The majority of sheep in the American Northeast are dual purpose – raised for fiber and food (meat and milk).

Pastured sheep of our Northeastern family-run farms are actually triple purpose. Grazing sheep improve and maintain soil health, drawing carbon from the atmosphere via the grasses and roots underground. Soil is the biggest terrestrial carbon sink on the planet.

For those of us based in the Northeast, our locally bred and pastured sheep are quadruple purpose, providing: 1) fiber; 2) food; and 3) natural carbon capture that nourishes the land while 4) eliminating carbon-heavy transport from far-flung supply chains.

Who cares for our local land if we don't have local farms?

How do we keep local farms caring for the land and our climate? Buy. Local. Farm. Products.

Milk from pasture-raised sheep is rich in vitamins A, B, and E, calcium, phosphorous, potassium, and magnesium as well as healthy short- and medium-chain fatty acids.

Lamb meat is a high-protein food source rich in heme iron, which is more absorbable than non-heme plant iron; vitamins B12, B6, and B3 essential to maintaining a healthy nervous system; and immune-boosting zinc.

 How do we keep local farms caring for the land and our climate and our health? Buy. Local. Farm. Products.

Wear wool. Eat lamb.

Virtual Lunch #7 – Stir-Fried Lamb with Scallions

My special guests were Rhea Cheng, an artist in Wuhan, China, who is making a cookbook of her family’s favorite recipes; Katya Ekimian, a knit wear designer, an executive chef, and an occasional shepherd; and my niece Jenne Bergstrom, a double-barreled food blogger, cookbook author, and research librarian. Both Rhea and Katya graduated from Parsons last year.  Rhea did this month’s cooking video of Stir-Fried Lamb with Scallions.  We all cooked the dish for our virtual lunch.  The lamb meat was incredibly tender, and the sauce was delicious.  The recipe would work equally well with beef, pork, or chicken.

 It made sense to think about the impact of Covid on our lives, since the virus started in Rhea’s hometown of Wuhan, China. For Rhea, Covid forced her to slow down and think about what she wants to do with the rest of her life.  For Katya, Covid created an opening to dive deep into sheep farming, as life on the farm had to go on.  Jenne found in the pandemic a yearning for real community.  All of us cooked much more than we did pre-Covid.

We talked about the essential role of livestock in regenerative farming, about the necessity of culling sheep flocks to keep them in balance with the carrying capacity of the land, about the challenge of replacing aging farmers, about the shortage of butchers at abattoirs, and about the lack of wool scouring capacity in the Northeast.

Rhea shared her drawings of some of the 30 sheep breeds in the Northeast, which she is doing for Northeast Wool.  Her favorite is Icelandic, thought to be close to the original Viking sheep.  She loves that the breed has three different natural colors: white, black, and brown.  In her sheep farming forays Katya fell in love with the Lincoln breed.

We talked about how food might point the way for change in other aspects of life, the transition from fast food to slow food foreshadowing a similar transition from fast fashion to slow fashion.  We need to transition from fast and global to slow and local.  It will be a much better world to live in; more healthy, more interesting, more fun.  We need to start that transition now.  We can do it, but without an immediate reality check and response, we are too late.

Virtual Lunch #6 – Pappardelle Bolognese

My special guests are Kyle Jaster, a pig farmer in the Catskills who practices regenerative agriculture, and Martin Bide, a leading textile scientist.  Inspired by Kyle’s pig farm, the food theme is Pappardelle Bolognese, an Italian meat sauce that uses a mix of lamb, pork, and veal.  Martin eliminates the veal.  Kyle substitutes some of his own prosciutto for the pancetta in the recipe.  Both make their own pappardelle.

 Kyle tells the story of how he has been enhancing the soil on his farm by carefully moving his pigs through 45 paddocks, limiting the time in each paddock so the grass and other forage is not overgrazed and has enough time to recover before it is grazed again.  A week before the pigs enter a paddock, Kyle sprinkles seeds of 30 different grasses and vegetables across the paddock. The pigs work the seed into the soil with their hooves.  The quality of grass and other forage in the paddocks where he has been grazing his pigs for the past 10 years is remarkably better than on adjacent land without pigs.

Martin discusses the need to find high value uses for wool to induce farmers to increase their yields and reduce waste.  He believes that wool is the best fiber to use with natural dyes because of its ability to absorb dye, though he suggests that most synthetic dyes are not toxic.  “We have learned our lesson and eliminated the bad ones.”  He also notes that some natural dyes have toxic elements, especially madder.

Virtual Lunch #5 – Oaxacan Lamb Barbacoa Tacos

My special guests are Megan Meiklejohn, a sustainability product manager in the fashion industry, and Anne McIntyre-Lahner, owner of Olympia farm in Guilford, where she raises Romney sheep for lamb and fleece.  The food theme is Lamb Barbacoa Tacos, inspired by the Cook’s Table episode on Christina Martinez and her South Philly Barbacoa restaurant.  We share our travails in sourcing the ingredients for this dish, especially the impossible to find Maguey leaves.  But the final products in each case are some of the best tacos we’ve ever eaten.

 Anne talks about how she sources spent barley malt from local microbrewers as a feedstock in the winter when her sheep cannot graze.  Megan speaks about the importance of animal protein and the concept of biomimicry, where agricultural processes need to be patterned after natural processes, which include grazing animals.

 Megan and Anne speak about the way in which grazing sheep improve soil health, improving grass yield and the carrying capacity of the land. This is a process that requires careful management and time.  “Sustainable fashion” begins and ends in the soil.  From grazing sheep that sequester carbon while improving the soil with their manure to the biodegradability of the wool itself that can be returned to the soil as compost.

Virtual Lunch #4 – Zahav Lamb Shoulder

Our special guests are my niece Jenne Bergstrom in San Diego, a food blogger, cookbook author and research librarian; and Kelli Theis in Denver, a great cook and a champion of Israel and Israeli food. The food theme is Zahav Braised Lamb Shoulder, the signature dish of the Zahav restaurant in Philadelphia, one of the best Israeli restaurants in the U.S. Jenne also makes schug as well as several side dishes from the Zahav cookbook, and Kelli makes a Lamb Ragout in Harissa over hummus based on a recipe from Alon Shaya, chef owner of Safta, an Israeli restaurant in Denver. We dive deep into hummus, and into tahini, and a dangerously good Soom chocolate tahini.

We talk about Israeli food history. Israeli Cous Cous was developed as a replacement for rice when Israel’s neighbors wouldn’t trade with it. It’s called Ben Gurion’s rice in Israel. In the 50’s and 60’s, people didn’t go to Israel for the food. With drip irrigation and vertical farming, Israelis have figured out how to grow fabulous produce in an arid land. Israel is now the vegan capital of the world. Israeli cuisine is immensely varied, reflecting the foods from the countries of origin of the Jews who immigrated there.

This Virtual Table is more about food than sheep, but we do talk about the Basque shepherds who were the mainstay of the sheep industry in California and Colorado. And about their wonderful family-style Basque restaurants in Bakersfield and throughout California’s Central Valley.

 And Jenne shares a book: Three Bags Full. It’s about the murder of a shepherd told from the perspective of his sheep.

 And Kelli, a former Border Collie owner, shares memories of the Meeker Classic Sheepdog Championship Trials in Meeker, Colorado.

Virtual Lunch #3 – Armenian Braised Lamb Shanks with Polenta and Broccoli Rabe

Our special guests are Siri Swanson and Colin Siegmund, owners of Yankee Rock Farm in CT and VT, and Angie Brenner, author of the Tree of Life: Turkish Home Cooking. The food theme is Armenian Braised Lamb Shanks, which is Siri’s favorite part of the lamb. “They are so versatile,” she says. A trained butcher, she knows her lamb cuts.

“Wear Wool, Eat Lamb.” This is the simple mantra of Yankee Rock Farm – one we second! They are dual purpose farmers, raising Finns and Border Leicester for their meat and milk, and for their wool. As sheep shearers, as well as farmers, they share many insights into the state of sheep farming in the Northeast and the Mid-West. The length of time a lamb needs to get ideal weight (100 to 110 lbs) determines its sustainability (both Finns and Border Leicesters are very efficient lamb producers). You can’t make a living even as a dual-purpose farmer. You have to have other sources of revenue (in their case shearing and selling registered breeding stock).

They talk about the growing demand for sustainable, breed-specific wool. And admiringly about the fineness of the Finn wool and the wonderful length of the Border Leicester wool. They note the growing bottleneck in the processing of lambs, which COVID accelerated. They are strong advocates for the conversion of dairy farms and corn fields to sheep farms. Cows and sheep can even graze in succession in the same pasture, eating different levels of the grass, and vacuuming up each other’s parasites.

Angie takes us on a culinary tour of Anatolia, with its distinct ethnic regions of Turks, Greeks, Armenians and Kurds. A different way of eating. Food as experience. Not just inviting your friends to help you cook. Guests and host going to a favorite spice stall and produce stall in the market. Buying what’s at peak freshness right then. Then making the meal together. She shares a memory of a special Sunday dinner in the Turkish part of Cypress: a lamb shank with wild thyme. And of particularly good cacik. And a surprisingly good cornbread with sardines!

Virtual Lunch # 2 – Greek Style Roast Leg of Lamb with Potatoes

Our special guests are Muffin Burgess, an ethnobotanist and expert on the foods of the Sonoran Desert, and Tone Skårdal Tobiasson, a leader of Norway’s sustainable wool movement.

 From Muffin’s sunny home in warm and arid Tucson to Tone’s snowbound cabin in Norway, the discussion ranged from the Vikings and their wool to the indigenous people of the Sonoran Desert, whose knowledge will become precious as the earth becomes more arid with climate change. A 600- year-old Viking tunic, discovered in a melting glacier. Wool garments that are naturally fireproof and waterproof without chemical treatment.

Norwegian knits. Plant versus animal fiber in the Southwest, such as silk from the Agave plant. Churro sheep, introduced by the Spanish 400 years ago, have adapted well to high plateau country of the Southwest.

The theme food is Lamb Curry with Toppings, made from leftover roast leg of lamb. Muffin goes wild on the toppings with desert fruits and nuts: Saguaro fruit, Emory Oak Acorns, pinyon nuts, a mustard from Barrel Cactus seeds, Chiltepin chilies (the grandmother of all peppers), and much more. Not a curry lover, Tone makes Fårikål, a lamb and cabbage stew that is the national dish of Norway, as well as a prosciutto-like cured leg of lamb.

Some memorable quotes from our conversation:

Muffin: “Helping people to know the desert better rather than fearing it. Through food.”

Tone: “It will not be easy to replace the carbon economy with the climate economy. The Stone Age didn’t die because of a lack of stones.”

Virtual Lunch #1 – Lamb Tagine

The inaugural Virtual Table takes place on Inauguration Day and features a Moroccan Lamb Tagine, appropriately as in December 1777, Morocco was the first country to recognize the independence of the United States. Our special guests are my niece Jenne Bergstrom in San Diego, a food blogger, cookbook author and research librarian, and Colt Taylor in Connecticut, chef proprietor of The Essex restaurant.

Jenne, Colt, and I share an intense curiosity about food and cooking, especially ethnic cuisine. One of Jenne’s blogs, Convoy Conquest, set out to eat at and review every restaurant on Convoy Avenue, the Asian Main Street of San Diego; Colt focuses his restaurant on a different ethnic cuisine each month, and pre-Covid, would travel to the country in focus to research its flavor profile; and at The Lamb Stand I have set out to find every way to cook every cut of lamb from every ethnic perspective, drawing inspiration from the ethnic communities in the Northeast. Connecticut, where Colt and I live, is the country’s quintessential melting pot: over 100 ethnic communities are well enough represented in Connecticut to have their own historical society. There are only 200 nationalities in the world. We have half of them!

The three of us also share a common passion for zero-waste cooking. Using leftovers from one dish as inputs to another dish. Using bread to thicken soup. Adding food prep scraps to a simmering pot of stock. Fermenting and preserving food that might otherwise go bad. Jenne shares insights on zero waste from the writing of The Little Women Cookbook, time traveling to an era of less waste and more cooking from scratch. Colt gives us pointers on making stock, on fermentation, on blooming spices, on using citrus in cooking, and on the best technique for braising. Jenne and I show off our preserved lemons.