Pair-a-Dice Farm

Well, we’ve been fortunate to attend the Charlottesville City Market for the past few weeks on a space available basis and it’s a very robust market with a long history. This past Saturday, May 7, was opening day at the South of the James farmers market (http://www.themarketumbrella.com/). It was so great to see familiar faces and meet new faces as well. I enjoyed telling our processes in lamb to Ellie’s class. This market recently changed to a producer only market and the energy at the market was at a fever pitch with excitement from the vendors and the customers who all enjoyed the local flair of products there. It’s great to be back. Wherever you live, I hope you make time to visit a local farmers market and strike up a rapport with the producers of the foods you buy for yourself and family. It’s the only way to truely know that what you are eating is so very fresh, delicious and healthy. We love going to the markets to share information with the customers about our lamb and fiber products.

Hello from Pair-a-Dice Farm! Joe, Michael and I hope you had a wonderful and peaceful holiday. We have missed all of you since the closing of the farmer’s market in the beginning of December. We would like to personally thank all of you for your patronage and friendship during the farmer’s market last year. Several of you requested that we establish a couple of days when you can purchase additional items during the off season before the market begins again this spring. We would like to schedule one day per month, depending on all of your interest, to bring products from our farm to you. Our first day will be next Saturday January 15th from 0900 to 1000 at the parking lot of Forest Hill Park where the market is held. We have eggs, lamb meat, beef, yarn and roving available. We will have fresh eggs available at $3.50 per dozen. Please email or call us with the quantity and whether you would like brown or white eggs. We have all cuts of our lamb meat available. We request that you visit our website at: http://www.pairadicefarm.com/lamb_meat_prices.html to review our price list and select your items and then email or call us with your order. Please indicate the cut of meat and the approximate quantity (our meats are pre-packaged and weighed) that you would like.

We also have quarters of beef available. The beef is in lateral quarters and is $6.00/pound. There are three quarters available:

Quarter Weight           Subtotal      VA Tax      Total
        1     120.33 lbs.     $721.98       $18.05     $740.03
        2    121.15 lbs.      $726.90       $18.17     $745.07 
        3    129.47 lbs.     $776.79       $19.42     $796.21
If you would like to purchase a quarter or half (just select two quarters) please email or call us with the quarter number you would like.

If any of you are interested in our yarns or roving, please let us know by email or phone and we will bring those items with us so you can make your selection and purchases. We would like to have all orders received by 3:00 p.m. on Friday, January 14th either by phone or email. Our phone number is 434.696.3854. Our email address is pairadicefarm@hughes.net. Thank you for supporting Pair-a-Dice Farm. We appreciate your business.

Market was amazing! Joe and I were hopping for the whole fours hours with customers at our booth. It was very exciting to see the enthusiasm shared by our customers’ appreciation for a high quality product such as the lamb. We take pride in producing the lamb humanely and folks say the flavor is fantastic and tender. Many have patiently waited for over a month for the lambs to get big enough to process and we finally got our first batch of 2010 lambs picked up yesterday. It was exciting to hear the great reviews about the lamb, it gives you such a thrill to hear.

Back at the market, we will be offering lamb again. The following cuts will be available:

• Rack of Lamb (frenched)
• Shoulder Roast
• Shoulder Chops
• Loin Chops
• Leg of Lamb
• Leg Steaks
• Ground Lamb
• Tongue, Liver, Kidney, Heart (possibly available: pancreas and spleen)

See you at the market Saturday.

A whole fleec

Shearing started the regular time of year but just seems to come so soon. It’s one of those necessary, albeit gruelling, tasks of sheep production.This year, howeer, Joe and Michael built me a shearing table to get those pregnant ewes off the ground and up a little higher for me to shear. Michael and I lifted the ewe to the table which we put in the barn on a tarp and he controlled her while I sheared. Wow, what a difference in the work. Still got kicked a little and still had some wild ones but overall, it was so much better. We were still sore but not like in years past. Joe threw the cord up over the rafters of the barn to keep it out from under the shoes andwe were able to get those big girls done, on average, in about 20 minutes. Remember, I’m not a professional and I’m still only 5′ 2″ so it’s a matter of short arms working over very long pregnant ewes. But all 44 ewes are shorn and all 14 goats were done in one day. The goats were not bred this year so they were really easy and plyable to shear.

New colors have been added to the inventory of handspun yarns offered. Recently there is a teal blue, pumpkin orange, cornflower blue and a rich green. The green was supposed to be a mint green but too much dye matter was used that really darkened the dye. The colors are very vibrant and some of the skeins are very fine but most came out to be the equivalent of worsted weight.

After spending four hours trying to round up lambs to weigh them and being unsuccessful at the task, we gave up and went inside. It was too hot to be out there anylonger. Next day, I went to market with only eggs and yarns. Joe called me to tell me that he went to pour some feed to get coax the lambs in the corral system but before he could pour anything, they were all in the corral. Are you kidding? No chasing? They all just walked in there? Unbelievable! So they got them all weighed and picked out the ones that made weight for procesing. I took our first load of lambs to the processor which was such a relief to finally get some to weight.

Recently, we’ve had the pleasure of meeting a chef, Chef Preston. He is a repeat customer and always has nice things to say about the quality and flavour of our lamb. We really try to do it right. cently, we’ve had the pleasure of meeting a chef, Chef Preston. He is a repeat customer and always has nice things to say about the quality and flavor of our lamb. We really try to do it right.