LAKELAND HERDWICK DIRECT

Lakeland Herdwick Direct is a new direct marketing scheme offering half or whole lambs and shearlings cut ready for the freezer in boxes delivered by mail order.

The scheme aims to link Herdwick sheep producers with consumers who want to help maintain the Lake District landscape and its cultural heritage. The initiative has been developed by the Herdwick Sheep Breeders’ Association with the assistance of the National Trust and funding from the Lake District National Park Authority Sustainable Development Fund and the Friends of the Lake District. The Cumbria Fells and Dales LEADER + Programme has helped bring together the parties involved.

Details of how to place an order are given below, but why is it important that consumers support the scheme?

Lakeland Herdwick Direct is in response to the need to reduce stocking to sustainable grazing levels without destroying the hefting system, but ensuring that hill farmers get sufficient income from the reduced numbers of sheep left for them to market. This is particularly important against the background of changes to the Common Agricultural Policy that will be felt from 2005 onwards. Without additional income to hill sheep producers, abandonment could take place and the transfer of traditional skills and knowledge within the hill farming community might be lost. Even without the introduction of decoupling of production from support as part of the recent reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, there is a need to generate additional income on fell farms and maintain community-led, sustainable grazing activity especially on common land.

The Lake District is loved for its open landscape of dramatic peaks and sweeping valleys dissected by grey stone walls. This is a landscape that has been shaped by generations of farmers and their sheep and is reflected in the status of the area as a potential World Heritage Site. The open nature of the fells requires a sensitive balance of sheep grazing; too few sheep leads to scrub encroachment and eventually afforestation, too many sheep leads to over grazing and potential soil erosion. Farmers and environmental organizations are currently striving to achieve this balance and ensuring that hill sheep farming is economically sustainable is crucial to this.

Lambs and shearlings for the scheme will be sourced from a group of Lake District Herdwick farmers who are members of the Herdwick Sheep Breeders’ Association and who are all in environmental schemes. The price paid back to the Herdwick farmers has been set at a premium above that which they would receive from traditional marketing outlets.

There is another good reason to support Lakeland Herdwick Direct – quality and taste. Herdwick meat itself has long had a high reputation for eating quality and was the mutton eaten at the Coronation Dinner in 1953. Today, Herdwick lamb and particularly shearling (older lamb over 15 months of age) is prized for the distinctive taste arising from the maturity of the animals. Lamb ready for eating is typically 10 to 12 months of age compared with 6 months for lowland lamb and this is reflected in the more pronounced flavour that comes from its greater maturity and from grazing the wild herbage of the open fells.

Local butcher and small slaughterhouse, H C Airey’s & Sons at Ayside in South Cumbria, is acting as the contact point for consumers and details of how to place an order are given below:

LAKELAND HERDWICK DIRECT
TASTE ENGLAND’S FINEST LANDSCAPE
PLACE YOUR ORDER ON 015395 31240
OR E MAIL: herdwick@ktdinternet.com

Lakeland Herdwick lamb is a unique seasonal product available from January through to June. At the start of the season, the lambs are lighter but mature into heavier weights by March. A number of farmers keep their lambs for a further year, and these older “shearlings” are available in limited numbers all year round. Shearlings are renowned for having a distinctive taste and are larger than the younger lambs.

All three sizes of lamb and shearling may be bought cut and prepared ready for the freezer and will be presented in a specially designed Lakeland Herdwick Box. This can either be delivered direct to your door by mail order, or alternatively picked up direct from Aireys farm shop just off the A590 near Newby Bridge in South Cumbria.

Your order will include:

• Bone in Herdwick leg(s) suitable for roasting
• Boned and rolled Herdwick shoulder(s)
• Rack of Herdwick lamb
• Herdwick Loin chops
• Specially prepared Herdwick sausages
• Herdwick Kidney

Prices range from:

Light lamb £90
Half lamb £55
Whole lamb £100
Half Shearling £60
Whole Shearling £115

There will be an additional £10 charge for mail order delivery.

To discuss availability and your individual requirements call the
Lakeland Herdwick Direct hotline on 015395 31240

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