Yola's Lamb and Zucchini Koftas (Meatballs) with Za'atar Yogurt Sauce

It's been a while since I've shared any new lamb recipes. A couple of weeks ago, our friends Yola and George visited and she shared one of her favorite lamb recipes with us. Yola is of Turkish descent and she is an amazing cook. It’s simple and quick to make. During zucchini season, it is so great to have another recipe to help whittle down the pile of overly abundant squash from the garden. During the winter, you can omit the zucchini. This makes a quick dinner and leftover koftas are a great snack or quick lunch. Perfect for a summer picnic too as they are delicious hot or cold. 

If you haven't ever tried the Middle Eastern spice blend Za'atar, I encourage you to look for it. (I bought this one on Amazon but it is frequently available at better grocery stores.) It's delicious - especially sprinkled on some flat bread and broiled or added to yogurt like in this recipe. 

For the Koftas

1 lb. ground lamb

1 medium zucchini (1/2 lb or less)

5 scallions

1 egg

2 Tablespoons chopped mint

2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro

2 Tablespoons chopped parsley

2 garlic cloves crushed in a garlic press

1 Tablespoon cumin

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

dash cayenne

oil for frying

 

For the Yogurt Sauce

1 1/2 cups yogurt

    (or 1 cup yogurt and 1/2 cup sour cream which will yield a creamier sauce) 

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 small garlic clove crushed in garlic press

1 1/2 Tablespoon olive oil

1 Tablespoon za’atar (cumin is a decent substitute if za’atar is not in your spice cabinet)

1/2 teaspoon salt

 

1. Mix all the ingredients for the yogurt sauce in a small bowl so that the spices have time to meld. Chill. 

2. Grate the zucchini on a box grater or in a food processor. Chop the scallions into thin slices. 

3. Mix all the Kofta ingredients (except the oil) in a bowl with your hands so that all the herbs etc. are mixed through. 

4. Form 20 or so meatballs with your hands. 

4. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Working in batches, place the meatballs in the pan, flattening them to be about 1/2-3/4 inch thick. Don’t crowd the pan. Fry for about 4 minutes per side. Move to a plate and cover with foil while the second batch cooks. 

Alternately, bake at 400 degrees on a greased sheet pan for about 15 minutes. 

 

Koftas can be made ahead of time, covered and re-heated. 

Serve with yogurt sauce and flatbread.

More Lambs + My Mushroom Cap from the Moroccan Fedora PDF Download

Yesterday I wrote about my fiasco knitting project - the Mushroom Cap from The Moroccan Fedora Pattern where I didn't measure gauge and ended up with a huge hat. I showed you how I took off the offending section and how I knit a rib down to save my hat. 

Last night I added some embroidery to pull the colors together. Here's what it looks like now. In this photo you can see the French knots on the gold diamonds, the running stitch on the teal diagonals and the whip stitch I added to the pink reverse stockinette stitch. 

Pattern available on my website here or on Ravelry here. 

Here is the top of the hat - chartreuse French knots in the center, gold crosses on the pink diamonds and maroon running stitch on the pink lines radiating around the center.

 

We are up to 60 new lambs. Here are some photos I took at the barn the other day. 

This mama is a bit old. She's staying in a pen longer than normal so her lambs get a better start. 

Look how big this guy is. He was one of the first lambs born. 

These twins are toddling after their mama, I love those spindly legs. 

Long Time Away.....

.... from this little old blog. This winter has been long and I am so ready for it to be over. We are still having a few lambs being born sporadically. This one was born the other day - The Farmer went a little wild with the orange marking paint. 

The 5 bottle lambs have been weaned now and are eating only solid food. Here they are on their last day of being fenced in. Now they are running free. 

All the older ewes have lambed and now it is the yearlings who are lambing. They are always a little problematic because some don't know what to do with their lambs - but some take to it naturally. 

Here is a particularly beautiful lamb who was born early in the season. 

The older lambs are growing and are very athletic. I posted a video of lamb races the other day on Instagram - you can see it here. 

There are some really beautiful lambs - many who are Texel crosses. This is the first year we have had a lot of Texel lambs and it is interesting to see the different features the lambs have. 

We have had quite a few black lambs this year. Not sure why but one of the rams must have had a recessive black gene. Some have these speckly faces. 

The snow is finally gone except for deep in the woods. The sap has been running here for at least 3 weeks and the little sugar houses throughout the hills have been boiling up the sweet stuff. It looks like sugaring season is almost over for this year. 

The landscape is still brown but the grass is starting to green up a bit. I am really looking forward to spring - even more than usual. It has been a long winter. I have been sick with colds, coughs and flu twice this winter - and so has my family. Considering I haven't been ill in 3 years, I guess it was my turn. 

My hens finally started laying again and we are starting to be awash in piles of eggs. Lots of egg dishes are going to be on the menu along with popovers which are my favorite at this time of year. I use this popover recipe from Julia Child. In re-reading this post from 2014, I realize that I was a really enthusiastic blogger back in 2014. I seem to have lost that mojo - as it seems many early bloggers have. But I haven't given up. I think that Instagram has replaced blogging for many - it is so easy to do and that seems to be where the action is. I post there almost every day. It is a nice community. Here is my page if you want to give me a follow. 

This past month I have been watching a lot of YouTube and Skillshare videos and trying to up my knowledge on Adobe Illustrator. I have worked in Illustrator since the very early days of Adobe Illustrator. I think my first program was called Illustrator 88. I have never felt really accomplished in it. I have found the videos by Helen Bradley to be very helpful. You can find her on YouTube and also on Skillshare. She teaches all kinds of programs - Lightroom, Photoshop, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. Helen's own website is here. She calls herself "Project Woman" and she is a serious talent. 

There are so many on-line classes out there now and it is hard to stop watching them once you start. I am really enjoying Skillshare because the classes are taught by normal people and mostly filmed in their own homes. Some are better than others. They are having a special - 2 months for 99 cents. You might want to check it out here.  And no - this is not an affiliate link - just sharing with you all. 

That's it for today - I hope I will be back soon with more. 

Sunday Lambing - Lots of Photos + A Video

On Sunday, I was helping The Farmer at the barns with morning chores. I brought my DSLR camera because it was a nice cloudy day and I was hoping I might get some nice photos of little lambs. As I was poking around the various groups of sheep and lambs, I noticed one that looked to be in labor. I decided to stay and hope I would be able to watch her lamb. 

Amazingly, I haven't witnessed a birth in a few years. It seems I am never at the barns at just the right time. Most times, lambs will be born when no people are around. The ewes know what to do and most lambs will be born with no problem. 

The ewe that was in labor was a nice calm older sheep and we figured she would deliver fine. As it was, it took a long time. The feet and head came out but it seemed like the lamb was rather big. Many times when there is a big lamb, the mama can't deliver it and the lamb will suffocate. It was lunch time and The Farmer was a hungry guy. We decided to pull the lamb so he could get on with his day. 

Now this part happened very fast and I do not have photos because I was the one doing the pulling. The Farmer is so good at lambing season - he knows just what to do after experiencing so many births. He got the ewe down on the ground.

Then reminded me what to do. 
"Pull one leg out at a time. They should come right out. Then pull both on both legs and the lamb should pop out." 

I did what was instructed and voila. 

He went home for lunch and I decided to stick around and take more photos. And an IG video (I have embedded it at the end of this post). 

I watched the ewe clean the lamb. It really is quite amazing to watch - even though I have seen it many times. The ewes are always so calm and methodical and just keep at the licking and cleaning. The ewe will nicker and the lamb will answer back with a little baahhh. Amazing every time.  

I noticed another sack coming out. She was carrying twins. 

I missed the second lamb's birth because I got antsy and started walking around looking at other things. The second one came much faster than the first. Here is a little video though - less than a minute - of the two lambs getting up on their wobbly legs and beginning to look for milk. 

So much has happened since Sunday. It is impossible to document it all here. Every day seems to fly by and I wonder what I have gotten accomplished. Yesterday we had another weather event. Snow - then ice. I have got to get outside to take care of it all. 

In between life, I've been busy working on some fabric designs for my Spoonflower shop. It is really so time consuming - lots of computer work staring at a screen, tweaking files. I've ordered some test fabrics to make sure the files are okay. I'm excited about seeing the results. More about that soon. 

Hope you all are having a good week. 

Lambing Season 2018 + Thoughts

The sheep have begun lambing. Actually it has been going on since late December. There are about 40 lambs so far from 32 mothers. That means that the twinning percentage isn't too good. Most farmers look for twinning percentage to be at least 150%. It may change as lambing progresses. 

Twinning is a result of many things. It is mostly thought of as result of genetics. Rams and ewes who were born as twins are more prone to produce twin progeny. Feed, health of the ewes and rams, and weather all contribute to the twinning percentage. Last year, we had the highest twinning rate ever. Could it be that the ewes' bodies are taking a year off and recovering? Was the weather poor when they were ovulating and dropping eggs? Here is an easy to understand article that explains how a shepherd can increase their twinning percentage. 

(This mama doesn't want 1 of her lambs so the ewe is tied to the wall so the lamb can nurse and she can't butt it away. Hopefully she will accept her soon.)

This year, The Farmer has a new helper named Andrea. She works on a veggie farm in the growing season and wanted to learn about sheep. Andrea has been a great help. She is learning all kinds of things about animal production and husbandry. Andrea is upbeat and positive and very pleasant to be around. And that 20-something level of energy is so fun to watch. We both try to see if she can exude some in our direction. The other day Andrea got to witness a lamb being born for the first time. She was thrilled to see it and couldn't believe how fast the lamb got up and nursed. (Ewes frequently lamb during the night or very early in the morning when humans aren't around.)

I so appreciate Andrea's help. I have a lot going on here before the release of my next book (more about that soon). We have raised sheep since 1980. This is our 37th year of lambing. Just writing that -- how is it possible? I remember how excited I was when our first lambs were born and how I marveled at the ewes' ability to mother. Most of the ewes just know what to do. I remember the sadness I felt when a lamb didn't make it. We used to name all the lambs. We don't do that anymore -- only one of the lambs has a name this year - Horatio. Not sure where The Farmer got that name but it fits the little guy. He is being supplemented with a bottle because his mom has teats that are difficult to nurse from. His twin figured it out but Horatio was slow to start and probably would not have made it without milk fed from humans. 

After all these years of raising and watching sheep, I have become more realistic and grounded and know that not every animal will make it. I am used to the things that can go wrong. There is not always a good outcome to every situation. I have seen "things" that most of you could not ever imagine (unless you are a doctor, nurse or have seen service overseas). Some days we used to call our farm "Daily Tragedy Farm." Not all days but some days - things just go wrong and there is not much to do to fix them. I think all of this has helped me become a better person - more pragmatic and matter-of-fact when faced with situations in life that are not wine and roses. But don't get me wrong - some days I just want to run back to the suburbs where I don't have to walk on ice, haul in wood for the furnace, and worry about the lives of so many critters, much less the health and feeding of my little human family and the messy farmhouse. But then I realize that I would be very bored and not as fulfilled. I need all the craziness and lack of knowing what comes next that our farm and our lives offer. It keeps me challenged, if sometimes overwhelmed and confused about what direction I should head in. 

(The ice at the barns below. We do have some sand trails around to walk on.)

Sheep Shearing 2017

It's been busy around the farm. We spent the past couple days shearing the sheep. We didn't exactly shear them - three blade shearers did. Our part was to get the sheep all ready and assist. It took The Farmer about a week (yes an entire week) to gather the sheep to the central location from the various grazing pastures they have been in since May. Once they were all in our wintering over location, the sheep were gathered into the greenhouse barn. They were sorted - we don't shear the lambs - only the ewes and rams. 

Kevin Ford has sheared our sheep for almost 30 years. Isn't that amazing? Kevin is a blade shearer and has been in many international sheep shearing competitions. Besides that he is a super nice man. This year he brought two friends with him. Jeff Burchstead came from Maine. Doug Rathke came from Minnesota. Both Doug and Jeff wanted to spend time with Kevin practicing their blade shearing techniques. Normally they shear with electric shears. 

Here they are after finishing up. From left to right - Jeff, Doug, and Kevin

It was a busy couple days. We had help from our friend Terri Kerner and a new farm helper Andrea. Sorry that I don't have more photos of them. The Farmer, Terri and Andrea caught sheep to pass off to the shearers. Terri, Andrea and I picked up wool, skirted it, bagged it and cleaned up the plywood for the shearers. 

In the past we have sheared in the summer. This year we switched it up so that the sheep have less wool on them at lambing time in January. The blade shearers leave a bit of wool on the animals so that they can stay warm. It grows back remarkably fast. 

I am really glad it is over for another year. The ewes and rams look in good condition going into the winter - well-fed and happy. 

Enjoy the photos. I'm sorry I won't have a lot of time to field questions - I am getting ready for our Open House and my family arrives for Thanksgiving next week. Busy time of year for all! 

Ewes waiting to be shorn

Jeff shearing a ram

Doug with a ewe patiently waiting

Kevin Ford - the pro

Kevin's toolbox

Jeff with The Farmer and Terri in the background

The line-up of 3 blade shearers - Jeff, Doug and Kevin

The Farmer watching

On top of ye olde manure pile

After their haircuts - happy to be lighter and picking around for grass