lamb (approximately 25 lbs of meat) or $5.50 a pound for a whole lamb (approximate 50 lbs of meat). |
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Baby Donkey (4 hours old) |
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In addition to our lamb, we still have plenty of 2-ply sports weight yarn available. It's spun from our wool, and it is beautiful. Our yarn is sold in specialty knitting stores for $11.95 a skein, but we can offer it to our customers directly at $8.95 a skein. Please e-mail us at: wool@touchstonefarm.org if you’d like some yarn.
This year's recipe uses a cut of lamb that very few customers order. Lamb "riblets" from the breast can be used in a variety of ways, but this soup is an easy to prepare and hearty meal for a late fall weekend afternoon. It goes very well with a rustic, coarse loaf of bread, and since I'm normally used to onion soup with cheese, I like to serve this soup with a bread that has cheese baked into it. A foccacia bread or a white pizza is an ideal accompaniment, and it's nice to wash it all down to with a heart ale (Belgian farmhouse ales are perfect) or a very robust and full-bodied red wine (think Valpolicella or Chianti).
Enjoy your Lamb!
Yours,
Alan Zuschlag
Easy Lamb Riblet and Onion Soup - serves 6 to 8 people
1.5 to 2 pounds of lamb riblets Flour 2 Tablespoons oil 1 box of dry onion soup mix 6 cups water 1/4 teaspoon cumin 1/4 teaspoon coriander 1 can (15 ozs) of chickpeas (drained) 3 medium carrots (diced) 1/4 cup chopped parsley Dust riblets in flour. In large skillet brown riblets in oil. Drain. Place browned riblets in a large pot or slow cooker. Add dry onion soup mix, 6 cups of water, and spices. Simmer covered for 1 to 1.5 hours. Then add beans, carrots, and parsley. Continue to simmer for 15-30 minutes or until carrots and lamb are tender. Remove meat from bones before serving (if desired - I prefer to do this).
