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The Jamison Lamb Farm in western Pennsylvania produces lamb meat and prepared products for the
restaurant industry and retail markets all over the United States. John and Sukey Jamison have
combined a strong philosophy of how lamb should be raised with 25 years of experience to create
their business. As with all good food purveyors, that philosophy is determined by a constant
focus on what ends up on the plate. I was delighted to be offered a Jean-Louis Palladin Foundation
internship with them, and, thanks to the encouragement of my chefs in New Orleans, was able to spend
a full four weeks seeing at first hand what it takes to produce top quality grass-fed organic lamb.
Week 1
A tour of the farm showed me the variations in the lambs' pasturage, between species of grasses,
different orientation of the slopes and water sources. The Jamisons pasture lambs until their
conditioning is right for them to be sent to the plant. Slaughtering is done humanely under the
watchful eye of a permanently on-site USDA inspector. Sukey and the plant manager Jonathan showed
me all the ways in which, as a combination slaughter-house / butchery / food production site, the
plant is expected to meet and maintain USDA standards. John explained how they ensure the meat
stays tender, through the humane slaughter process which does not stress the animals, to the
methods of cooling the lamb carcasses to avoiding cold-shortening of the muscles, and the 10
day aging period before the carcasses are butchered to order for restaurants and for retail
clients. I spent part of one morning laying out and salting the hides of the lambs to cure
and preserve them before they are shipped to a tanner for processing into fleeces. During the
week, I spent the mornings in the butcher shop and started to learn all the different cuts of meat.
In the afternoons, I helped Sukey with the packing and shipping of the orders, from 3 lbs of sausage
to 100s of lbs of shoulders and legs, and everything in between. Every night we cooked lamb and at
the weekend we braised a huge pan of shanks until they were deliciously tender.
Week 2
The daily round of butchering and shipping continued, with my knife skills getting stronger every
day under Jerry and Jonathan's watchful instructions. Removing the H-bone from a leg of lamb became
a personal challenge - I was determined with each one to get it out of the leg faster and cleaner
than the one before. The Jamisons cover a large demand for boned out cuts, so I was becoming more
and more familiar with all the different muscles and their culinary uses. Later in the week,
Sukey and I made a large batch of lamb pies, and I was taught further about the USDA requirements
for cooking, cooling, packing and labelling prepared foods. At the farm, we started experimenting
with a barbecued lamb idea for Sukey to take to the WCR conference in November. At the weekend,
we sorted the lambs; those ready for slaughter were put in one pasture to be taken to the plant the
following week, and those in need of further conditioning were given de-wormer and put back out onto
the hill to graze.
Week 3
This week saw my first hands-on introduction to gutting. Now that I was more familiar with the
anatomy of a lamb, it was fascinating to see the speed and skill with which the crew on the kill
floor cleaned the lamb carcasses. My attempts felt painfully slow and clumsy by comparison.
Marty showed me all the tricks and techniques for removing the organs and intestines cleanly so
that there is no risk of contaminating the meat, and Cindy then took me through the trimming and
finishing process. I watched as the USDA inspector checked the organs for any signs of disease
and passed each carcass individually. Later in the week, John took me with him to Columbus on a
sales trip, so that I could see the purveyor's side of the equation. Wild apples and crab apples
littered the farm, so we made apple pie and apple jelly. On the strength of my pie-making
experience from the week before and inspired by the public's apparent wariness of eating offal,
I played in the kitchen over the weekend making lamb steak and kidney pie, old English style.
Week 4
My final week, while still butchering and shipping every day, I met the master shearer, Carl,
and spent a wonderful afternoon helping him wrestle the farm's ewes into submission for a "haircut".
His sheep all popped back to their feet smooth as velvet - my two looked more like they had been
attacked by a hedge strimmer. Later in the week, I was back on the kill floor being shown by
John and Jerry how to skin the lamb carcasses; I think this may be the ultimate definition of
how the experts make a job look deceptively easy, but they took my fumbled attempts completely
in stride. That same afternoon, it was over to the butcher shop to crank up the Hobart grinder
and make 300 lbs of Merguez sausage to stock up the freezer. In the kitchen at the farm, we took
the barbecued lamb idea from two weeks before and came at it from another angle using lamb riblets
and the wild apples from the copses in the fields. And in one final attempt to convert the
lamb-eating public to the delights of offal, I made haggis using caul fat, a return to mine and
the Jamisons' Scottish roots.
Overall, the month I spent on the farm has given me an invaluable chance to strengthen my
butchering and culinary skills and knowledge. The routine of cutting meat from whole carcasses
every day for four weeks, and being allowed unstintingly to experiment in cooking all the different
cuts, is something that I feel any young cook should leap at the opportunity to experience. I
am extremely grateful to the Foundation for providing me with this wonderful education, and to the
extraordinary generosity of the Jamisons and all the crew at the plant for making sure that every
day brought me new challenges and information, and that I was always welcomed as part of the family.
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