The Radical Homemaker

Warning: Blending authenticity with joy may arouse contempt.

Lamb & Pig Share Update

The harvest is underway!  If you ordered a pork or lamb share for this year, here is an update:

 

Pig Shares:  All pig shares will be ready for pick-up starting January 5.  Please write to shannon@sapbush.com to schedule a time in the next three weeks that works for you.  If you’d like to come during cafe hours, we’re open Saturdays 9-1. Please do not show up without notifying me in advance. I must arrange to have your meat pulled from storage before you come.  If those times don’t work, we installed a self-serve freezer that you can pick up from by appointment.  Just write and tell me what date and time you’d like to come. We will make sure your share is in the freezer with your name on it, and we’ll send you instructions on accessing it.

 

Lamb Shares:

At this moment, we’re getting ready to face this coming storm here at Sap Bush Hollow Farm.  Thankfully, we love the snow.  But it means that our grazing season is really, truly, undoubtedly, at an end.  The good news is that we were able to harvest NEARLY all the lambs off pasture that we needed to fill the lamb share orders.  Finishing lambs on grass is much harder than finishing them on grain.  We have to pay close attention to their individual conditioning, and we cannot predict the rate that each lamb will finish.  If we could dump grain in a trough, it would be a lot easier.  And we could predict exactly how many will be ready, and sell only that number!
But we don’t want to grain finish our animals, and neither do you.
SO, here’s what this means.  There are currently fifteen lamb shares outstanding.  We will be able to fill twelve of those orders in the next few weeks.   The lambs are already at the butcher. Three of those pre-ordered shares will not be able to be filled until June of this year.
Our protocol is to take the last three people who signed up for shares and ask them to wait until spring.  There are definitely benefits for those who have to wait, as I’ll explain below.  HOWEVER, looking over list, it occurs to me that some of you have to drive farther distances, and may prefer to wait until spring to get your lamb.  So, before I inform the last three sign-ups that they will need to wait, I thought I’d ask if there are any volunteers.  Here are the exciting incentives, should you volunteer to get bumped:
TOP 5 Reasons to wait ’til Spring for your lamb:
1.  Spring lambs are larger than fall lambs.  You’ll get more meat for the same price!  Ruminants, like sheep, are pretty neat in their thriftiness.  With the snow and bitter cold temperatures, they will not gain weight.   But once the lush pastures of spring arrive, they have something called compensatory gain, where they plump up super-fast, and grow even bigger.  We lose a little money with the cost of carrying them through the winter, but you gain with more meat for your dollars.
2. Quality of the meat doesn’t change.  Spring lambs are delicious.
3.  You don’t have to drive up the mountain in winter!
4. If you are closer to the Round Barn Farmers Market, we can bring it down there for you on a Saturday instead (as long as it is not a holiday weekend).
5.  The three people who signed up late at the bottom of the list are super eager to get their lambs as soon as possible.  They will be SOOOO thankful for your magnanimous act.  You’ll feel warm fuzzies through the entire coming storm.
Please consider and let me know if you can volunteer.  Otherwise, I’ll be reaching out to each of you as your lamb comes back from the butcher.

 

Wishing you had ordered an animal share?  Please contact me at shannon@sapbush.com.  Sometimes we have some no-shows, so you never know! We will begin accepting deposits for 2019 shares in March.