Tag Archives: lamb

Aveley Heritage Sheep Ranch: My Family’s Story

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Here are the sheep feasting on the fast growing spring grass at Aveley Ranch. Aveley Ranch is located in a peaceful natural setting, where hard work produces abundance from the land.

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September in the alpine meadows of the North Thompson Valley.

GUEST POST by Valerie Moilliet/Gerber

Aveley Ranch was established in 1906 when our Grandfather homesteaded and remains in the Moilliet Family to this day. Situated in the upper North Thompson Valley, approximately 150km north of Kamloops, Tam Moilliet discovered the area while on a survey crew at the turn of the century. Carving out a home in the wilderness he was ready for his bride when she arrived from England. Mary braved blizzards and canoeing the North Thompson River to birth and raise her family.?On the premature death of her husband, her 16 year old son John — our Father — managed to keep the ranch going.? The Moilliet Family has always worked together, teaching skills to the younger generation, while respecting the wisdom of the older generation.

Keeping with family tradition, Grandfather?s 3rd & 4th generation continues to shepherd and nurture the flock through the seasonal cycles. Starting with a small flock of sheep in 1913, over the years our Father slowly increased the flock to about 1000 head. His son Ian, increased the flock to about 1300 head. Sheep is what we do on Aveley Ranch!

When the BSE Crisis hit in 2003, we decreased the flock size to about 500 head. In an effort to continue doing what we love — and with lamb prices so low — our family experimented with Agri-Tourism in 2005. Since we were already a destination for visitors at lambing season each spring, we began with tours of the lambing area. We included all the extra things that happen on a farm such as: hay rides, collecting eggs, and boat races on the creek. Of course, the biggest attraction is simply cuddling orphan lambs! The Solitude Heritage Cabin B&B is situated in the hub of the lambing area and is a great place to stay while on the ranch.

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Moving the flock to fresh pasture.

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Eight Maremma/Akbash Guardian Dogs protect the sheep from predators.

Traditionally, our sheep are a range flock. The flock grazes the high alpine meadows in the summer and domestic pastureland in the valley in the spring and autumn. The flock is fed hay produced from our own pastures during the winter months.?This adds up to succulent lamb, available each fall, fresh off the range, naturally raised. As a knowledgeable consumer you will know that Omega 3 fat is an essential fat that we require from the foods we eat. Scientific research has discovered that grass fed red meat is a valuable source of Omega 3 fat. Conjugated linoleic acid is also found in abundance in grass fed meat and dairy products. Grass fed lamb is a good choice for lamb connoisseurs concerned about naturally grown foods. If you are concerned about potentially consuming antibiotics or hormone residues, you will love our lamb!

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Here are some of the heritage buildings found on Aveley Ranch.

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Here are some of the other heritage buildings on the ranch. The Heritage B&B is the middle building.

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This is the inside of Heritage B&B.

If you are looking for wool, our Corriedale Sheep have soft, bright wool that is easy to work with. The wool is not so itchy as some of the coarser breeds, making the wool delightful to wear next to the skin. We have raw and processed wool available for sale on the ranch including: 2 strand yarn in skeins, 2 and 6 strand wool cakes, quilt batts, lopi yarn, and roving.

We would love to show you a little piece of the North Thompson Valley that is tucked away between the side of the mountain and our lovely river.?Lambing season begins on April 1st and carries on through the month. This is the best way to discover Aveley Ranch and see sheep up-close and personal! I hope to see you in the spring!

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Come visit the ranch and bring the whole family for a hay ride.

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Come feed the orphan lambs in the spring and enjoy the fresh mountain air.

Aveley Heritage Sheep Ranch
Ian and Karen Moilliet, Joseph and Cadence Moilliet, and Valerie Moilliet/Gerber
2721 Birch Island, Lost Creek Rd, Vavenby, BC, V0E 3A0
T: 250.676.9574: Ian and Karen
T: 250.676.9234: Valerie
E: ian(a)smartsheep.ca: Ian and Karen
E: stump_pasture42(a)xplornet.com: Valeria
www.aveleyranch.com
149 km
grass-fed and alpine finished lamb, B&B, ranch tours, teashop, museum, hayrides, history tours, children?s activities

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Children love holding the lambs and experiencing ranch life.

Cooking with Grass-Fed Meat and Fowl

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Grass-fed meat needs to eaten rare. This is a favorite breakfast with grilled grass-fed beef, thinly sliced, with a salad or buttered cabbage.

If you are new to grass-fed products and feel unsure about how to cook meat or fowl please read Achieving Culinary Success With Grass-Fed Beef. This is a long essay but it explains the differences between conventional and pastured animals. The essay discusses the interesting topic of artisan butchery and how this specialty is being regulated out of existence.

One tool that is very useful in cooking pastured meat and fowl is to “put away your timer and get a good meat thermometer”. I started doing this after reading The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook by Shannon Hayes. I found it took all the mystery out of cooking a turkey or a very large roast. The fowl or meat would always turn out wonderful. The temperatures below are from her cookbook and I have found the temperatures to always produce a succulent meal. She recommends allowing the meat to sit on the counter and rest after cooking. It is interesting to watch the temperature continue to increase after the meat is out of the oven. The temperatures are for grass-fed meats and the standard recommended temperatures are in parentheses. I like my meat rare inside, so I normally use the lower suggested temperatures.

Beef: 120-165F (140-170F)
Bison: 120-165F (140-170F)
Chicken (unstuffed): 120-165F (140-170F)
Duck: 160-170F (180F)
Goat: 120-145F (140-170F)
Goose: 170F (180F)
Lamb: 120-145F (140-170F)
Rabbit: 160F (160F)
Pork: 145-165F (170F)
Turkey (unstuffed): 160-165F (180F)
Veal: 120-165F (140-170F)
Venison: 120-165F (140-170F)

One of the joys of buying whole animals, is having a choice of cuts that you have never tried before. If you do not know your cuts of meats, you can learn about cuts from books such as the Joy of Cooking. I have found butchers very helpful with learning about cuts of meat and offal. Get every part of the animal you can, even if you don’t know what to do with it. It’s fun to learn how to cook strange parts of the animal! Another great source is Offal Good.

Dry heat is better for some cuts of meat and moist heat is a must for others. The use of rubs and pastes tenderize meats and add exotic flavors. Or you can tenderize with devices like Jaccard Meat Tenderizer. Super slow cooking can soften the toughest meats by cooking at the lowest temperature your oven will go. Most modern ovens will not go below 150-170F.

Remember to save the juice, bones and fat drippings from fowl and meat. The juice is a wonderful base for soups and stews. The bones can be saved in the freezer for bone broth. The fat drippings are good for frying or oven roasting just about anything. I always try to have a grease bucket in the fridge or by my stove for quick use. Fats from animals can take high heat frying much better than even butter which can burn. Read The Grease Bucket and Beautiful Bone Broth for more information. Coconut oil is safe for cooking but save your extra virgin olive oil for pouring over salads or other unheated foods. I do not recommend using industrial oils of any kind. Actually, I think industrial oils and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) are the two worst modern food additives. Unfortunately, they are in most processed foods.

Full-flavored meat comes from animals that have led a full life… Life intensifies flavor, and modern meat animals are living less and less.
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee

Winter Storage Part II

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This is part of our dried storage area. We like to have a large section of organic dried fruits, mushrooms, spices and other organic bulk items. We buy in bulk to save on costs.

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We like having a large section of organic beans, legumes, and whole grains. We grind our own flour at home.

Our household has three types of winter storage. We use a root cellar, dry storage and freezers. The root cellar is humid and cool, which is good for storing: potatoes, carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, cabbages, onions, garlic, shallots, green tomatoes, raw cheese and crocks of fermented vegetables. The dry storage is dry and cool, which is good for storing: dried fruits, ground coconut, grains, beans, legumes, assorted herbs and raw honey. We have over 70 cubic feet of freezer space in which we store: beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, organ meats, bones, raw milk, raw butter, butter, nuts, seeds, berries, tomatoes and assorted vegetables.

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This freezer used to be full of raw milk. We will run out of milk before Olivia gives birth to her next calf. Normally, I would never store anything with frozen milk to avoid off flavors getting into the milk but I ran out of space in my other freezers.

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This is my fruit freezer. It was full at the beginning of winter. I now have space for nuts. When nuts are shelled it is better to store them in the freezer to protect their delicate oils.

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This freezer would normally be empty by this time of year. One of our big freezer's compressor failed. We where lucky that we didn't lose any food. It is a good idea to have a temperature alarm on all freezers to avoid this kind of problem.

Three years ago, we came to Kamloops and moved into an old mining pit. The soil is clay, rock and gravel. The first year we were busy building the warehouse and a home. The second season we started the garden. We had to bring in compost, peat, and manure from all over the city to grow anything. We planted fruit trees, currents, raspberries and other food producing plants. We use drip irrigation and a small number of spray emitters. The soil was so hard and rocky I was using a rock pick to dig shallow holes to plant my herb garden. Many plants died that first year.

The quickest way to build soil is animals. We have run chickens for two seasons now. Shaen is the gardener in the family and he has had some production this year. We have had good production from: raspberries, strawberries, some tree fruits, spaghetti squash, beets, zucchini, chard, tomatoes, green beans, herbs and dried beans. Everything else languished or died.

The last week, has been a race with the weather to remove the remainder of our crops from the garden. We managed to put away some spaghetti squash, pie pumpkins and green tomatoes in the root cellar. We froze some raspberries and green beans. We put away a very small amount of dried beans into our dry storage. It was chickens that really worked this year. We put away 120 chicken or about 600 pounds of meat in our freezers. We have eleven turkeys still growing in the back “pasture”. Our new laying hens are consistently producing over a dozen eggs a day.

Every urban homestead starts from humble intentions. The urban homesteader must be flexible. The land can only produce what the land can produce. The urban homesteader must be patient. With careful tending and a little effort, the land will produce more and more each year. If we are in a hurry, production can be increased, but a cost will be paid in labor or money. The urban homesteader needs to be grateful. Whatever comes is a bounty, a gift, from the land. In our modern world we have forgotten how precious food is. Growing your own food counteracts this delusion.

These are some of the local producers I have used for dry stores and for our freezers:
1. Westsyde Apiaries: 250.579.8518: raw honey, raw honey comb
2. Fieldstone Granary Ltd: 250.546.4558: organic spelt kernels, golden flax seed, oat groats, green lentils, and buckwheat groats, chicken scratch
3. Healthylife Nutrition: 250.828.6680: raw pecans, raw walnuts, shredded coconut, raisins, currents, dates (Once a year fall order from www.ranchovignola.com.)
4. Jocko Creek Ranch: 250.374.9495: grass fed beef, grass fed lamb
5. Lyne Farm: 250.578.8266: grass fed beef, grass fed veal
6. Beaver Valley Livestock Services: 250.243.2257: pastured pork
7. Big Bear Ranch: 250.620.3353: pastured organic pork
8. Golden Ears Farm: 250.679.8421: unsprayed strawberries
9. Highland Farm: 250.803.0048: organic cherries
10. Blueberry Hill Farm: 250.246.4099: unsprayed blueberries
11. Avalon Dairies: 604.456.0550: pasteurized organic butter (Good for cooking.)