21 July 2010

Lamb no longer a cheap eat

| johnboy
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The Canberra Times is delving into the rising price of lamb across Canberra.

Lamb cutlets are approaching $50/kg at butchers in the swankiest ACT suburbs and the shortage of sheep meat may push prices up further.

The extra cost is due to a scarcity of sheep Australia-wide, which is good for farmers in the region watching lamb prices continually break records and approach a whopping $200 a head at saleyards.

If it’s no longer going to be a cheap option should we get more creative in how we cook it?

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saving a few extra bucks does ?goes a long way, A buck saved is a buck earned !

Heard on FB about the prices of this mob and that they ?also have local produce. Luckily they are in dickson ! give them a try http://lostriverproduce.com.au/

worth a try

pajs said :

Sirocco, Grail’s paragraph on bringing refrigerated or frozen meat up to room tempreature before cooking was an attempt at humour and making a point that there can be good reasons for doing something, even if the exact explanation is not right.

And organic is hardly pseudo-science, and not the same as biodynamic. Not to mention that you can follow some aspects of BD without subscribing to Steiner’s philosophies.

Thanks pajs – if Grail’s comment was tongue-in-cheek then fair enough – it certainly makes more sense that way.

Alrightly, on revision after reading the standards laid out at http://www.australianorganic.com.au, organic does not seem to be too crazy (although – but I stand by my comments on biodynamic. But these same procedures state that in order to be certified biodynamic it appears you must create and use kooky, nonsense Steiner-potions.

Sirocco, Grail’s paragraph on bringing refrigerated or frozen meat up to room tempreature before cooking was an attempt at humour and making a point that there can be good reasons for doing something, even if the exact explanation is not right.

And organic is hardly pseudo-science, and not the same as biodynamic. Not to mention that you can follow some aspects of BD without subscribing to Steiner’s philosophies.

Been watching a bit too much ACA gazman?

Wow, thanks for the very informative post Grail.

I had really no idea what organic and biodynamic certifications meant; for the last few years I had felt that these certifications were harmless methods that might even have had the potential to produce better-tasting meat. I would buy them if they were in front of me at the supermarket and at a reasonable price.

Having read the National Standard published by DAFF and followed it up with a bit of a read on the original Steiner work I am now convinced that the methods are based on batshit-crazy pseudo-science.

It suggests to me that if you open your mind too much, your brains will fall out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFO6ZhUW38w

To quote Tim Minchin:
“And if anyone can show me one example in the history of the world of a single Homeopathic practitioner who has been able to prove under reasonable experimental conditions that solutions made up of infinitely tiny particles of good stuff dissolved repeatedly into relatively huge quantities of water have a consistently higher medicinal value than a similarly administered placebo…”

Specifically I think I lost you at:

Grail said :

I’ve found that standing the frozen or refrigerated meat in a stoneware or metal (not plastic!) bowl of water for a few hours to absorb essential energy from the room before cooking it helps improve the flavour, and prevents the meat becoming tough and stringy.

Do you also sharpen your knives under a pyramid?

I think I will now actively avoid purchasing organic/biodynamic foods wherever possible, now that I’m better informed.

agree with grail for most part but there are two major deceptive parts to organic certification:

the first is locating organic feed which is often not easily available or must be freighted in from across the country which just adds
to unnecessary carbon emissions all in the name of being organic alternatively the flock are fed minimal nutritional requirements.

second i KNOW for a fact organic certified farmers who practice intensive farming and switch back to non organic practices
when not being audited ! haha

anyway, i’m TRUE free range farmer not with lambs but chooks and mine range at 100 hens per acre and you are right in
Australia there’s no friggin regulation to ensure consumers are getting what they pay for.

….same goes for some certified organic i hate to inform you ! 😛

all our good lambs or lamb meat are exported , while we get to buy and eat Old Sheep. Beef is getting really bad too now. I stop buying it because last time I got bone fat n gristle for $23 a kilo .

Grail said :

Just because you don’t understand it, doesn’t mean it’s bullshit. Coming back to the issue of cooking lamb, I’ve found that standing the frozen or refrigerated meat in a stoneware or metal (not plastic!) bowl of water for a few hours to absorb essential energy from the room before cooking it helps improve the flavour, and prevents the meat becoming tough and stringy.

Do you do this before or after stuffing a horn with poo and burying it?

rebcart said :

…and here was me thinking that the ‘biodynamic’ label on a few of the dairy products I like the taste of had something to do with the bacterial cultures in them. I really should have looked it up.

As a scientist, I shall now look on those products with disgust. (Won’t some other brands pleeeeease start producing non-homogenised milk? I’ll love you, honest)

+1 for non-homogenised milks!

and grail, i’m sorry but:
Coming back to the issue of cooking lamb, I’ve found that standing the frozen or refrigerated meat in a stoneware or metal (not plastic!) bowl of water for a few hours to absorb essential energy from the room before cooking

wtf is this ‘essential energy’ of which you speak??? spooky stuff, i think my computer is scared now, too.

Hells_Bells7411:16 am 26 Jul 10

“@: the fact is that you cannot distinguish between “feedlot raised”, “feedlot finished”, or “pasture finished” lamb in the supermarket because the stuff labelled “Free Range” might be sheep that were born in a pasture

Dunno. Never, ever seen these labels you have described placed on lamb.”

I say, if you can’t tell the difference, then there’s no real problem.

Would still be nice to aim for ethical treatment of animals across the board though.

@Grail: The proportion doesn’t matter –

Why doesn’t the proportion matter when it is in the vast minority? At foodservice and export level it is often identified because it is a selling feature as being “grain fed”.

@: the fact is that you cannot distinguish between “feedlot raised”, “feedlot finished”, or “pasture finished” lamb in the supermarket because the stuff labelled “Free Range” might be sheep that were born in a pasture

Dunno. Never, ever seen these labels you have described placed on lamb.

@ spent 4 weeks with their flock in the pasture, then shipped to a feedlot to spend the next 3-4 weeks being “finished” before slaughter. The distinction is important to some people

BS. I wish I knew how to put that in bigger letters. Get your hand off it.
Lambs don’t come off milk within 4 weeks and then they need to be introduced to grass slowly. Animals destined for GF are also slowly introduced to grain feed which is not just grain, it is a mixture of grain, lupins and often other additives such as minerals and vitamins.

Don’t get me started on “industrial meat”. WTF does that mean.
Step into the real world and don’t believe everything you read.

I’m not entirely sure of how serious you’re being, so I’ll just leave that where it lies. I understand perfectly what the standard is saying, my issue is with the magical language that’s used, and the false legitimacy that the standard implies. Anyone who wants to make their own judgement on the subject can do a bit of Googling, or take a look at a skeptical treatment here: http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4026

@Pandy: you’re correct about the range of other certification agencies. The point still stands that the only discriminator the consumer can rely on is a trademarked organic label issued by a recognised certification agency: everything that is not labelled by an organic standards certification agency is in the same “non-Organic” bucket, regardless of feed-lot versus pasture-fed status. The point also stands that a farmer trying to sell pasture-raised meat has no way to distinguish their product from industrial meat. For my purposes, I’d prefer to get my meat from animals that were raised healthily and happily, it’s bad enough that my favourite food involves killing animals – I’d prefer that they were at least given the chance to be happy while they lived.

@Pandy: There’s no mention of moon cycles, but there is mention of things like “allopathic treatment”, “management plan” and “risk management”. Ha ha! Bunch of weirdos, “allopathic treatment”! What a load of cobblers!

@Erg0: you can replicate the stirring process at home: half-fill a teacup, stir it vigorously in one direction to get a vortex (whirlpool), then stir it in the opposite direction to get a vortex, then switch directions again. You’ll get chaotic bubbling as the vortex collapses and reforms spinning in the direction that you’re now stirring. I’m not sure how prescribing the technique for thoroughly mixing a suspension or solution makes biodynamics somehow unworthy of an Australian Standard. If you’re worried about this prescribed process for thoroughly mixing a solution, you should see what allopathy practitioners are doing! They use *magnetism* to induce inverse vortexes to induce chaos and entropy in their allopathic preparations. Magnetism! Chaos! Vortex! What a bunch of crackpots!

Just because you don’t understand it, doesn’t mean it’s bullshit. Coming back to the issue of cooking lamb, I’ve found that standing the frozen or refrigerated meat in a stoneware or metal (not plastic!) bowl of water for a few hours to absorb essential energy from the room before cooking it helps improve the flavour, and prevents the meat becoming tough and stringy.

@imarty: “The grain fed lamb is generally sold into the food service and export trade due to its consistency.” – there is still a large amount of feedlot lamb on the domestic market. The proportion doesn’t matter – the fact is that you cannot distinguish between “feedlot raised”, “feedlot finished”, or “pasture finished” lamb in the supermarket because the stuff labelled “Free Range” might be sheep that were born in a pasture, spent 4 weeks with their flock in the pasture, then shipped to a feedlot to spend the next 3-4 weeks being “finished” before slaughter. The distinction is important to some people.

Grail, it seems if you want to be assured that your food is organic or a Steiner biodynamic, the food should have been certified and carry a logo from of of these groups:

http://www.daff.gov.au/aqis/about/contact/aco#ausqual

This is the info I have gleaned from the AS6000 over arching standard that has been in large part been based upon the AQIS standard above.

But Certified Organic(TM) is only a trade mark for one of the certifiers. It also seems that only one organisation has a valid TM that can be pinned on biodynamic produce and that is from http://www.demeter.org.au/

Also it seems there is no restriction upon calling any food destined only for the Australian market “organic”. AQIS will only step in if you try to export food overseas labeled as organic.

…and here was me thinking that the ‘biodynamic’ label on a few of the dairy products I like the taste of had something to do with the bacterial cultures in them. I really should have looked it up.

As a scientist, I shall now look on those products with disgust. (Won’t some other brands pleeeeease start producing non-homogenised milk? I’ll love you, honest)

Pandy said :

Grail, this Biodynamic (TM) you speak of, does the standard talk of lunar cycles and preperations? If so, how can an Australian Standard endorse alchemy?

I had no idea until now that there was actually an Australian standard for biodynamic agriculture, and I find it quite extraordinary that such a thing exists. I anxiously await the homeopathy labelling guidelines that are surely just around the corner.

For those who are unfamiliar with biodynamics, here’s a particularly scientific passage drawn from the DAFF website:

“Stirring of Bio-dynamic Preparations shall be organised to achieve an energetic vortex, followed by an immediate reverse action – causing a “bubbling” chaos and reverse vortex – then subsequent reverse chaos and vortex etc for the full hour (Steiner, Pfeiffer).”

– From Section 3.23 at http://www.daff.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/126261/national-standard.pdf

Grail, you’re partly right, sheep slaughtered after their wool producing days are over will be mutton but only because of their age, not their breed type.
The industry definition of mutton is a female or castrated male showing no signs of secondary sexual characteristics with up to 8 permanent incisors. Lamb is the same except it must not show any permanent incisors.

Lambs bred for meat are not necessarily grain fed and this is where you’re wrong. Most lamb sold in Australia are still grass fed. The grain fed lamb is generally sold into the food service and export trade due to its consistency.

Grail, this Biodynamic (TM) you speak of, does the standard talk of lunar cycles and preperations? If so, how can an Australian Standard endorse alchemy?

Sheep bred for wool and then later slaughtered will produce mutton. So it’s reasonable to assume that most of the mutton you buy is pasture-fed, but then there are the husbandry issues of mulesing, docking, routine drenching, soil health, etc.

Lambs bred for meat are usually raised in a feed lot (this practice came into widespread use in Australia through the late 1990s to early 2000s), so the meat you buy as “lamb” is most likely from a feed-lot. They raise the animals as part of an industrial process, in order to achieve the highest consistency of their product (lamb meat). Feed them as much as they can eat in 7 weeks, then ship them off to the slaughter house.

You should not associate the sheep you see contentedly grazing their way through Lake George with the lamb roast on your table. While some of those lambs will end up at the butcher, the greater portion of the lamb you see in the shops will be from feed lots except where specifically labelled “Certified Organic”.

Feed lots are simply the most efficient way to produce large quantities of lamb meat, in terms of dollars per kilogram.

I specifically asked about the free range bits because my experience of sheep farming (bearing in mind that I am a sysadmin, not a farmer!) has uniformly involved sheep grazing more or less[1] as they wanted to in paddocks (eg. the grassland on/around Lake George), and I was wondering what specific qualifications there were for the ‘free-range’ tag.

Is it really meaningless marketing? Should people think “free range” when they look out the window on the way past Lake George and see a bunch of sheep meandering around eating grass?

[1] the main concerns being (a) keeping the ewes and rams apart except at breeding time, (b) choosing[2] paddocks with sufficient vegetation for them to graze on, and (c) trying to keep predators away, eg. foxes

[2] if they will be shorn as well, this will also affect the grazing location

I figure indigoid was trying to sort it out from the producer’s point of view, but I got distracted by the “organic is X” thing, so there was a disconnect between the question indigoid was asking and the question I thought I was answering. It’s probably me that’s not very bright 🙂

In addition to the “doesn’t involve drench” thing, there’s the fact that under the Australian Certified Organic Standard, the word “pasture” has implications beyond “a paddock”. So while the “range freely” thing is no different, the ” … on pasture” means a world of difference between “traditional” and “organic” farming.

Those who are interested in knowing the difference can follow the links I’ve provided.

tl;dr version

“Free range” is meaningless marketing but livestock must be able to “range freely” to be certified organic which is different to “normal” because it doesn’t involve drench.

It’s not exactly rocket science, indigoid. You mustn’t be very bright.

Apologies for the double post. I’ve tried to answer the “what is free range” part, and pointed out that Certified Organic is the only guarantee that buyers currently have that meat products are actually from animals that have ranged freely during their lives.

To make it clear about indigoids specific question of free range vs organic from the farmer’s point of view: there is nothing different between the free range requirements of the Australian Certified Organic Standard and what many Rioters will regard as “traditional” animal husbandry in terms of pasturing animals.

The catch is that there is no restriction on manufacturers labelling their meat or animal products as “free range”. Thus there is absolutely no way for the “traditional” farmer to distinguish their pasture raised lamb from feedlot lamb.

indigoid said :

I know what the organic part is about. I asked about the free-range part.

“Free range” is a marketing label. I addressed the issue, if you had bothered to read my post you’d see this bit, which I will quote here since you obviously have a short attention span and an even shorter temper:

where “free range” means “our chickens have more than 1 square metre to run around in!”

We have no guarantee that the meat that is labelled “free range” actually came from animals that were able to range freely, so the label on the box is meaningless. Certified Organic™ meat will be from free ranging animals, because free ranging on pasture is part of the standard for Certified Organic™ certification.

So I actually answered your question twice, but since you had neither read my post in full, nor read the Certified Organic standard, you didn’t know that.

The Australian Standard for Organic and Biodynamic Produce is AS 6000, but it’s a hundred odd dollars and protected by Copyright so I can’t just give you a copy. For educational purposes, I’ll quote the relevant section of the new standard is §2.11.2.4 LIVESTOCK – Requirements:

Livestock shall be managed to ensure they range freely for a substantial majority of daylight hours on pasture. All livestock shall have an adequate supply of clean water.

You can purchase a copy here: http://infostore.saiglobal.com/store/Details.aspx?productid=1140829

The relevant section of the Australian Certified Organic Standard (this is the free-as-in-beer document, not the $100 one, so there’s nothing stopping you actually reading it yourself) is §5 in its entirety, but the best wording is §5.1.23. Agistment and Finishing:

Feedlotting of livestock, battery production systems and other means of densely confined and intensive production systems without access to pasture (landless animal husbandry systems) are not permitted within organic production systems.

I’m not just posting Certified Organic™ propaganda. I’m trying to answer your question about “what is free range.”

Please don’t tell me you “know what the organic part is about” when you clearly don’t.

I love vegetarian food. I frequently find awesome vegetarian recipes and prepare them. But I almost always end up improving them by adding bacon.

Meat is Murder!!!1!
Tasty, tasty murder…

Holden Caulfield10:23 am 22 Jul 10

nhand42 said :

The main thing stopping me becoming a vegetarian is the behaviour of other vegetarians. Bunch of pretentious @&^!%#s.

+ eleventy billion.

BimboGeek said :

This entire story makes me literally angry with rage!

Johnboy, if you want to be creative in how you cook why don’t you stop to ask yourself why you think it’s necessary to turn your body into a bizarre graveyard, a bizarre animation device for the walking dead? Why are you a flesh devouring zombie???

The main thing stopping me becoming a vegetarian is the behaviour of other vegetarians. Bunch of pretentious @&^!%#s.

Fisho said :

Hint 1: do not buy cuts of meat. Buy beasts. Get deep freezers to store it.

Sure. Then you just need a freezer ($$$) and electricity to run it 24×7 ($$$) and space to store the damn thing ($$$).

Also some of us don’t eat that much meat. My parents do because meat was scarce when they were young, so for them it’s meat for breakfast, meat for lunch, meat for dinner, and the occasional snack featuring meat. I can’t manage more than 2-3 meals per week with meat in it. A freezer full of meat would last me years. Why would I bother?

indigoid said :

Grail, did you notice that you completely failed to answer the question of mine that you quoted?

I know what the organic part is about. I asked about the free-range part. Instead of providing a useful answer, you spammed RA with a boring propaganda diatribe.

Don’t do it again.

umad?

Lamb has been expensive for a long time, and why, the farmer’s aren’t making money.

To address the original post, one aspect of this that has been ignored is lamb is trimmed far more than 10-20 years ago. Reducing the waste to the customer means an increase in price as the butcher is no longer selling fat & bone but he’s paid for it.
This has also seen the increase of mutton and hogget being labelled as lamb.
Think about that when you’re tucking into your lamb shanks that hang over the side of your plate. Big lamb hey…
Also, cost of production has increased significantly (drought anyone?) as has demand.

Re the free range debate with indigoid & grail. A lot of lamb nowadays is grain fed which doesn’t qualify them to be termed free range although there are no firm regulations that are really enforceable.
Same with organic. Anyone can get away with mislabelling meat as organic or free range and the onus is on the prosecutor to prove otherwise. The paper trails aren’t always there and that’s all there is to prove. It’s very hard to prove otherwise.

Grail, did you notice that you completely failed to answer the question of mine that you quoted?

I know what the organic part is about. I asked about the free-range part. Instead of providing a useful answer, you spammed RA with a boring propaganda diatribe.

Don’t do it again.

georgesgenitals8:32 pm 21 Jul 10

Fisho said :

georgesgenitals said :

BimboGeek said :

This entire story makes me literally angry with rage!

Could be worse – ever seen a chick angry with desire?

Ever seen the little pink nose of a nervous rabbit that has the flu?

Maybe…

Tee hee!

Fisho stop stalking my computer! You’re making it frightened for its safety.

georgesgenitals said :

BimboGeek said :

This entire story makes me literally angry with rage!

Could be worse – ever seen a chick angry with desire?

Ever seen the little pink nose of a nervous rabbit that has the flu?

BimboGeek said :

This entire story makes me literally angry with rage!

you need more red meat in your diet to suppress your rage. Or you own an HP badged machine.

BimboGeek said :

Johnboy, if you want to be creative in how you cook why don’t you stop to ask yourself why you think it’s necessary to turn your body into a bizarre graveyard,

It’s yummy. It’s what you evolved to do.

BimboGeek said :

a bizarre animation device for the walking dead?

Once you cut their heads and legs off, they have a tendency to not be ‘walking’. They have a tendency to be ‘tasty’

BimboGeek said :

Why are you a flesh devouring zombie???

Evolution. It’s what we are designed to do. It’s the processed crapola that will mess you up.

Stop buying meat at the supermarket. The closest abboitoir(sp?) to canberra is in Cowra with the closure of young and goulburn. Support small buiness and force the multinationals that run the ab’s to sell at the same price and volume that they do to the supermarkets.

Or learn how to fish and do everyone a favour and eat carp soup.

The canberra times is clearly about 3-4 months behind the times….

Hint 1: do not buy cuts of meat. Buy beasts. Get deep freezers to store it.
Hint 2: Do not buy meat in supermarkets
Hint 3: Do not buy meat in Canberra is at all possible.
Hint 4: Slow cooking/roasting/smoking – esp the ‘poor’ cuts is something you should be doing. Get a cookbook. Stop watching masterchump.

$200/head dressed for a lamb? Do you get shares in Brooklyn Bridge with that?

BimboGeek said :

You’ll certainly make yourself popular with us by publishing stories like this and comments like that!

It makes me ‘literally angry with rage’ that you presume to speak for ‘us’.

georgesgenitals6:20 pm 21 Jul 10

BimboGeek said :

This entire story makes me literally angry with rage!

Could be worse – ever seen a chick angry with desire?

This entire story makes me literally angry with rage!

Johnboy, if you want to be creative in how you cook why don’t you stop to ask yourself why you think it’s necessary to turn your body into a bizarre graveyard, a bizarre animation device for the walking dead? Why are you a flesh devouring zombie???

johnboy said :

I certainly like toying with vegetarians.

You’ll certainly make yourself popular with us by publishing stories like this and comments like that!

Grass is organic? If lambs eat grass then why are not all lambs organic by default?

There were these two cannibals munching on a clown. One said to the other. “Does this taste funny to you?”

Its just meat u can get all the vitamins and minerals u need from Beef, Fish, chicken and so on…..i wouldn’t recommend becoming a vegan though. Every vegan i have know has had health problems or just needs a cup of cement in there diet.

Gone fishing..

Apologies for the double post – this one’s about cooking lamb, rather than “what is organic” 🙂

I’ve found that when it comes to cooking meat nicely, there are two options that never fail to satisfy me: one is roasting the meat on the barbecue (I have one of those Webber Genesis jobbies, foolproof roasting at its finest) or cooking my meals in a pressure cooker.

If you have an iOS device, look up “Epicurious” for some really awesome recipes – it is also a web site of course: http://www.epicurious.com/ – you just can’t beat an iPad as a cookbook replacement (it’s a blimmin’ library, a cornucopia of recipes via Epicurious, Google, Australia’s Best Recipes, whatnot. Now all we need is an ePub version of Margaret Fulton’s and we’ll be set).

As for “what aspect of these free-range lamb farming practices differ from the usual”:

Organic (with a capital O) farmers must not use any herbicides, and drenches (vaccines) may only be used when there is an identified problem affecting the animals on that farm, the vaccine must be suitable for that disease, and use must be stopped immediately the problem has been resolved. So contrast this with “normal” agribusiness where animals will be given broad-spectrum drenches on a regular basis as “preventative” medicine (and thus killing all the dung beetles and earthworms on the property, leading to salination and wind/rain erosion).

In the meantime, spraying your paddocks with Roundup to prepare them for crops renders the paddock – and subsequently anything grown or grazed on it – non-Organic, and will require at least two years of rehabilitation to become eligible for Organic certification. Use other means to control weeds, such as planting cover crops and turning them in before planting your crop seed (ie: never leave the soil bare).

To deliver an Organic cut of meat to a customer, the entire chain from paddock to shopfront has to be certified Organic: no pesticides or herbicides used except to treat actual problems, strict control on what chemicals are allowed to be used in the feeding, raising, slaughtering and butchering processes, and ethical handling of the animals from birth to slaughter.

Organic farming is basically using modern knowledge to do old fashioned “animal husbandry” as opposed to the modern trend of “agribusiness.”

Apart from the obvious raising of crops or animals, Organic farming is about keeping records – part of an Organic certification is complying to the relevant Australian Standards of documenting the processes on the farm, and tracking compliance to those process.

You can find some information about Organic gardening on the COGS website: http://www.cogs.asn.au/organic-principles/growing-organically/ while the 114 page Australian Certified Organic Standard can be found through the Biological Farmers of Australia website: http://www.bfa.com.au/index.asp?sec_id=135

Hope this helps someone.

PS: The Australian Organic Standard was recently amended to become the Australian Certified Organic Standard, since “Certified Organic” can be trademarked while “Organic” cannot (for the obvious carbon-chemistry reasons amongst others). Thus when you are out shopping for high quality produce, look for “Certified Organic” with the sprouting seed logo (see aforementioned BFA website for details). There are plenty of dodgy operators in the food industry who are using “organic” as another buzzword just like “free range” or “new! improved!” – where “free range” means “our chickens have more than 1 square metre to run around in!”

But that’s a different rant, for a different day.

neanderthalsis4:23 pm 21 Jul 10

Given the almost criminal cost of our national meat we should emulate the hero in our (quasi) national song.

Whose that jolly jumbuck, you’ve got in your tucker bag…

You know it makes sense.

georgesgenitals3:58 pm 21 Jul 10

I’ve tended to buy lamb by the side, already cut. Typically costs about 45 bucks, and you get quite a few (20 or more) chops, including some cutlets, as well as a roast, a shank, and some other bones (the dog loves them). I bag the meat in small quantities and put it in the deep freeze. Ends up costing around 5 to 6 dollars per kilogram.

Woody Mann-Caruso3:26 pm 21 Jul 10

So long as it is not biodynamic™, witchcraft makes food taste funny.

It’s all the manure-stuffed horns. That, and the ash wafting over from the wicker man full of goats and Edward Woodward.

Ando Organics is one that springs to mind. They do goat too…

I was speaking with the guy from Ando about a month ago. He said the goats were proving difficult to manage so he was dropping them. Not sure of the timeframe.

So long as it is not biodynamic™, witchcraft makes food taste funny.

Woody Mann-Caruso2:02 pm 21 Jul 10

Woody, what aspect of these “free-range” lamb farming practices differs from the usual?

HTFWIK? Do I look like a sheep farmer? That’s just what’s written on the signs, and what happens to be sold where I shop. I’m not making any special claims. Get non-free-range non-organic for all I care. Not that I know where they are. Even Jordo’s whole lamb is organic, and a steal at $8.90 a kilo, so a bit over $200 for a whopping 25kg carcass custom prepped. Go there if farmers markets and tie-dyed hessian makes you uncomfortable.

troll-sniffer1:26 pm 21 Jul 10

What’s called organic food by the trendies and the Mac brigade (look at moi, oi’m different) has its place. But I don’t think that lamb is one of them. From what I’ve seen a farmer round here would have to try pretty hard to render his flock ‘non-organic’, unless you’re one of the looney brigade who think that a bit of fertiliser every few years to make up for generic soil deficiencies renders food inorganic.

colourful sydney racing identity said :

I think the key word in WMC post is ‘organic’

Carbon based? I would hope so.

Ari said :

Go on, go vegetarian, JB, you’ve most likely been toying with it anyway.

I certainly like toying with vegetarians.

A Noisy Noise Annoys An Oyster12:32 pm 21 Jul 10

Spoono said :

No better time to become a vegetarian, you know it makes sense!

Vegetarians are trendy mental defectives who are skinny, gaunt, unhealthy and wimpish. Meat is vital for proper development of the brain – vegetarians have much lower IQs and intelligence levels than normal people. Vegetarian parents are far more likely to produce children with autism, cerebral palsy, spina bifida and cystic fibrosis. Hitler was a vegetarian.

I only eat inorganic food.

justin heywood12:25 pm 21 Jul 10

Free range-lamb? But is it also dolphin-friendly?

The free-range lamb is far superior to the battery lamb where the lambs are packed in those cages… and forced to lay lamb chops around the clock.

colourful sydney racing identity12:17 pm 21 Jul 10

indigoid said :

Woody, what aspect of these “free-range” lamb farming practices differs from the usual?

NB: the last 5 generations of one half of my family tree have been lamb farmers. It’s quite possible that we’ve been living up to your ridiculous buzzwords all along. Should have doubled the price!

I think the key word in WMC post is ‘organic’

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

I remember nearly falling over when I visited the Costco near the Pentagon and saw glistening packages of premium cuts of Australian lamb at half the price it was back home.

Really? In the mid nineties lamb of any sort seemed pretty expensive in North America, if you could find it.

Woody, what aspect of these “free-range” lamb farming practices differs from the usual?

NB: the last 5 generations of one half of my family tree have been lamb farmers. It’s quite possible that we’ve been living up to your ridiculous buzzwords all along. Should have doubled the price!

Lamb was cheap? Oh.

Woody Mann-Caruso11:56 am 21 Jul 10

Plenty of places will do a whole free-range organic lamb for a couple of hundred bucks, butchered to your requested cuts, ready to freeze. Even if they’ve gone up a bit lately it still beats paying $20 a kilo for chump chops. Ask around the farmers markets – Ando Organics is one that springs to mind. They do goat too – mmmm, Jamaican goat curry.

I remember nearly falling over when I visited the Costco near the Pentagon and saw glistening packages of premium cuts of Australian lamb at half the price it was back home.

Poor troll is poor.

My partner and I call them self-propelled roasts instead of lambs. NOM NOM NOM

Chicken. it tastes like, well, CHICKEN!

no longer… ?? since when has lamb been cheap?

slow cooking, cheap cuts – you know it makes delicious sense… 😉

Scarcity of sheep in australia…. WHERE????

Go on, go vegetarian, JB, you’ve most likely been toying with it anyway.

No better time to become a vegetarian, you know it makes sense!

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