Icelandic lamb count for the year and one breeding ram for sale . . . . .

This year one of the ram lambs we used for breeding was too young when we put him with his ewes. Lenny was the only ram that bred his batch of girls this year. We had fewer lambs than I expected - this actually turned out to be a good thing because I was able to focus more on the farm store opening.

I will only be offering our best ram lamb for sale as breeding stock and holding back five ewe lambs to increase our flock size for next year. We will be offering only four whole lambs this year for meat. I will begin taking $50.00 deposits for the lambs starting August 1st. Last year we sold out before October so please reserve your lamb early.

Our lambs are butchered the first week in November and are delivered boxed about a week later. Weights on meat are usually between 25-30 pounds and we price the meat at $7.00 per pound plus the $40.00 custom butcher fee. Lambs are 100% grass fed (no grain) and the flavor of Icelandic lamb is unlike any other sheep breeds - very, very mild with a tender, fine grained texture. "Cooks Illustrated" describes Icelandic lamb as being "Lamb Lite".

Now for the ram . . . . He is a beautiful Moorit Grey just like his mom - Elena. His fleece is spectacular and he is built like his grandsire - BLW-607N Mjaldursson. He is almost as big as mom and only 3 months old!


You can see his front and face here - he is such a "pretty boy".


And here is a good photo of his build:


Price: $500.00 registered and $350.00 non-registered.

Liz and her girls are in the next photo. Icelandic sheep are quite intelligent. Liz has learned to pull down a branch and hold it under her neck so her lambs can reach and eat with her. Both of her lambs have beautiful faces, great conformation and have inherited Liz's special fleece. Sugar - the black/grey ewe lamb, bonded with me at only a day old. She is a great friend and comes when called. Sugar just loves to be petted and hugged. She even allows Declan and Brynne hug her. I have high hopes for her future lambs. Sugar's sister, Spice, has not bonded with me yet . . . . we are getting there slowly. She is cautious like her mom ~ Liz took over two years to bond with me but now we are great friends.

Chantrelles

In the summer of 2006, I found my very first patch of chantrelle mushrooms on our property. This year has been a perfect growing season for them. Warm with dry spells and then some gentle rain. This morning the family went over to our friends property and gathered about 10 pounds of them and we are hoping these will last all year.

After they are wiped/washed I will put them individually on a cookie sheet and freeze them. I will then put them in gallon freezer bags and return them to the freezer. They can also be dried on a screen and then stored in glass jars.

Chantrelles are wonderful sauteed in butter with scrambled eggs and made into a cream of chantrelle soup. I also love them sauteed in olive oil and butter, lightly seasoned with garlic and herbs and then stuffed into the cavity of one of our Wyandotte chickens.

We are really starting the harvest now . . . . the tomatoes are beginning to ripen, peppers are now ready to pick and I am nearly finished with my fall vegetable planting. Hope everyone is having a bountiful summer.

Fresh Wayandotte Chickens Available on Friday July 16th

Our Wayandotte chickens are ready to process. We will be taking 50 birds to a Maine State inspected processing facility in Monmouth, Maine on Thursday. Fresh chicken will be available on Friday and Saturday from our Farm Store.



Wyandottes dress out at about 3-4 pounds at 12-14 weeks. Our next and final batch of 50 will be processed in the beginning of October. These birds have a wonderful flavor. Since our birds are very low in fat - the best way to cook them is by braising. My favorite way to cook them is stuffing the cavity of the bird with a scored lemon and herbs such as thyme or rosemary.

There is a perfect balance of light and dark meat. As with our heritage turkey's the meat is very fine grained and dense. This is the same breed of chicken that our ancestors ate in the 19th century. Now, over 99 percent of chickens reared on farms are the large cornish X breed.



We raise our birds in static coops and train our birds to go into the coop nightly. They have free range of over an acre of pasture during the day. Our chicks are hatched here on the farm from proven breeding stock.

It is exciting having the opportunity to not only raise this rarely found heritage chicken breed but to offer them through our farm store.

Buy local . . . . . eat well . . . . . .

Farm Store Photo's

Took some photo's this morning of the farm store.







Enjoy:)

Buy local . . . . eat well . . . . .

Farm Store is Now Open!!!

After 8 long months of restoration on our c. 1767 ell ~ our farmstore is now open.

What a relief. . . . We will be open W - Sat, 10 am - 5 pm. Fridays we will be open until 6 pm to accomodate all of our buying club members.

Buying club orders are due by Tuesday evening at 6:00 pm

Orders can be picked up on Fridays between noon and 6pm.

The availabilities for the buying club this week are:

Udderview Farm:

Soft Cheeses: 5 oz tubs - $5 (can do other flavors upon request)
Garlic & Dill
Garlic & Herb
Chipotle
Horseradish
Herbes de Provence
Boursin Style
Roasted Red Pepper
Plain

Herbed or Lemon Pepper Log: 4 oz - $4

Feta Crumbles: 3 oz. - $2.50
Marinated Feta 5 oz - $5.00

Marinated Chevre: 5 oz - $8.00
5 one-ounce balls of hand rolled chevre marinated in a roasted garlic-infused extra virgin olive oil with herbs and peppercorn

Bloomy Rind Cheeses (camembert style) (aged cheeses can take 2-3 weeks, so need to order ahead)
"traditional" or "ash dusted"
priced per piece (small ave $4-5; large ave $8-$10)

Drinkable Goat Yogurt - 12 oz bottle - $2
Plain of flavored

Smoked Summer Sausage (goat): $10/lb
(frozen and average link is .75/lb)
**great tossed in pasta with marinated feta, tomato, and garden greens


Tide Mill Organic Farm:

Certified Organic, Maine Raised Produce
Produce Bag...A selection of fresh, seasonal vegetables $10.00 each
Young Onions $2.00 per bunch
Swiss Chard $2.50 per heavy 1/2 lb
Kale $2.50 per heavy 1/2 lb
Garlic Scapes (the flower of the garlic plant, great mild garlic flavor) $0.20 each
Zuchinni $2.00 each
Summer Squash $2.00 per pound
Basil $1.50 per 1/8lb bag
Mint $1.00 per bunch


Certified Organic, Pasture Raised Cow Dairy
Ricotta, Made by Garden Side Dairy with TMOF milk $6.50 per 1 lb
Whole Milk Yogurt, made with Tide Mill Organic Farm's cow milk $4.00 per quart
Whole, raw milk in 1/2 Gallon Glass Ball Jars $2.75 per 1/2 gallon
Whole, Raw Milk (in a Recyclable plastic pint) $1.75 per pint
Whole, Raw Milk (In a narrow mouth ball jar) $2.00 per quart
Whole, Raw Milk in Recyclable Plastic Gallon Jugs $5.50 /gallon
Whole, raw milk in Recyclable Plastic 1/2 Gallon Jugs $3.00 per half gallon

Certified Organic, Pasture Raised Meats. FRESH Chicken! Frozen Pork and Beef.
CHICKEN...If it makes a difference to you, please specify "Fresh" or "Frozen"
Whole chicken. ~5 lbs each $4.50 /lb
Half Chickens $4.50 per lb
Whole breasts, (~1.8-2.5 lbs) with skin and bone $7.00 per lb
Boneless Breasts $9.50 per lb
Drumsticks, 4 per pkg (~ 1.5 lb pkg) $4.00 per lb
Thighs, 4 per pkg (~1.50 lb pkgs) $5.00 per lb
Leg/thigh quarters, 2 per pkg (~1.75 lbs) $4.50 per lb
Wings 8 per pkg (approximately 2 lb bag) $4.00 /lb
Chicken Necks (2-4 lb bags) $2.00 /lb
Chicken Backs (4 lb bags) $1.00 per lb
Chicken Livers (~1.0 lb bags) $4.00 per lb
Dehydrated chicken feet (great for dogs or as gag gifts) $5.00 per dozen

BEEF
Sirloin Steaks (1.40 lbs) $11.00 per lb
Strip Steaks $14.00 per lb
Ground beef $5.00 per lb
Stew Meat $6.50 per lb
Beef Roasts (large, Sirloin) $6.00 per lb
Beef Soup Bones $3.00 per lb
Beef Short Ribs $6.00 per lb

PORK
Country Ribs, thick cut ribs $8.00 per lb
Pork Shoulder Roast (great for pulled pork sandwhiches) $8.00 per lb
Nitrate-free Smoked Ham Roast $8.50 per lb
Nitrate-free Smoked Bacon $11.00 per lb
Leaf lard (render for purified lard to make the best pie crusts, biscuits, scones & dumplings) $2.00 per lb
Fat Back, Salt and brine to make salt pork (2 lb pkgs) $1.00 per lb

Olde Sow Farm:

Raw Creamline Milk $5 per gallon, $3 per half gallon

Raw Jersey Cream $4 per pint

Yogurt Plain $3.25 per 16 oz
Flavored Yogurt $4 per 16 oz
Flavors:
Fig or Ginger Peach

Cottage Cheese $3 per 8 oz tub

Cream Cheese $3.50 per 8oz tub
Garlic and Chive Cream Cheese $4.50 per 8 oz tub

Fromage Blanc w/ Garlic and Herbs in Olive Oil $4.50 per 8 oz tub

Thank you all for visiting the farm store over the last few days. Supporting our local communities beginning with our agricultural base is one of the first steps to local self sufficiency. We need to keep our currency where it counts - locally rather than globally.

Buy local . . . . eat well. . . .

Elimination of Barberpole - Confirmed

My fecals today came back negative for barberpole. Bill Newcombe, our vet, confirmed this today.

I am hoping that this means this parasite has been eliminated from our farm.

I am so excited because so many, many sheep can now be saved by using my method based on the PJ Waller Study cited in prior posts.

Icelandic sheep have no experience to Barberpole Worm . . . . there is no way you can breed for resistance to barberpole 'unless' you have many, many generations exposed to this parasite. Most top North American Icelandic sheep breeders use Semen from Southram in Iceland - so the traits that we are looking for cannot be found from Icelandic semen and can only be found from rams born and bred in North America for many, many generations.

The study I followed is one way to eliminate this parasite. Also very important is to make sure that you have the proper mineral balance and correct any deficiencies.

We need to use supplemental copper on our farm as our soils have very poor levels. Last year I started giving a few of my sheep a 2.5 gram copper wire bolus in the middle of the summer and noticed a huge difference in fleece color and parasite loads. Silvering on darker fleeces ended and everyone just seemed healthier.

This year I did a combination of both the PJ Waller, et. all. study as well as copper supplementation.

I am planning to write up an article about this later this summer (when parasite season is finally over), I will be sending another fecal to my vet in August and will post the final results then.

I am hoping that my experiences will enrich others in their shepherding. The happiness and health of my ewes, two rams and all our growing lambs have been worth all the hard work of the last four years.