Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Busy Busy Farming, Cooking, and Photographing

Things are humming around here as always. It just seems that they are really gearing up as fast as the grass is growing. As our lamb biz has begun to grow (aka take over my life), I've had to put my latent sales and market hat back on - this time for lamb meat, not yarn. It's always about the sheep here - whether caring for, cooking with or knitting with wool. This Farmers Market season, we have been guest vendors at the Amherst Common Saturday Market a few times. 


We are notified on Friday morning and show up on Saturday. It's short notice but we jump at the chance every time we get invited. The Amherst Common Farmers Market is in its 39th year and there is a dedicated following of customers. It is actually great fun meating (OMG, did I just type that?) adventurous cooks and eaters who love supporting local farmers. I love sharing our healthy, farm-raised lamb with them. 


We have been next to Little Pond Farm who sells cut flowers and Side Hill Farm, the local cow milk dairy and yogurt company. Good company, for sure. Olympia, the paper mache life size sheep, goes with us and she makes the display colorful.  There are lots of wonderful farms represented and it is a fabulous place to be. If you are interested in knowing when we are there, check our LEYDEN GLEN LAMB FACEBOOK PAGE. I update it with our schedule every week. Or just "like us" if you aren't local for fun.


Each week, I work on a new lamb recipe. This has been a challenge because I also have been trying to photograph them. Unlike yarn, food ages quickly and I'm trying to make it appealing. I am always up for a challenge though so it is a fun one. That said, I've been reading a few food blogs and discovered "food photography blogs" too! I did find a new book by Helene Dujardin called Plate to Pixel. It is easy to understand and if you are interested in improving your blog photos (whether they be food or YARN and KNITTING related) buy this book! It will really improve your photography - if that is a goal of yours!

The food blogging world is a bit different than the knitting world. For goodness sakes - there are food blogging conferences all over the place, including on-line. Although this will not become a food blog, I do expect to bring those bits of my life into it. And so on that note, here's a snap of the scene out our door yesterday in between the torrential downpours. 

The front lamb is one of our little bottle lambs named Lacey who is still tame and friendly, even after being out on pasture for over a month now. Very sweet. 

Most of the lambs head away from me when I enter the field. It ends up that I get a lot of sheep backsides!


Thanks to Food News Journal for including my post on Mahboubeh, Persian Tulips and Lamb and Rhubarb Stew on their site on Monday! Off to help move some sheep.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I really want to find someone who sells lamb locally. It's getting so hard to find pasture raised meat.

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