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Mutton is largely a natural product. I'm sure there are various nasty chemicals involved in keeping them pest free (a farmer's wife once told me that every sheep you buy should be supplied with a free spade because they have a habit of keeling over and dying) but basically all a sheep consists of is converted grass, and all the grass is made from is the elements available for free on this hillside: water, air, sunlight and elements from the soil. So there's a real relationship between the flock of contented fleecy cumulus clouds, trundling slowly from west to east in the sky above . . .
I wonder what sheep dream about? Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk |
Taking
the mums out for the morning, we try out the tearooms and ice
cream parlour at at a farm at Shelley. It's the
sort of place you expect to come across on holiday - a real country
tearooms - but this is just 20 minutes drive from home.
But
no, she doesn't think I'm much of a threat and she stays sitting
there, chewing, looking relaxed and ruminative and turns back to
survey, through half-closed eyes, the green pastures and distant
woods and the other members of her social group quietly grazing.
I
could easily become vegetarian but if every one decided to do the same,
sheep would just die of old age. If I could believe that every sheep could
have as contented a life as this one, then I wouldn't mind eating a lamb
casserole, in fact I do eat lamb casserole, that's one of my signature
dishes out of a very limited repetoire.
