Upcoming Holiday Menu Ideas  

Spring's traditional holiday menus all feature lamb front and center.  First up is St. Pat's Day on March 17 and while we usually think of corned beef and cabbage here in the states, you are more likely to find Shepherd's Pie being served in Ireland.  Next is the week of Passover beginning April 19 followed by the Western Easter Sunday and the Orthodox Easter Sunday which coincide this year on April 24. 

Along side your corned beef and cabbage dinner this St. Pat's Day, why not include Shepherd's Pie.  Traditionally made with finely diced grass-fed lamb or mutton and then 

topped with mashed potatoes, it is a simple comfort food that is sure to have you dancing a jig, speaking with a brogue and maybe even chasing some snakes around. Wait, maybe it is the Guinness that has that effect.   

Give the recipe below a try using Mint Creek Farm's ground lamb.  Your Shepherd's Pie will be a dish even Mrs. O'Leary would be proud of.   

Zeroah is served as part of the Seder meal during Jewish Passover.  Traditionally it is a piece of roasted lamb shank, symbolizing the paschal  sacrificial offering (pasch meaning 'to pass over' in Hebrew) .     

Usually there is a 1-2 week difference between Orthodox and Western Easters because the Western Easter is always the Sunday following the paschal full moon according to the Gregorian

calendar  while the Orthodox Easter follows the

Mint Creek Farm's Lamb Ham

Julian.  This year the date is the same and lamb is the highlight of the menu.  Mint Creek Farm offers a variety of cuts for the holiday including delicious racks of lamb, leg of lamb and lamb roasts.  If pork ham is part of your family's traditional  feast, why not try a Mint Creek Farm lamb ham?      

Shepherd's Pie

Traditional Ingredients:

2 lbs.  ground lamb
¾ cup diced onion   

2 carrots diced small

2 Tbs. "beef tea" or any type of beef browning sauce, or your favourite steak sauce
1 Tbs. catsup/ketchup
1, 6-oz. can tomato paste
2 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbs. flour

1/2 cup chicken or beef stock

1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas 

4 to 6 cups mashed potatoes

Traditional Preparation:

Crumble the meat thoroughly in a large skillet, and brown with the onions (drain as much of the fat out as you can while browning). Add carrots and cook until softened.  Mix all the wet ingredients and flour into a saucy paste, then stir it into the meat. Add the tomato paste and the peas, mix well and simmer until thickened. Transfer the warmed mixture to a greased, 2-quart (or bigger) casserole baking dish. Warm up the mashed potatoes. Pack the meat mixture down fairly tightly into the casserole, making sure it's smooth and level, then cover the top evenly with as much mashed potatoes as will fit on top without spilling over the sides of the dish. Bake at 375° F. 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the potato-topping is golden brown. Allow to cool for about five minutes before slicing and serving. Yields about 6, two-inch-thick slices.

Mint Creek Farm

Reasons to join

Mint Creek Farm's CSA:

• Excellent Value
• 10% off other purchases
• Wide variety of cuts
• No repetition of cuts over 3 months
• Special requests are fine
• Can sign-up at any time
• Pick-up at farmers market of choice  
• Email reminders before pick-up date

Click here for more  

CSA info.

Holy Land

By Harry Carr

One Hundred and Fifty Years Ago the buffalo did roam

On prairie pastures with sixty eight inches of loam

The deer and the antelope and elk did play

Not a person had to feed them hay

A poly-culture of plants reached to the sky

Overhead the wild ducks and geese did fly

More than a lone oak tree stood in a savannah

While the seven tribes of the black tortoise heralded Wakon-Tankah