What’s a mutton
Here at BOTL Farm, we eat all sorts of meat. We also raise animals for meat that may be less familiar to some of our customers, such as goat (which is super-tasty) and mutton (but no one knows what that is). So this month we’d like to discuss “what’s a mutton?”
First, our newsletter editor would like to clarify that ‘mutton’ is an uncountable noun, so it’s incorrect to say ‘a mutton’ and instead we should just say ‘mutton.’ Now that’s settled, mutton is an old(er) sheep. There is no legal definition in the US, but it’s generally accepted that sheep younger than two years of age can be sold as lamb, while sheep older than two years of age should be sold as mutton. It is interesting (maybe?) to note that although sheep have multiple words used to distinguish ages of animals used for meat, other species like goat and pigs do not. [Except we did hear from one person that in some parts of India, the word ‘mutton’ is used for older goats as well as older sheep. Confusing!]
We mostly raise lambs for meat, but occasionally we do harvest an older sheep and sell mutton. This year, we harvested a whole bunch of older sheep so we have lots of mutton (more on that story in future newsletters)! The taste is similar to lamb, but a little stronger without being gamey. Because the animal is older, the meat is slightly less tender so it cooks better low n slow (but this isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, we love seared mutton chops). We also do a lot of ground mutton, which can be used as any ground meat can.
Mmm, burgers.
Meat to your door
One of our graduate school mentors often told us that it’s important to have ideas, and once you have a bunch, you can figure out whether they’re good ideas or bad ideas. So, we’re having ideas. TBD on whether they’re good.
Normally we’d go to a winter farmer’s market and hope you show up, but in an interesting development, we have no winter markets, so the only place you can show up to is our on-farm store. Amazing! Think of all the “free time” we’ll have. Relatedly, we’re going to start doing home delivery this winter. That’s right, you can place an order online and choose home delivery, then once a month one of the farmers will put your order into one of our excellent farm vehicles and drive it to your door. You leave out a cooler with ice and we put the order in it. It’ll be a beautiful day. Birds will be singing. You get meat at your door. You can wear your PJs. Everybody wins.
Where might we offer this elevated level of service, you may be wondering? After doing some town-level heat-mapping of our favorite customers, cross-referenced with geolocation of website traffic, and weighted by breweries we like to visit, we’ve come up with a list:
Sturbridge, MA area
New Haven, CT area
Hartford, CT area
The greater Putnam, CT area
Ashford, CT area
We will refine areas and adjust as we see how this goes. If you feel left out after reviewing the list and are interested in delivery or know someone who might be, let us know! No really, just respond to this email – we (well, one of us) reads and replies to everyone who responds.
Our full range of products that we sell can be delivered, including pork, eggs, lamb, mutton, animal feed and goat (ground goat makes a great burger).
Mmm, burgers.
Beef at our farm store
Since we’re out to save the world, we want to provide our customers with as many species of regeneratively-raised meat as possible. We get lots of questions about beef and cows, but we’re not cow people and have no intention of raising them ourselves. But, (did we mention?) because we love eating lots of meat, we supplement our already meat-centric diet with beef from another farm: Stone Hill Farm in Plainfield, CT.
Stone Hill is raising cows in the way that we, if we were suddenly struck by the crazy urge to raise cows, would raise cows: grass-fed, grass-finished, pasture-raised, and intensively-managed rotational grazing. For years we’ve bought beef from them, they’ve bought pork from us, we go to conferences together, we dork out about grazing, and we get along great. Now, we’re ready to take our relationship to the next level (eep!): we’re starting to stock and sell their beef at our on-farm store. Not that we have commitment issues (we’re totally committed), but we’re going to start just with ground beef (inventory is hard).
Mmm, burgers.
Organic animal feed: now stocking scratch
In an effort to be a one-stop shop for all your super-premium organic animal feed needs, we’re now stocking scratch. Tee hee, we totally re-used most of that sentence from last month. #thrifty
Scratch is a whole-grain supplement/entertainment for chicken people, I mean, chickens. We started stocking scratch because we had enough people ordering it regularly that it just became easier to keep a few bags on hand instead of having folks special-order each bag they need. We keep an eye out for products like this, which seem useful to transfer from special-order only to regularly-stocked. So don’t be afraid to order whatever specialty New Country Organics products you want from us and who knows, they may end up being regularly-stocked items in the future!
Mmm, burgers. We haven’t had dinner yet [editor notes that we don’t write this at 4am, that’s just when the newsletter is scheduled to send].
Find us this month
On farm store: Tuesdays noon - 2pm, Saturdays 1 - 3pm. Pre-order. Our on farm store is CLOSED on Saturday December 07 because we’ll be at the Assawaga Holiday Market. Go there instead!
On farm self pickup: Everyday 8:30am - 8pm. Pre-order only
Assawaga Holiday Market: This Saturday December 07 from 11am - 3pm! There will be a highly curated roster of phenomenal local farmers, artists, and makers - all inspired by and rooted in nature. Plus a taco food truck, yum.
Sturbridge MA area home delivery: First delivery date is Saturday December 14. Delivery area is Sturbridge, Southbridge, Charlton, Brimfield, Brookfield MA and other small towns in that area (lol we’re totally not from MA). Pre-order only
New Haven CT area home delivery: First delivery date is Sunday December 15. Delivery area is New Haven, North Haven, West Haven, Woodbridge CT and other small towns in that area (we’ve only lived in CT since 2008, we couldn’t possibly name all those small towns). Pre-order only
Hartford CT area home delivery: First delivery date is Wednesday December 18. Delivery area is Hartford, East Hartford, West Hartford, Manchester CT. You know the deal, let us know where you are and we’ll see if we can make it work. Pre-order only
“East of us” CT area home delivery: Woodstock, Pomfret, Putnam, Killingly, Dayville, Brooklyn CT. First delivery date is Thursday December 19. Pre-order only
“Around Ashford” CT area home delivery: Ashford, Willington, Tolland, Eastford CT. First delivery date is Friday December 20. Pre-order only
It's too many numbers! Save me!
Want to get these blogs in your inbox? Sign up for our newsletter.