November 12, 2007

Dear Customer -

Sorry for the delay on this year's farm newsletter.  Technical difficulties with our web server prevented us from updating the website or send out the newsletter until now.  Also, many of you who have tried to place orders on the web in the past few weeks have gotten error messages.  We apologize for this.  Things seem to be okay now, and we've even been able to update the farm photo gallery.  If you have recently placed an order and gotten an error message, please re-submit your order here.

Otherwise it's been a hectic year, to say the least.  Just this past month has seen constant work on pond dredging, fencing, and our artificial insemination project.   We continue to see great progress in our genetics due to the A.I. sires we've been using.  These rams are the top Clun Forest rams in the UK, and the quality shows in their US-born offspring.  The lambs born from these matings are bigger, meatier, and more robust than the lambs we've had up till now.  Most of these lambs are going into our breeding program, but we hope that you'll see the difference in your lamb orders in the next year or so.  Lambs from these sires still have the same great taste and leanness, but they grow quicker and 'meatier' so that each year you order lamb you should see an increase in the size of lamb chops and roasts and leg of lamb. 

Another development has been the expansion of two additional flocks which we helped start last year.  These flocks are right here in Rappahannock County and are raising lamb according to our protocol.  They've both gotten off to a good start and we hope to be able to offer lamb from those flocks starting next autumn.   That means certified humane, all natural, grass-fed lambs just like we raise here on Touchstone Farm.  We're hopeful that with a couple of newer farms working according to our standards, in the coming years we'll have more lamb available to you - and available over a longer and extended fall and winter season.

In the meantime, Touchstone Farm has continued to expand.  We've spent most of the summer and fall putting in new fencing,  including putting an additional 40 acres of pasture into use.  The new fencing has been a huge labor-saver on the farm as in most cases it now means simply opening the gate to move the flock from one paddock to the next.  Much less stress on the sheep and the shepherd.

Most of you have already placed your lamb orders for this year and received them, despite the lack of a friendly reminder newsletter.  If you haven’t yet ordered for this year,  We urge you to do so soon, as we have only 10 lambs available for Dec-Jan. delivery.  For those of you who would like to place the same order each year, we 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 $7.50 a pound for a ˝ lamb (approximately 20-25 lbs of meat) or $6.50 a pound for a whole lamb (approximate 40-50 lbs of meat).

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 is a new one that we're looking forward to trying ourselves in the next week or so.  It comes from a great new cookbook “The River Cottage Meat Book,” by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.  Hugh is a fixture on British TV and a big proponent of locally sourced food.  He's also a terrific chef who's not afraid to dirty his hands in the production process either.  This is a substantial dish, but light enough that it wants a fairly light accompaniment.  Some citrus couscous and French bread or salad are enough to make this recipe a hearty but not heavy autumnal lunch.  A light Belgian wheat beer like Blue Moon, or a great New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc would compliment this dish perfectly - and still leave you with enough energy to enjoy a Sunday afternoon walk in the woods. 

Enjoy your Lamb!

Yours,

Alan Zuschlag and the folks at Touchstone Farm