Baa-rilliant Breakthrough: Online Meat Sales!
Thank you for reading our first ever Woolgathering newsletter!
This year everything is finally coming together, but it has been a trickle, folks. For the first three years of owning our flock, I was fortunate to be found on Facebook and a tiny three-page website saying who we were and that we owned Icelandic sheep. We were able to sell enough breeding stock each year to pay for hay as we grew the flock and worked towards products.
At first, we only butchered enough sheep to feed us, our extended family, and some "Icelandic-curious" friends. We kept replacement ewes each year and tried to grow as quickly as we could handle. We have always worked other jobs and were driving all over the county with four kids and their activities. You can only do so much, and I did not want to have a bunch of products I could not sell because I grew faster than my customer base. However, our first 2022 lambing year was a huge win. We had only two ram lambs and the rest were ewe lambs! I did sell a few ewes for hay money, but we grew the flock faster than expected because of this good fortune. The need to go USDA landed at my feet in 2025 and I had to start planning the timeline and budget for success.
It was not a smooth experience with the processor and USDA inspector for our first time - that's a story for another day. However, we got it done and the meat is delicious. It was worth the pains to get to this point and know that our product is something we can be proud of!
My husband cooked the USDA lamb chops for dinner for the family so we could get everyone's opinion on this crop of lambs before selling the meat and also see the butchering quality by the processor. The chops melted in our mouths. Genuinely. The fat layer on the chops was one of the best bites of meat I have ever had. I closed my eyes and remembered our Big Fat Greek family reunions in Colorado when I was a child, where my great uncle roasted a whole lamb on a spit. My favorite cut was the riblets, with that thick layer of grilled fat along the top that melted like butter in my mouth. Sharing our Icelandic lamb around the table with my husband and kids is another core memory I now treasure.
Today, I finished posting all the USDA spring lamb remaining for retail sale. You can buy lamb, now, and I will ship it to your door! I have to thank my friend, Regina, at Crown H Cattle, for encouraging me to get the direct-to-consumer meat part of my business up and running. I had skulls and pelts listed but was not feeling 100% on all the logistics for shipping frozen meat. It's scary to think about having a shipping problem and losing valuable frozen product, so I am thankful for others here in Scott Valley who are selling their meat this way and can advise us.
There are many people, now, throughout our state and beyond who want to support American meat growers, especially Californians who want to buy their food strictly from California. I am thrilled that consumers are embracing this.
I look forward to meeting new people and building relationships as we continue to grow the flock!
That's enough woolgathering for now! Thanks so much for supporting our family farm.
From our flock to yours,
Katina