Herb-Encrusted Leg of Lamb
Stowell Lake Farm is a thriving organic farm and retreat centre on Salt Spring Island, BC. They have recently published their first book, Seven Seasons on Stowell Lake Farm, to share the stories of th...
Fit for a Queen: Salt Spring Lamb
“The flavour comes from [the sheep] eating the natural fine grasses and wild shrubbery alongside the fence,” says Sandy Robley, a veteran sheep farmer who’s been minding her island flock for almost 40 years. “They’ll chew on the blackberries and the salal.”
Salt Spring Island Sheep
Sheep are no strangers to Salt Spring, the largest of B.C.’s Gulf Islands, having arrived with the first European settlers in the late 1800s. Thanks to their small size, surefootedness and ease of handling, sheep made the perfect livestock to ship to the farmsteads that were being carved out of the island’s steep hills and rocky shoreline.
“There used to be thousands of sheep here, and I think that reputation was built up then because they ran wild,” says Robley, who manages a flock of 80 to 100 sheep on her property. “The taste of the lamb was fantastic, and the word spread…we still have people come almost daily for lamb.”
Processing 80 to 90 lambs per season, Robley sells the meat by the piece or by the box at Sunset Farm Studio. She also sells sheepskins, handmade slippers, skeins of multi-coloured knitting wool, comforters, blankets, and knitted socks—and takes some very special orders.
It's Famous
“We’re the ones who supplied lamb to the Queen,” says Robley of a Royal visit to Victoria in 1983, where her farm couriered over a leg of lamb for a dinner event. More recently, she was contacted by a chef in Ottawa who was preparing a meal for a group of undisclosed famous guests and requested five legs of lamb. “I asked, ‘Why are you buying Salt Spring lamb?’ and he said, ‘Because it’s famous.’”
Salt Spring’s Mediterranean-style climate and unique rain-shadow ecology mean more sun and less rain than surrounding areas, giving sheep a longer grazing season to gorge themselves. Another local farmer thinks it goes even deeper than that.
“It’s the minerals in the dirt,” says Sheila Windsor, owner/operator of Windsor Farm. “It’s fed up through the roots of the grass and they eat the grass, and that’s what makes Salt Spring lamb, Salt Spring lamb.”
Sheep, It's a Local Thing
It was in 2010 that Windsor and her husband got their first six sheep from their daughter’s high school agriculture teacher (which is a thing in a community like this). They bought 20 acres on a hill at the island’s south end where, on a clear day, you can see right across to Washington State’s San Juan Islands.
“We got sheep because we live on Salt Spring and that’s just what you do,” says Windsor. “Salt Spring lamb sells itself.”
They now have a flock of 18, and sell 20 to 50 lambs per year at the island’s popular Saturday Market, which takes place oceanside at Centennial Park in the heart of Ganges on Salt Spring, as well as at their farm-gate store (along with hand-tanned sheepskins and hides, and a huge variety of homemade pickles and jams).
Windsor isn’t the only one to get into the business recently. According to the 2015 Salt Spring Island Livestock Inventory, sheep and lambs make up nearly 85 percent of farm animals on Salt Spring, which has a year-round human population of about 10,000. That year the island had 46 farms raising lambs, with over 1,100 being processed for meat.
Processed Locally
That healthy number may have something to do with the island’s new abattoir, which opened its doors in 2012 after heavy local fundraising.
“We wanted to encourage more local production on the island because numbers were dropping when people had to take their livestock off island,” says Anne Macey, president of the Salt Spring Abattoir Society.
Farmers can now process everything from sheep to pigs to rabbits at the mid-island facility, saving them the long, expensive trip up Vancouver Island with a trailer full of animals. That can pay off in the end product as well.
“Maybe they just have a good life here on Salt Spring,” says Macey, when asked about the notoriety of island lamb. “They don’t have to travel far to be processed, and all those things that make for happy animals probably make for good eating.”
More Information
For more info about Sunset Farm, go to sunsetfarmstudio.com
For more info in Windsor Farm, go to ssiwindsorfarms.weebly.com
For more about Salt Spring Abattoir, go to saltspringabattoir.ca
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