Tunis Lamb Rated Tops in Taste

I just received my March/April 2009 edition of Hobby Farms magazine. There was a great article on page 12 titled, “Not All Lamb Is Created Equal.”

Here is an excerpt from the article:
As you prepare your leg of lamb this season, keep in mind the results of Legacy of Lamb, the first heritage-breed lamb tasting, which was held last fall at Ayrshire Farm in Upperville, VA. Approximately 90 food fans participated in the blind taste test, which compared nine endangered-breed meats — Gulf Coast, Hog Island, Jacob, Katahdin, Leicester Longwool, Navajo-Churro, Santa Cruz, St. Croix, Tunis — and commercially available Australian lamb, making this the largest-ever comparison of lamb breeds in North America.

“When we eat them, we are giving farmers an economic reason to conserve rare breeds and the important genetic diversity they represent,” says Sandy Lerner, the event’s host.
The meat was scored on flavor, texture, tenderness, smell and appearance.


The winner was the Santa Cruz; second place was Tunis; and third place was Jacob The top two breeds each received nearly twice as many votes for first choice compared to the other breeds, although organizers said each breed collected a number of second and third placements on individual tally cards, making it difficult to say there was one obvious winner.

Legacy of Lamb was produced through a partnership of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, Humane Farm Animal Care, Slow Food USA and Ayrshire Farm.

In my last post I gave a link to farms (localharvest.org) that may have lamb for sale. We don't have any available right now.