There’s an old saying, mistakenly attributed to Otto von Bismarck: “Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made.” Now that our first ever batch of lamb sausage is in the freezer, it’s time to tell the story.
First – the animals.
#1 – Chuck. Ralph and Chuck are two Cormo wethers (castrated rams) that we got from Jack and Mary Ellen in November of 2013, along with seven Cormo ewes. We’ve kept the two in the west field with all the ewes and lambs ever since. Last October, we had the entire group up in the chute where we could get our hands on them, check their eyes for worm load, dose them if necessary, and trim hooves. Long story short, one of these two monsters took a serious bite out of my right index finger. Peg wrote about it in Fall Farm Chores – I. Turns out it the culprit actually was Ralph, but his fleece is nicer than Chuck’s. Bad news for Chuck.
#2 – Scampy. Scampy is the oldest of the Cormo ewes, and the alpha animal of the bunch. She has always been the least fearful of a skittish bunch. She gave us a single ewe lamb in April, and immediately walked away from it. We could have tried to get her to bond with the lamb by putting her in a stanchion, but for some reason decided to immediately put the lamb on a bottle. Bad mom. Bad news for Scampy.
Second – the transfer.
Peg reserved a slaughter date with PT Farms for Monday, August 10th. I took the entire day off from work. We debated on the best way to get them from the chute into the back of the F250. I backed the truck up to the side of a hill just outside the chute and lay an 8 foot panel with a sheet of plywood screwed on top across the span between the top of the hill and the tailgate to keep minimize the angle we’d have to walk from the grass to the back of the truck. The plan – walk the animals about 10 yards from the chute gate up the hill and across the walkway.
Kathy, a neighbor who has horses, offered to help and arrived at 9 am. She advised us to basically wrap a rope around the body to sort of truss the animal and then walk it into the pickup bed. We took Scampy first. Again, Scampy isn’t all that skittish, and it was not all that hard to do. We got her in the truck, tied her in, and Eileen (who had been farm sitting that weekend) stayed with her.
Chuck wasn’t going to be so easy. First, he saw what we did to Scampy. Second, he’s skittish. Third, he’s big. We got the rope around him, but no sooner had we opened the gate, he just lay down on the ground. After a few futile attempts to get him back on his feet, I turned him over and dragged him by his front legs up the hill, Kathy and Peg trying to help by pushing from behind. By this time, Mark – our apartment guest who had grown up on a farm – came by and also helped with the pushing. We got Chuck in the bed, untied Scampy, and scrambled out and closed the tailgate and topper door. That all took about a half hour. After thanking everyone for their help, I headed down the driveway for the hour drive north to North Haverhill, NH – home of PT Farms. Chuck and Scampy stood calmly in the back of the truck during the ride. No problems there.
Third – the delivery.
Upon arriving around 10:30, I walked into the office, and was immediately told I was late. “We do lambs at 7 am, we’ve moved on to pigs now.” Peg had spoken with this very woman several times in arranging our date there – she never told her this. OK, whatever. She jots a few notes on a yellow card, and tells me to take the truck out back and drop off the sheep. I tell her we will want the hides back intact as we plan to tan them. She says she’ll make a note of that and tell “them”.
Back in the pens, there are a lot of pigs. I back up the truck and one of the hands opens the door and tailgate. “Those are big.” Yup. “Okay, scoot ‘em out of there.” What, just push them off the back of the tailgate? “Yup.” He made no motion as if he were even inclined to offer assistance. I scramble into the truck, start pushing Scampy toward the tailgate and she jumps out and down, with Chuck following all by himself. What do you know. Oh, another of the hands says “we won’t be able to kill them today.” I understand.
Back in the office, I again tell her we want the hides. She says we’ll have to come back Tuesday to pick them up. When? “I don’t know, I’ll call you later today with the time.” About 10 minutes after I leave, I pull over and call Peg, explain to her everything that’s gone down, and suggest she give PT Farms a call. She never did get a firm answer on when to come back for the hides.
Fourth – the hides.
Peg leaves around 8:30 Tuesday morning for PT Farms. Before she leaves, I suggest she bring some large plastic bags, as she’s taking the CRV, not the F250. Upon arriving, they tell her they didn’t know we wanted the hides. They were in a pile of sawdust in a corner. They also told her that they wouldn’t be able to cut up the carcasses until the following week – apparently because we missed the 7 am time slot no one had told us about. When Peg complained that she had arranged for the meat to be delivered to Green Mountain Smokehouse on Thursday or Friday, she was told “Oh, we deliver to Green Mountain Smokehouse every Thursday.” Another hidden gem! (Peg thanked me for the plastic bag idea – the car stunk on the ride home.)
Fifth – the meat.
When one slaughters just for the meat – as opposed to cuts like chops, loins, leg of lamb – it is called “trim”. The following week Peg gets a call that we have 130 pounds of trim. Wow! Those animals were bigger than we thought.
Sixth – the sausage.
While it seemed nothing could go right at PT Farms, everything went right at Green Mountain Smokehouse. They have set sausage recipes, and suggested we go with Red Wine/Rosemary/Feta Cheese and Garlic/Parmesan. They added about 20 pounds of pork to help moisten them. Peg was told it would take a few weeks. When she called early in the week before Labor Day weekend about progress, and informed GMS that we were scheduled to be a vendor at the Norwich Farmer’s Market on Saturday, she was told the sausage would be ready Friday, and it was. We have a large freezer in the garage, and it is now full of packages of frozen sausage – six to seven links in a package. To make sure the freezer doesn’t open by itself we use a bungee cord to keep it shut. We lost power briefly over the weekend and while we have a backup generator, it doesn’t supply the whole house, but it DOES supply the garage!
We sold seven packages at the farmer’s market that Saturday. We’re just getting our marketing program underway. A few days later, at a Hanover Area Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours function, I encouraged Peg to make an announcement to the 20 or so gathered. A few days later I posted in the Hartford, Norwich and Upper Valley list serves about “Lamb Sausage from Savage Hart Farm.”
Seventh – the license.
Oh, yes, we need a license to do this. Weeks ago, Peg submitted the appropriate forms to the State of Vermont. She was visited, quite unannounced, by a state inspector to look at our freezer. It passed.
Eighth – the taste.
We tried the Garlic/Parmesan the night the sausage arrived. Because of the spices and flavorings (and the added pork) I don’t get much of a lamb taste. We did quickly learn they cook up fast. They’re good. We hope they’ll sell fast, too. $13/package.
Todd