Delivery to St. Louis area 9July2008

The Master's Ranch/Sunrise PasturesJune 2008

Thank you, Diane, for all your help in getting the word out about us; orders have far exceeded expectations! It is very encouraging to meet with others who are as dedicated to sourcing good food as we are. Delivery to St. Louis area is 9 July. 

Time and place will be announced soon, if you need any of our products, just let us know and we'll work it up.  We are offering 12% delivery fee, which is far less than shipping and less than you driving out to our place since we are about 4 hours from St. Louis in the green hills of north-Missouri.  Although, we do welcome visitors!

Tips on Custom Processing LambTo optimise your thriftiness in making a lamb purchase you may like to consider these tips:1) Ask the butcher to keep any and all bones which contain a bit of meat.  Especially the neck bones which usually contain a lot of meat which cannot be removed without slow cooking.  Leg bones are a bit long for the stovetop pot, but easily fit into an 18-quart roaster.  When I have a lamb processed, I take all those bones and bits, which can be bulky, and set them out to thaw as soon as I'm home.  Just put them all in an appropriately-sized pot with plenty of water and bring to a boil, then turn back the heat for a long simmer (maybe 2-3-4 hours).  The meat should fall off the bones, if not, simmer a bit longer.  If you kept the bigger bones, your dog or cat will love them, the neck bones have pretty small pieces.2) Don't debone the leg roast or shoulder roast.  This way you have more bones to use to make more rich broth and soup stock.  Just remove the bones before serving, but after roasting.  3) Deboning reduces space in your freezer, but you do lose a lot of meals.4) Keep organ meats, if desired,5)  Your price includes basic custom processing, however, patties, brats, and sausage are available for an additional charge.  Just ask the butcher when you call him and tell him your choices.  King Processing, 660.376.2640.  You are responsible for calling him directly with your choices asap please.6)  Here is what we personally choose when we have a lamb butchered for ourselves:  Lambs have the least amount of lean trim loss, so are a very good meat choice.  what i personally choose is bone-in square cut shoulder roast, bone-in leg of lamb, rib chops, loin chops,(both cut 1" thick) and have the small amount left made into ground lamb.  since we have dogs and cats, I ask the butcher to save all the organ meats for me.  additionally, since we like nutritious, delicious soups, i ask that all the extra bones, including neck bones be put into a bag so i can cook them down from great broth and stock. there is no extra charge and no credit for taking or not taking the bones and organ meats.

if you want the hide, you are welcome to that as well, if you want to turn them into pelts, but the wool is pretty short on it right now.  maybe only 2
inches in length.  (bear in mind the hides are fresh, if you want it, the butcher will freeze it, but then you will need to process it)If you want organ meats and/or the hide, call the butcher BEFORE delivery to the butcher.  Otherwise the organ meats will be tossed into a bag which i bring home and the hide will be thrown away.Attached is a pdf file of retail lamb cuts or you may go the web site.  http://www.mastersranch.com/lamb_cuts_poster.pdf
7) The lambs are booked in for the 1st of July after which time, I'll know the weight and can send you an invoice.  It'd be great if everyone could send a cheque the next day and we won't have to spend time with paperwork on delivery day.  Just make cheques to: The Master's Ranch, 19554 Fort Road, Laclede, MO 64651.  here's my number if you need to ring up: 660.963.2685.How to cook lamb.  I have several of our favourite recipes listed here:  http://www.mastersranch.com/blog.php?search=lamb&button=Search  Now, this was a search for 'lamb' so there are articles and other items which also come up in addition to recipes.  I'm sorry you'll have to scroll through them.  Additional websites for recipes:  www.americanlamb.org and www.australian-lamb.com.  Both sites offer free recipe cards and books.  The Australian recipe book is a real treasure.Storage:  http://www.mastersranch.com/page.php?contentID=339this link is to my bulk lamb info.  plan to allow 2.5 cubic feet of freezer space for your whole lamb. (not counting the bones).  that's probably more than you'll need, but that gives you an idea to plan for.  the inside of a milk crate is about 1 cubic foot.

Calling for Extra egg cartons!If you have a store of used egg cartons, we could surely use them.  To buy new ones, costs us 33 cents each laid in here!  We'd like to reuse whenever possible. 

Other Products:Many of you have already ordered a good supply of our fully grass-finished ground beef and beef sausage, thank you very much.  There is still plenty available if this is something you can use.  Our ground beef is 85% to 90% lean and is packaged in one pound logs at $3.75/lb or check out the discounts here:  http://www.mastersranch.com/store.php?cat=52 if you are interested in purchasing larger amounts.Beef Sausage is our fully grass-finished ground beef seasoned with salt, spices, and sage.  Also, we have raw fleeces available in many colours, handwoven 100% wool blankets, 100% wool socks and 70/30 blend (30% nylon for durability) socks, and spools of roving.  All our wool products are natural colours; no dyes are used.  We have only a few blankets in stock right now, but a new shipment is due in any day.  Had hoped they'd be here Friday.  These blankets have been very popular.  http://www.mastersranch.com/store.php?cat=47The wool is from our Shetland sheep, (sheared by our neighbour, Jim Schaeffer, the 2005 National Sheep Shearing winner!), and is then shipped to a small, family-owned woolen mill in Carstairs for washing, carding, spinning, the hand woven into these lovely blankets and socks.  For more information about all we offer, just click on "Products" in the upper right hand corner of the home page for a list of items.  If the desciption of the item doesn't answer all your questions or if something is unclear in this newsletter, please e-mail me!This is the first time I've made a custom delivery like this, so please bear with me as we deal with any bumps in the road.  (excuse the pun)                                                                                                                    In Christ,                                                                                                                            taunaThe Master's Ranch
Fully Grass-finished Beef & Lamb
Allen & Tauna Powell
19554 Fort Road
Laclede, MO  64651660.963.2685
atpowell@windstream.netwww.mastersranch.comSunrise Pastures
Pastured Hens & Shetland Sheep
Jessica Powell
19554 Fort Road
Laclede, MO  64651