A Welsh sheep farmer has highlighted the versatility of mutton thanks to publicity from Jamie Oliver’s Channel 4 programme.
Gwaun Valley beef and sheep farmer, Robert Vaughan, has put mutton on top of famous TV chef Jamie Oliver's menu, which features in the current Channel 4 TV series ‘Jamie and Jimmy's Friday Night Feast’.
Pembrokeshire hill farmer Robert, who is a member of the Farmers’ Union of Wales, was keen to highlight how versatile and delicious mutton can be and was delighted to show Jamie and Jimmy round the farm.
He told the Farmers’ Union of Wales: “Out of the blue one evening I had a phone call from the Jamie Oliver production team to have a chat about my farm and mutton for the new series, with the outlook of possibly coming to see the farm for themselves.
“It was all getting rather exciting but nerve racking also at that point. But I just gave them my story, not pretending to be something I’m not, and showed them round, explained how we farm and for how long we’ve been here. And they decided to run with it.”
’Impressed’
Carn Edward meats is part of the north Pembrokeshire family hill farm and comprises of 3 livestock farms working as one under the gaze of Carn Edward mountain.
Robert continued: “Before the filming actually started I sent them a few products up to taste in London. I sent them my mutton, and they got back to me and said that Jamie Oliver was impressed by it and came back with all these wonderful ideas of what to do with it.
“And by the start of May we were filming. Originally the plan was for them to come out and do a taste test of flash frying a loin of lamb and a loin of mutton, and giving it to a couple of people to see what they think.
“Job done and off they went, but because they were so impressed with the mutton story they came for the full day cooking different things.
“What is so lovely with Jamie and Jimmy is that they champion the people who produce the food and also the people who consume the food,” said Robert Vaughan.
’Obsessed with lamb’
Robert said the industry has become “obsessed” with the spring lamb story.
“We need to keep the bigger picture in mind, as lamb consumption is falling and that’s a concern for us all. So the mutton story is a way of generating a new interest and it is a great way of championing our sheep farming industry.”
The farm runs as a typical livestock hill farm, with a closed flock comprising of 750 pedigree Lleyn breeding ewes and a native herd of 200 pedigree Longhorn cattle, with all calving and lambing taking place in the spring and all animals pasture grazed.
In the harsh depths of winter they are housed and fed on grass silage round bales made in early summer.
In 2001 the farm established their Longhorn cattle herd, a low input pasture based native breed, ideally suited to the extreme weather conditions facing a north Pembrokeshire farm
