For hundreds of years, sheep were the backbone of the British economy. For many early sheep farmers, meat was simply a by-product. The main reasons to keep sheep was to harvest their wool to create felt and fabric, and for milk to make cheese, butter, and yoghurt. Even the sheep’s dung was put to use as fuel.
From the twelfth to the eighteenth century, the primary reason for keeping sheep was to produce wool. Dung and milk were secondary, and meat production was simply an added bonus to many hard-working, poorer farming families. The sheep would often be rather old when the household made the decision that their only use was for the pot.
As the wool trade declined and towns began to grow in the sixteenth century, so the demands for meat increased, forcing shepherds to consider their flock for meat production. The switch from wool to meat production was quite a task for sheep farmers. Breeding sheep for meat requires different characteristics from those which will produce luscious wool. Genetic section over hundreds of years has given us a huge pool of sheep traits and breeds that are designed for specific climate, jobs or attributes.
Meet Dan & Louise
Dan and Louise from Marshay Farm produce the exceptional grass-fed lamb and mutton we’re proud to share with you. Their approach is rooted in working with nature, not against it. By nurturing healthy soils, diverse pastures and carefully managed grazing systems, they’re helping to support biodiversity, improve soil health and produce food with true provenance and integrity. Proving that great farming and environmental stewardship can go hand in hand.
What is ‘Lamb’
There are various definitions of lamb, but the most widely accepted is a sheep up to 1 year old. You can find lamb available in the market as young as 3 months old, which to us feels completely wrong. We rear a flock of sheep that straddles the bracket of lamb and hogget.
What is ‘Hogget’
Most of the lamb we produce fall just into the category of Hogget. Hogget is widely accepted as a sheep that is older than 1 year and under 2 years but it's actually all about the teeth.
A hogget is not defined by a specific age. It is based on the sheep’s teeth. When a sheep’s permanent front teeth start to come through, it is called a hogget. Since sheep’s teeth grow at different rates, two sheep of the same age may not both be classified as hoggets.
“Hogget is simply lamb with wanderlust and a decent education. It’s killed when it’s between twelve and eighteen months old, so it knows a thing or two about flavour. It doesn’t overwhelm like old mutton, yet still bleats with ovine delight.” - Tom Parker Bowles, Let’s Eat Meat
What is ‘Mutton’
For many hundreds of years, mutton was the main form of sheep meat eaten in the United Kingdom. Yet over the past 40 years it has virtually disappeared from our kitchens - and we were in real danger of losing one of our iconic foods.
Mutton can be anything from 2 years old. However, there is no legal definition of what mutton is. You will often find goat meat referred to as Mutton.
Mutton fell out of flavour over the years due to its often tough and lean carcass (due in part to so many styles of sheep lazily being called Mutton), it often required a long slow cook to produce delicious meat, which in the world of 'fast food' and '30 minute meals' became less and less relevant.
Our Grass Fed 'Cull Yaw' Mutton
Forgotten no longer, we're championing proper mutton! Our grass fed Cull Yaw (a term commonly used in Cornwall to refer to a cull ewe) mutton has a fantastic flavour.
Most of the mutton in the country is culled between the ages of 3 and 5 years. However, our Cull Yaw mutton sheep are notably older, usually aged seven years and above. These sheep have covered substantial distances during their lives, leading to the complete development of their muscles.
A delicious layer of fat is added to them by grazing them on pasture and rich herbal leys. Our Cull Yaw mutton is hung for two weeks creating a superb texture and a mouth-watering flavour.
Our Grass Fed Lamb
The majority of our flocks are EasyCare sheep, recently made famous by Clarkson's Farm. A modern British meat breed, developed on Anglesey in North Wales in the early 1960s by farmer Iolo Owen MBE. The breed was developed primarily from Wiltshire Horn and Nelson-type Welsh Mountain sheep, bringing together the Wiltshire’s natural fleece-shedding and meat-producing qualities with the hardiness of Welsh Mountain sheep.
Today, EasyCare are valued for their low-input approach to sheep farming. They naturally shed their fleece each spring, removing the need for shearing, and have been selected for easy lambing, strong maternal instincts, sound feet and the ability to rear lambs successfully, often with minimal intervention.
They’re hardy, efficient sheep that thrive on grass and do a great job of producing good-quality lamb in a more natural, low-input system.
Our flock of sheep only ever eat grass and mother’s milk. Our aim is for them to grow slowly and lay down a really good level of mature fat. We rear our lambs for between 8 - 15 months, this means, depending on the time of year, much of our flock are technically classed as Hogget.
Award Winning Grass Fed Lamb, Hogget & Mutton
We think that slow growth and proper development of the animal makes the best type of meat as it benefits from a more intense depth of flavour. It’s important for us that our livestock has lived a healthy, good life and have played a part in nurturing our countryside, grazing down pasture, part of a mixed system.
Once our flock have reached naturally maturity we hang each carcass for up to ten days to intensify the flavour and create a beautifully firm texture. We have been lucky to win many awards for our lamb:
Shoulder of Lamb
“Deep flavour. Good fat balance with a lovely underlying farmyard essence. This is an older animal, possibly a Hogget, and benefited from the slow roast.”
Lamb Saddle Fillet
"A really lamby flavour, this is a mature animal with appropriate depth of flavour. Very tender, moist and flavoursome.”
Loin of Lamb
“The flavours are delicate but absolutely correct. The fat flavours linger on after the tender lamb melts away in the mouth.”
Rack of Lamb
“Well butchered, lovely clean bones and a perfectly trimmed rack. Good fat, excellent creaminess and richness. The lean meat is sweet and juicy. Superb lamb flavour which lingers well and delivers real iron-rich complexity.”
