This summer I had the opportunity to slaughter one of my own lambs. I have been raising sheep for 15 years, but had not eaten my own lamb until now. Some of you may think it's strange that I would even want to, while others are probably wondering what took me so long! My dad and I are the only ones in our family who are open to the idea of eating our own lamb, and I wasn't willing to pay to have someone else slaughter one for me. Now that I have my own house and freezer, and also have a friend who is a skilled butcher, I figured now was the time to try my own!

One day back in August, a few of my friends came over to help with the process. I had a little ram lamb picked out that wasn't going to make my show flock. He was adorable and thus, I couldn't watch the killing process. But, once that part was over I was fine! I'm sure many people find this hard to understand or comprehend, but I believe there is nothing wrong with eating meat and my little lamb met his demise in the quickest way possible. We decided to hang the lamb in my garage where we had a lot of room to work. There were four of us working to skin the lamb, cut it into pieces, and then package it. It was actually a fun process to see the different cuts of meat. I got around 40 lbs. of meat that is now in my freezer waiting to be cooked!

Since I didn't grow up eating lamb of my own, I've been doing a lot of searching for recipes and reading on how to best cook it. American Lamb has many great resources, as does Pinterest (of course!). Because of my love for my crockpot, I decided to start with a lamb stew. I was not disappointed! Absolutely delicious, very easy and filled with vegetables, this recipe is a keeper!

Do you have any favorite lamb recipes? If so, share them with me!

After returning from my UK trip, the editor of the Lincoln Longwool Sheep Breeder's Association (LLSBA), Chris Higgins, approached me about using some of my photos for their association newsletter in the UK. She said she was very impressed with my blog posts (yay!), and wanted to know if she could use some of the photos and descriptions for their newsletter.

This newsletter has great descriptions of the UK summer shows, beautiful photos of Lincoln fiber arts, and a history section. Enjoy!