31 replies to this topic

[Smalahundur]

Of course they're grumpy. They are living in Iceland, for crying out loud.

Hey, I heard that!

[Bill Fosher]

Hi Eileen,

I have had lamb from Icelandic sheep raised in the US, but never lamb from Iceland. I always joke that Icelandic sheep are great for persuading people who claim they don't like lamb to try it because if they're right that they don't like lamb, at least there's not very much of it.

Personally, I have not been able to detect any difference in the flavor or texture of Icelandic lamb when compared to lamb of any other breed of comparable size that has had comparable nutrition.

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There was a guy in my cardiac rehab class who was an expat Icelander. Based on his story and those of my friends who have visited there, I don't think it's the place where you'd want to go to set up a farming enterprise. Life is hard there, and life is expensive. And that was before it went bankrupt. It may be more temperate than Greenland, but that's not saying much.

[Smalahundur]

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There was a guy in my cardiac rehab class who was an expat Icelander. Based on his story and those of my friends who have visited there, I don't think it's the place where you'd want to go to set up a farming enterprise. Life is hard there, and life is expensive. And that was before it went bankrupt. It may be more temperate than Greenland, but that's not saying much.

Hah, sissy.

I am here of my free choice, moved to this country about fourteen years ago.
As for "setting up" a farming enterprise, if you want to be full time farmer, it is very hard, but that goes for any european country (and I suspect the USA is no different).

We took over from our former neighbours, they sold us their 35 ewes and two rams, they stopped "serious" farming some years ago due to their age. We have been slowly expanding, and will be having about 90 ewes this winter. It is beyond hobby farming, but comes nowhere near to a full time job.

Sheep farming here is extremely cool, our sheep are free range over the summer, and get round up on horseback in the september/october months. Those so called "göngur" take more than one day at the time(we sleep in mountain cabins), and are pretty adventurous (I have the scars to prove it...) This is reason why your comparison between what you call Icelandic lamb and lamb from other breeds is not a very good one. "That has had comparable nutricion" you say, well that´s the point isn´t it..

Of course to each his own, but I suspect I would not want to trade places with you

[Eileen Stein]

Bill, you might still be able to score some imported Icelandic lamb at WholeFoods in the next week or so, although the all-too-short season is coming to an end. I think any US lamb producer should check it out, just to be aware of the standard you're up against. It may well be that what their lambs eat accounts for the awesome quality, but unfortunately we can't feed them here what they eat there, so we can't give them "comparable nutrition."

The rest of the year I support American lamb 100%. Wouldn't look at lamb imported from anywhere else. But facts are facts, and I gotta say that I'm not sure I'd want to put my own lamb up against Icelandic lamb in a blind taste test.

As for climate, I'm at the extreme northern edge of my range right now, so I think you're right that I wouldn't make it in Iceland as a sheep farmer.

[Bill Fosher]

I wouldn't mind taking part in one of those round ups. I've seen photos and videos, and they look like a grand time, bringing half-wild sheep into a pen and sorting off each farm's animals into sub pens.

But remember that there is a cost to common grazing. OPP was first detected in Iceland, and spread through the national flock pretty widely in the 1990s. Do you know how they got that under control, Smalahundur?

Eileen, the day I buy lamb at Whole Paycheck is a long, long ways off. Nearest store is 50 miles away in the first place. The way they jerk their domestic producers around and come up with meaningless labels for conventionally-produced meats to make their yuppie clientele feel self-righteous and happy about eating meat from a feedlot leaves such a bad taste in my mouth that I wouldn't enjoy it even it is as good as they claim.

[Smalahundur]

I wouldn't mind taking part in one of those round ups. I've seen photos and videos, and they look like a grand time, bringing half-wild sheep into a pen and sorting off each farm's animals into sub pens.

If you can ride you are more than welcome, in this part of the country we always need people for it.

But remember that there is a cost to common grazing. OPP was first detected in Iceland, and spread through the national flock pretty widely in the 1990s. Do you know how they got that under control, Smalahundur?

Where did you get that info? My wife is a vet and reacted a bit surprised when I told her your statement.
You are talking about "mæði/visna", or ovine progressive pneumonia. Yes, that was imported to Iceland with caracul sheep (the word caracul is a very dirty one among icelandic farmers) but not in the nineties, way earlier somewhere in the 1930´s. It is non existant now.
Among other measures (destroying all the sheep on infected farms) was Iceland divided in isolated parts (more than 30)with so called varnarlinur ("defense lines") they are borders, usually natural divides as big rivers, mountain ranges and double fencing. These lines are still in full effect. If a sheep succeeds in crossing such a line during the summer it is slaughtered, not returned to its owner (he/she of course gets the slaughter price). At the moment I don´t worry about OPP, but scrapie, or for instance paratuberculosis now that´s another matter...

[Eileen Stein]

Eileen, the day I buy lamb at Whole Paycheck is a long, long ways off. Nearest store is 50 miles away in the first place. The way they jerk their domestic producers around and come up with meaningless labels for conventionally-produced meats to make their yuppie clientele feel self-righteous and happy about eating meat from a feedlot leaves such a bad taste in my mouth that I wouldn't enjoy it even it is as good as they claim.

Well, I mentioned WholeFoods only because, to the best of my knowledge, it's the only store in the US that carries Icelandic lamb (which is anything but "meat from a feedlot"). I don't feel scorn toward WholeFoods; I can't even bring myself to feel scorn toward yuppies who want to eat more healthily and ethically, but at the same time I'm not that interested in defending WholeFoods either. I don't have enough first-hand knowledge to be comfortable doing it, for one thing. I think very, very few people have enough first-hand knowledge to make a reliable judgment. Food production and distribution is a very complex subject; being a total purist is unrealistic and compromise is inevitable. I guess my thinking is (1) IMO it's sensible to expect to pay somewhat more for food that has been produced well (which is a good thing, since local farm markets and CSA prices around here are higher than WholeFoods), and (2) I've always found Michael Pollan to be an accurate and reliable reporter, and he's studied food production pretty intensively, and at least for the last four years or so he's evidently come to the conclusion that WholeFoods is a legitimate leader in locating and offering healthier, more sustainable, more humanely raised, and more local meat and produce, certainly as compared to other high-volume outlets.

Bottom line: For whatever reason, I'm sorry you won't get a chance to taste Icelandic lamb. It is very, very good.

[Bill Fosher]

Hi Eileen,

I base my judgment on personal business dealings with Whole Foods at the regional level. It was a lot more than four years ago. But they essentially asked a group of local sheep producers to match Coleman's lamb prices so they could say "local naturally raised lamb." When we pointed out that Coleman is a feedlot and has lower cost of production for that reason, their response was that it was naturally raised, and so long as it didn't have hormones, it was natural. It just wasn't local. So the only difference to Whole Foods at that point between grass fed lamb from small farms and grain fed lamb from a large feedlot was the fact that they could put a local label on one and not the other. And they were only interested in that marketing advantage if they could get it at no cost.

They've apparently found a new thing to trumpet. If it happens to be a good product, with actual differences from what they usually sell, I'm glad. Maybe it'll get them to reconsider the value that alternative production systems provide to the end product and they'll be willing to pay for what they're asking for.

Pollan's good at what he does, I'll give him that. But he also tends to drink the kool aid that is offered up if it works with his world view. As an example, Joel Salatin's got Pollan pretty well snookered, and Salatin has very little credibility with many who actually looked into what he claims to be doing. (For instance, how does he reconcile the first sentence of his bio -- "Joel Salatin is a full-time farmer" -- with the speaking engagement calendar that shows him on the road 30 weeks out of the year?)

Smalahundur, I guess I got my facts mixed up. I could have sworn there was a major sheep disease outbreak in Iceland in the 1990s that was maedi-visna (which we here in the states call ovine progressive pneumonia or OPP). And, alas, I cannot ride.

[Eileen Stein]

Bill, the Icelandic lamb has a very short season, as I said. (And WholeFoods doesn't really "trumpet" it -- we first tried it because I'd heard good things about it.) The rest of the year our WholeFoods sells lamb from Wagon Wheel Ranch in Mt. Airy, MD (wagonwheelranch.org). It's pasture raised, grass finished and local. (I suppose they could be outright lying, but they're not using any weasel words.) I assume WholeFoods is evolving, just as Salatin's time on the road has no doubt evolved as demands for him as a public speaker have increased.

[Bill Fosher]

Enjoy it. Good lamb from a national supermarket chain is a rare thing indeed.

[Eileen Stein]

That's for sure!

[D Strickland]

I have a lady that comes to practice working her Icelandic Sheepdogs on my sheep every once in a while. Her first dog couldn't really care less for sheep or any type of stock work. Her second dog is only 7 months old and appears to have more desire to work - all I see is a lot of barking and harassing. They are certainly not the breed for me but then again I don't want to generalize after only seeing two dogs. Nice looking dogs ...

Dave S
www.outrunbc.com