This seasonal delicacy is back on our counter from Monday 25th September 2023, while stocks last.
Pre-order a Salt Marsh Lamb Box – available for UK wide delivery
10 miles from The Postlethwaite Beef Farm lies Will and Victoria Case’s family farm in the Southern Lakes. Bordering the salt marshes of Morecambe Bay and a stone’s throw from The Holker Estate, the Case family have been involved in farming this land for generations. The family keep a good number of sheep, as well as a brood of free range egg-laying hens and we were delighted to see them just as the short salt marsh season was drawing to a close.
Some of these lambs have eaten a special diet of grass and vegetation which grows on marshland. These Texel Lambs produce very high quality meat from their extensive roaming on the salt marshes.
The fast-flowing tidal salt marsh has caught many people out in the past with undesirable consequences. We were interested to learn that when the sea comes in and the lambs become trapped on the sand bed, the farmer does not attempt to get them off: instead, the lambs wait for the current to pick up before jumping into the sea and getting washed ashore.
Joe, Richard, Sean & Jack were given a hands-on lesson from Will on how to identify the best quality lambs in the field. They were able to move amongst them to see how to identify this.
Will also gave the team a lesson in the birds & the bees. The 10 tups (rams) are kept separate from the female breeding sheep’s (ewes) until “tupping time” in autumn. The first ones to go see the women are two castrated tups; these males are merely there to get the ewes excited as they haven’t seen a ram for almost a year. Once the ewes are keen, the testosterone team are then introduced and the ewes will become pregnant. Some of the tups have been chosen for their meat quality and bulk, whilst others have been chosen to produce lambs which will be kept for breeding from – these are a more maternal-natured lamb.
After a busy few hours on the fields, we sat chatting in the farmyard enjoying sandwiches and a pot of tea from the Aga. Again we are grateful to the Case family for supplying us with well farmed, high quality salt marsh lamb and an excellent, entertaining and most informative afternoon.
We then continued to a very important part of the chain ensuring that the meat we sell in the shop is brought to us in a manner that we are happy to butcher and sell.
Stephen Airey from Grange-over-Sands runs a small abattoir where care an attention is taken so the animals that are taken there are dispatched in a stress free and humane manner. This is not only important for the welfare of the animal but also for the quality of the meat we sell. Again, Stephen’s family have run this abattoir for several generations, both farming and butchering is in his blood.
View our Salt Marsh Lamb recipes and factfile
Visit & chat with us in the shop to find out more about the journey from field to fork.
Our Salt Marsh Lamb box is available in our online shop for UK-wide delivery, while stocks last. Reserve your Salt Marsh Lamb cuts for collection from our shop.
