News from Native Oaks Farm and Sheepy Hollow

Edition of: 14 Sep 2013 __________________ NEWS FROM NATIVE OAKS

(Scroll down to see all the news that fits)

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Saturday, September 14 is Scandinavian Day at Midtown
Midtown Farmers Market features Scandinavian Day at the market this coming Saturday, September 14. It should be great fun. Come for the special entertainment and some nummy food from the Norse country. You discover ebelskiver (Danish pancakes) and Ingebretsen's grocery store will be displaying items. The Danish American Center will also be on hand.

Ingebretsen's Logo

The farmers markets were hopping this past week and the Minnesota summer weather was beautiful. We were busy as can be in Minneapolis and we had a steady number of visitors at Excelsior. We set up at two farmers markets each week -- at Excelsior (each Thursday from 2 to 6 pm) and in Minneapolis at the Midtown Farmers Market (each Saturday from 8 am to 1 pm). The produce vendors are really displaying absolutely beautiful vegetables right now of nearly every sort. This is the time of the year for magnificent tomatoes and they are here in all shapes and forms. However, you won't believe the quality of the lettuce, kale, onions, peppers, mushrooms, eggplant and squash. This is it, folks! This is what you wait for each and every year. Bring your camera and take remarkable photographs of all the color on display. No artist can paint a more beautiful picture than Mother Nature and she is showing off right now.

If you can't make it to Excelsior or the Midtown Minneapolis market, find a market near you by visiting the web site just below...

Minnesota Grown List of Minnesota Farmers Markets!

The Midtown Farmers Market on-line!

This only begins to tell the story of the Midtown Farmers Market. It sounds like we'll have delightful, warm weather ahead. We'll see y'all on August 31st at the Midtown Market at Lake Street and Hiawatha in Minneapolis (just beneath the Lake Street Light Rail Station). Come on out to the Midtown Farmers Market! Look for Sheepy Hollow in the southwest corner of the market.

A Side of Lamb donated for Midtown Farmers Market fund raiser...
We donated a side of lamb for the silent auction at the Fall Festival of Midtown Farmers Market. It will be held on Friday, September 27. Peace Coffee will host the affair at the Wonderland Park Coffee Shop (3262 Minnehaha Avenue S) from 6 to 9 p.m.. You can find information about it at the web site of the Midtown Farmers Market (see story just above).

Scandinavian Days at the Farmers Market on Saturday, September 14th. It's always a fun day so be sure to make plans to be there and be sure to stop by and say hello to us.

New Cookbook Arrived at Sheep Hollow
A surprise came in the mail a couple of weeks -- a new cookbook from the Washington D.C. offices of Meat & Livestock Australia. The book, Australian Lamb: World of Flavor, is an absolute treat and, as we always do, we'll have it with us at our market appearances for those of you would want to look it over. It has some unusual recipes for things like lamb burritos with roasted corn salsa; pastitsio; lamb with Singapore noodles, snow peas and cashews; lamb Biriyani with raita; lamb, mushroom and beer pot pies; as well as many of the typical and traditional lamb dishes. The photographs are extraordinary. If you want one of these colorful cookbooks, you can probably get one by writing to MLA...

Meat & Livestock Australia
1401 K Street NW (Suite 602)
Washington, DC 20005

Sheepy Hollow Lamb sold at Mississippi Market
The Mississippi Market on West 7th Street in St. Paul (near the I-35E entrance/exit ramp)
now features Sheepy Hollow lamb in its meat department. With the farmers markets closed
down for winter, it's a good thing to know.

Summer at Sheepy Hollow!
It's an unusual summer at Sleepy Hollow. The huge storm in June
washed away the bridge at the entrance to our farm. The little bridge
was probably over 70 years old. Now we're faced with building a
new one and we're going through extensive permitting procedures
with both our watershed district and the Department of Natural
Resources. A bridge, we've learned, can not be built overnight or
inexpensively. In the meantime, we need to take a very circuitous
route into the the main part of the farm. The route requires a long
drive through our crop fields and bumpy ride down a lane usually
only traveled by our tractors. We will make it work until the bridge
can be built sometime this fall. Heavens, we'd never be able to do
this in the winter.

Along with summer, the mosquitoes have arrived at Sheepy Hollow.
The huge spring and early summer rains guaranteed us a bumper crop.
We fight them naturally and with no chemicals. The best thing we can
do for the sheep is to provide them places where the mosquitoes don't
like to go -- including breezy hilltop locations. Fortunately, the last few
days have been cooler and less humid and that's brought some relief to
both me and the sheep and lambs. It will be much more comfortable at
the farmers markets also.

New Excelsior Farmers Market Location Very Popular
Now on Water Street every Thursday
We now set up on Water Street in Excelsior on Thursday afternoons (2 pm to 6 pm). This is pretty exciting news for the Excelsior Farmers Market. They'll be right down town in Excelsior between 2nd and 3rd Streets. That section of Water Street will be closed to traffic. Here's the web site for the Excelsior Market.

Looking for New Lamb Recipes?
In addition to the recipes we have here on our web site, one of the best places to look for new and exciting lamb recipes is from the American Lamb Board's recipe search. Try it! It works very well.

We Sell at Two Wonderful Farmers Markets
You can find us on Saturdays at the Midtown Farmers Market... and on Thursday afternoons at the Excelsior Farmers Market. We wish we could be at more, but we also need to tend to the farm and we can't be away that often. A little more detail about these two markets can be found above or you can visit their web site. Our lamb is also sold at the Mississippi Market in St. Paul (see story above).

Lamb Rub for sale!
Take a look at the lamb rub we'll be selling this year. It's only $2 per container, exactly the price the American Lamb Board charges for it on-line. This wonderful seasoning is perfect for lamb and it was produced by the lamb board after lots of experimentation. Around our house, we've begun to use it all the time.

Need help with lamb cuts or cooking time or recipes?
One of the most valuable lamb sites on the Internet is AmericanLamb.com

This is a really well organized web site that makes the information you're looking for easy to find. We highly recommend it to you. It provides plenty of wonderful recipes and explains the various cuts of lamb and how to cook them and their general cooking time. Whether you new to cooking lamb or a veteran, this is a remarkable helpful place to go for information.

Try this quick recipe for Mongolian Lamb Stir-fry -- see more of our recipes on the RECIPE PAGE
You can do this wonderful recipe in less than a half-hour and you'll be button-popping proud to serve this meal to your family or a gathering of friends. The recipe comes from the Australian Women's Weekly cookbook, Dinner Lamb.

Here's what you'll need...
1.5 cups of white, long-grain rice
2 Tbspoons of peanut oil
3 cups of lamb strips (from a shoulder roast or a leg)
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
Pinch of fresh ginger, grated
1 medium yellow onion, sliced thickly
1 medium red pepper, sliced thickly
1 cup of canned bamboo shoots, rinsed and drained
.25 cup of soy sauce
1 Tbspoon of black bean sauce
1 Tbspoon of cornflour
2 Tbspoons of rice wine vinegar
6 green onions cut into 2 inch lengths

Here's what you do...

Cook the rice in a large saucepan until just tender (keep warm)

Heat half of the oil in a wok; stir-fry lamb, in batches, until browned all over

Heat remaining oil in same wok; stir-fry garlic, ginger and brown onion until soft but not burned. Add pepper and bamboo shoots and stir-fry until vegetables are tender.

Return lamb to wok with sauces and blended cornflour and vinegar

Stir-fry until sauce boils and thickens slightly

Remove from heat, stir in green onion and serve with rice

Charlie's Extraordinary Lamb Stew comes to our Web Page
Charlie's lamb stew is not to be believed. It is spectacularly good and everyone who has tried it
loves it to no end. So, we've decided to post in here on our web site. You'll find it by clicking below...
CHARLIE'S LAMB STEW

Try a Dining Membership at Windsong Farm Golf Club

Have QUESTIONS about Sheepy Hollow
If you have questions about Sheepy Hollow,
submit them by email and we'll post the question and the answer right here for other to see!

[Sally R. asks: May one come out to visit Sheepy Hollow?
Answer: By appointment, yes! Contact
Anne by email or phone and make an appointment to come on out. We don't recommend visits from mid-March to mid-April because that is mud-season!
The pastor of the nearby Lutheran Church stopped in very, very early on a Sunday morning this winter to see the lambing process in real live-time. She had a wonderful time.

WASHING SHEEP SKINS
The sheep skins we sell at farmers markets are washable. We get regular requests for washing instructions. You can go to our LAUNDER PAGE here on the web site to print out these instruction or just jot down these instruction below.
1. Rinse with cool water!
2. Wash with Woolite in warm water on gentle
for 3 minutes.
3. Rinse in warm water (twice). Allow to go thru
Spin Cycles. Air dry, then brush!
4. Put in dryer to fluff, but with NO HEAT!

Madame Benoit's
Lamb Cookbook
We recently picked up a copy of Madame Benoit�s Lamb Cookbook. It was published in 1979 in Canada by McGraw-Hill Ryerson. I�ve found it extremely interesting and many of the recipes look wonderful but we haven�t really tested any of them yet. This is an out-of-print book, but you probably can find used copies on-line at ABE, our favorite used-book source or from Amazon. And, in the Spring, when the farmers markets reopen, we�ll have this book available for lending out to our regular customers.

In the meantime, we thought you might like to know a little about the book and some the recipes it includes.

Jehane Benoit and her husband own a sheep farm (Noirmouton) in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada. She loves to experiment with new and enticing ways to cook lamb. She received a degree in food chemistry from the Sorbonne University in Paris (1925) and later graduated from the famous Gordon Bleu cooking school. She�s had television shows on cooking and also wrote for leading food and cooking magazines like Gourmet and The Canadian.

For those who like to buy lamb, a particularly helpful section of the book might be What to Look for in Selecting Cuts of Lamb. Mme. Benoit suggests that �young lamb will have bright, pink flesh and pure white fat, with soft, moist, pinkish bones.� She also explains that weight is important. Legs, she says, should be 4 to 5 pounds and never exceed 7 pounds. The entire carcass of a good lamb should weigh from 40 to 60 pounds.

�Since lamb is an excellent source of high-quality protein, it is worthwhile to learn how to cook it properly. Lamb is easily digested, making its nutrients readily available for body use, and is really a quick-energy meat, ideal for diets of all age groups � and even for weight watchers since in most cuts the fat is easily separated from the lean.�

The book contains some intriguing recipes for lamb liver, heart, tongue and kidneys. There are four recipes for liver, five for kidneys and one each for tongue and heart.

You'll also find seven recipes for preparing leg of lamb, including Mme. Benoit's own favorite procedure.

A Texas Lamb Stew, prepared with red bean or a meatless chili also sounds wonderful and tempts us to try it very soon.

Baked Shoulder Chops
But, our first experiment around here was the lady's Baked Shoulder Chops. These babies are done in an Italian style and each chop in wrapped separately in foil after seasoning with salt, pepper and honey; and then topping each chop with a slice of peeled grapefruit and an onion slice. Then they're baked at 350 degrees for 90 minutes. Wow! They were just wonderful.

Cocktail Marbles
Here�s a little sample of one of the many unusual and enticing recipes in the little book. Mme. Benoit says that Cocktail Marbles are �an interesting hot tidbit for a party. Cook them in the morning; and when they are ready to serve, heat the plum sauce in a chafing dish or an electric frying pan, add the meat balls and stir around as indicated in the recipe.�

2 lbs. ground lamb
� cup Japanese soy sauce
2 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
1 Tsp vegetable oil
2/3 cup of Oriental plum sauce

Mix together thoroughly in a bowl the ground lab, soy sauce and garlic. Shape into large marble-size balls. Heat oil in a large frying pan. When hot, add as many meat balls as it will take without crowding. Cook over high heat. Shake the pan to toss them around so they brown all over, and remove to a platter with a slotted spoon. Repeat this until they are all browned (usually no more oil need be added after the first time). Only a few minutes are needed to cook them. Do not refrigerate.

When ready to serve, warm up the plum sauce. Add all the meat balls at once and cook over low heat for 5 minutes, or until hot and glazed. Serve with toothpicks.

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TERRA WACONIA features lamb from Sheepy Hollow

Terra Waconia is one of the most highly rated and regarded restaurants in the Twin Cities. Sheepy Hollow lamb is featured almost every evening in one form or another -- anything from stew to rack. You'll love what chef Craig Sharp does with our lamb.

WOW! WHAT A PICTURE!
The following photograph appeared in the November issue of MSP Magazine (thanks to them for permission to use it here).

Photo is of Sheepy Hollow lamb (rib chops to be exact) being served at Terra Waconia (see story above).

Rack of lamb at
Windsong Farm Golf Club
There's a wonderful golf club right next to our farm and we celebrated Mothers Day Eve there with almost all of our children and grandchildren. It's a wonderful place to dine and for those of you anywhere in the area (Orono, Maple Plain, Watertown, Mound), dining memberships are available at very reasonable rates. This membership allows you full dining privileges in the club's beautiful clubhouse. Many of us had rack of lamb at our Mothers Day dinner and it was absolutely wonderful. The cod, risotto and rib-eyes were also fantastic. The club's menu changes about every 3 or 4 weeks. If any of you want to try it out, we can arrange guest privileges for an evening.

RECOMMENDED
LAMB COOKBOOKS
Further down on this page we recommend some very special lamb cookbooks that we like and use around here.
Click here to see the story about lamb cookbooks!

RECORD NUMBER OF BULK ORDERS
We've filled a record number of whole or sides of lamb orders during the autumn and early winter months. We use two new meat processing companies now and customers have reacted extremely well to the quality of the cuts and the packaging.

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Anne Leck owns and operates Sheepy Hollow at Native Oaks Farm!
Want to know about Anne and her background and why she founded Native Oaks Farm. It's all right on her short biography page.

Anne Wakefield Leck

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You might want to take a look at the Midtown Farmers Market web site.
The market is located on Lake Street, at the Corner of Hiawatha Avenue, just at the Lake Street light-rail station in south Minneapolis. Step on up and say "hi" when you're at either of these markets.

We give away free lamb recipes every week at both markets and you're welcome to pick a few up even if you don't purchase anything from us. Just come on by and ask about the recipes.

SPECIAL THANKS TO INGRID
We'd find operating at the Midtown Farmers market nearly too difficult if it weren't for our constant and faithful friend, Ingrid, who stops by nearly every week to give us some help and provide an opportunity for Anne to get away for a few minutes of relaxation. Thanks so much, Ingrid, for all you do!

Girl in an Apron
We've come upon a wonderful new blog and web site lately, called Girl in an Apron. If you want to do some innovative cooking, especially with fresh and locally grown foods, this is a terribly good site to know about. On it we found the most wonderful recipe for lambs liver pate. We tried it a couple of times around here and it's been an unqualified success. The blog points out that the recipe comes from a book called Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. We also found a wonderful recipe there for creamy winter squash and pumpkin soup. Nummy!

I'm not going to reprint either recipe here because of potential copyright problems, but you can easily find them on the Girl in an Apron.

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PLEASE NOTE
We do NOT sell live lambs
at Sheepy Hollow
and we do not slaughter
or allow slaughtering at our farm.

We receive many calls from people who want to visit the farm, buy a lamb and kill it here. We conduct no sales in that manner. Please do not call us for those services.

Stock up on lamb for winter!
You should be ready to place your orders to stock up on lamb for the winter. The Minneapolis Midtown Farmers Market and the Excelsior Farmers Market will close at the end of October and we're already taking orders for November delivery of sides of lamb.

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LAMB CHILI with white beans
This wonderful new recipe was handed to us by a seafood clerk at Whole Foods. He came upon it in the New York Times and he wrote it down for me as best he could remember it. We tried it here at Sheepy Hollow and it was sensational. So, we're passing it on to you.
CLICK HERE FOR THE LAMB CHILI RECIPE

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LAMB BUY THE SIDE
That's no typo... rather, it's our incredible wit...
For sides of lamb we always get more customers than our production will satisfy, so place orders promptly when we announce sides are available. Sides are not always available, but you may place orders in advance if you're willing to wait.

If you have questions, call Anne at
612-298-9293 or email her. (Email works best because Anne is often working in the fields with the sheep and lambs and doesn't hear her phone.)

A lamb shank on a bed of mashed potatoes!

PRICING LAMB AT SHEEPY HOLLOW
We continue to struggle with lamb pricing at Sheepy Hollow. We watch the competitors carefully, but we can not always match their prices because our lambs are raised quite differently than those of most sellers. We strive for a completely grass-fed lamb and also attempt to feed them products that are only raised on our own farm (so we can be fully aware of the quality of the product they eat and how it was raised). In addition to a large amount of pasture which nourishes the sheep during the pleasant seasons, we store our own home-grown hay throughout the summer. Our hay is produced on crop fields we own and carefully monitor and tend. We also produce the other grains that are ground and mixed for winter dining.

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LAMB COOKBOOKS
Here's a few of lamb cookbooks you can find and buy on-line. We've tried them both and recommend them to you.

The Great Lamb Cookbook, published by the Australian Women's Weekly Cookbooks, is one of the finest, most beautiful cookbooks we've ever seen (especially the most recent edition). It has remarkable photographs and very utilitarian and easy to follow recipes. We try to have at least one copy on hand at every farmers market session, so ask us if you'd like to take a look at it.

The Arabian Nights Cookbook
by Habeeb Salloum [Periplus Editions]

How to Roast a Lamb: New Greek Classic Cooking (Hard Cover)
by Michael Psilakis

Madame Benoit's Lamb Cookbook (reviewed at the top of this page, click here)

We found all of these books on Amazon and the second of them is available in e-book format.

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A New Cookbook in Our Stocking
One of the children gave Anne a new cookbook as a Christmas gift in 2011 -- because all the kids know that Mom (and Grandma) likes to have plenty of people around the table for special dinners, one of them had the bright idea that she should own Tom Douglas' cookbook, TOM'S BIG DINNERS. There's a wonderful recipe in it for LAMB CHOPS IN CRUSHED CHERRY MARINADE WITH TARRAGON MUSTARD. So far I haven't been able to get permission to publish it here, but, if you email me, I'll send along an abbreviated explanation of how to do it.

HOW TO BUY FROM SHEEPY HOLLOW DURING THE OFF-SEASON
Our customers in the Twin Cities Metro Region can still buy from Sheepy Hollow during the off season by placing orders with us by telephone and arranging for free delivery. We'll make deliveries to Minneapolis once each week and to western suburban locations twice each week. To place orders for individual cuts, call us at 952-955-3180 (if there's no answer, leave a message and we get back to you within a day).

TROUT & CAVIAR BLOG
PRAISES SHEEPY HOLLOW LAMB
How excited we were around here to wake up one day to the news that two solidly generous and praiseful blogs had been written about the lamb produced by Sheepy Hollow at Native Oaks Farm. We suggest you may want to go to the blog to read them:
http://troutcaviar.blogspot.com

"That's [photo below] our half a Sheepy Hollow lamb, dressed weight around 26 pounds. Sheepy Hollow is our Midtown Farmer's Market lamb vendor. Anne Leck is the woman behind Sheepy Hollow, which produces the best lamb around, in my opinion."

RACHEL'S CASSEROLE (GROUND MUTTON)
We've added a new recipe to our recipe section of this web site. It comes to us from one of our customers and is called Rachel's Casserole, using ground mutton. We've tested it and its wonderful.

NOTHING WE LIKE BETTER THAN
SATISFIED CUSTOMERS
and we work hard to make sure you're happy.

Here's a letter from one of them...

Dear Anne:
My wife and I had our first taste of lamb the other night.
My, oh, my, simply the best lamb I have had since eating in Dieppe, France, where the lamb eat grass that itself is impregnated with salt.
Thanks you so much for raising these fine animals, and for your extra work in getting the order straightened out.
May you and yours have a happy and safe holiday season.
Sincerely,
Richard (Medina, MN)

Lamb Sales Set Sheepy Hollow Record
Lamb sales in 2013 were extremely brisk, setting a Sheepy Hollow record for volume. We experienced our heaviest volume ever at the Midtown Farmers Market this year and we often ran out of many cuts before closing time. What pleases us most is that the vast majority of our customers are returning as frequent buyers. One gentleman boasted this summer that he has been buying from us for nine years. It caused us some pause. Is it really nine years that we've been setting up at the Midtown Farmers Market?

We have also increased our restaurant sales this year and we are now also selling lamb at the Mississippi Market on West 7th in St. Paul, and the sales there have been increasing steadily.

We raise the question for ourselves: Can we really increase production to meet the rising demand without decreasing the quality of our product? That is the challenge ahead.
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NO HORSES FOR SALE at
NATIVE OAKS FARM
Our horse operation is nearly closed out at Native Oaks Farm. We have only a small group of retirees that are enjoying the casual, soft life. If you've come looking for Hackney Horses or Cleveland Bay crossbred horses that might be for sale, we apologize.

We no longer have a breeding and training operation.

We've sold of all our horses and no longer
maintain a a horse operation here!

OUR TOWN HOLDS SURPRISES
Independence is an extremely beautiful community. Though we're only 25 miles from downtown Minneapolis, this is a small, rural town with beautiful, open and rolling meadows, small creeks and lovely, dense forest land.

LAMB RECIPES FROM CUSTOMERS
Minced Lamb Stir Fry
with Ginger, Hoisin and Green Onions
This recipe was submitted to the Midtown Farmers Market Web Site by someone who, we imagine, is one of our customers. It sounds great. We'll try it soon and report back to you.

Serve this quick stir-fry with with rice:

2 Tbs orange juice
1 Tbs corn starch
1 pound of ground lamb
1 Tbs oriental sesame oil
2 Tbs minced, peeled fresh ginger
1 Tbs minced, fresh garlic
1 Tbs minced, orange peel
1 bunch green onions, chopped
� cup Hoisin sauce
Butter lettuce leaves

Combine orange juice and cornstarch in a small bowl. Saute lamb in heave large skillet over high heat until cooked through, breaking up with back of spoon (about 5 mins). Pour lamb with its juices in colander and drain. Heat oil in same skillet over high heat. Add ginger, garlic and orange peel and stir fry 30 seconds. Add green onions 30 seconds. Add Hoisin sauce and lamb to skillet and stir until blended. Add orange juice mixture and stir until thickened (about 1 min.). Spoon into lettuce leaves.

All right! We like the sound of that one and we'll give it a try.

See a new recipe from Kim
One of our customers at the Midtown Farmers Market gave us this recipe for an "Easy Mutton or Lamb Skillet" using ground lamb from Sheep Hollow.

Pat Goshgerian's Loshkabobs
Here's a recipe that comes from one of our regular lamb customers. Pat is married to an Armenian fellow and has really taken to cooking those kind of ethnic meals for him. Here's one that Pat says he and even all their grandchildren just love.

Ingredients:

4 pounds of ground meat -- 2 of lamb and 2 of beef
(she likes to use mutton rather than lamb for the additional flavor)
1 chopped onion
1 chopped green pepper
8 oz of tomato paste
salt and pepper (on generous side)
lg dollop of Dijon mustard
1 egg

Mix. Pat mixture and press all together around a heavy wooden skewers that your butcher can provide. the mixture is about 4 or 5 inches long, rounded like a hot dog. Grill. Serve with a rice pilaf.

Sounds great, Pat. I'm going to try it and let you know how it goes. If they're great, I'll add them to our recipe page.

Look for many more recipes at our lamb recipe page.

Thanks to St. Boni Motorsports
for sponsoring our web page!
Be sure to visit their interesting web site!

Our web page is made possible by
St Boni Motorsports
This wonderful small business is just down the road from
Native Oaks Farm and Sheepy Hollow

St. Boni Motorsports
is in Saint Bonifacius, Minnesota
(9 miles straight west of Excelsior on Highway 7)