Some will remember the lamb we bottle fed this year, Lambikins. A dear little ram who couldn’t get enough to drink from his mother. He was never fully rejected but was always more human than sheep! As he is a ram he couldn’t stay with the flock as we only need one Male to service the ewes. Tufty is our ram and he fights off any youngsters who think that they will take over his role. Who would argue with such a magnificent Male with such huge horns?
We usually sell most of the lambs when they reach six months old. Some go to smallholders, some go to folk who will eventually slaughter and eat them (usually the ram lambs) and this year we still have four lambs left, three boys and a girl. Two of the boys have buyers and we might keep one of the twins as she is a very pretty sheep. That left Lambikins and I didn’t want to think of him as going straight from a happy life at The Gables to the slaughter house. Yesterday Jeremy received an email from a young man in Bedford. He has some chickens and has just bought a goat and wanted a lamb to keep the goat company. His dream is to own a smallholding and he and his dad arrived today to see the lambs.
They fell in love with Lambikins and decided he would make a friendly and biddable companion for their pregnant goat.
Dad backed his taxi up to the barn, we lined the floor with plastic feeder bags and an old sheet and Lambikins has driven off to a half acre garden in town to be loved and spoiled by a large family of animal loving Kashmiri Bedfordians. What a wonderful story and a happy future for our favourite lamb of 2019. Bye bye Lamby.
Salsify, a root vegetable that looks like a thin parsnip. It’s a member of the dandelion family and supposedly has a taste like oysters but I have never eaten oysters so how will I know if that is true? Tonight I will peel them and boil them and mash them with butter and cream and salt and pepper. If we leave them in the ground over winter they will sprout edible green tops.
