In October 2007, I called a number of lamb suppliers in the neighbourhood of Ottawa. One of them called me back so I said I would like to buy a lamb to roast on the May long weekend. The lamb supplier agreed to phone back May 1, 2008.
May 1, a Thursday, rolls around and no word from the lamb supplier. I finally phoned them on Sunday, May 4. Turns out that because Easter was early this year (March), they had already sold a bunch of lambs. They would call be back in a week to let me know.
As Easter was early this year, so was the May long weekend, and it was fast approaching by this time. Finally, the lamb supplier phoned back and I made arrangements to pick up the lamb on Sunday, May 18.
This was a bit of a stretch, since my husband and I were planning to head to our cottage, about 1.5 hours southwest of Ottawa. This picture was taken March 1, 2008, and was the most recently I had seen the cottage before heading there in May!
In any case, one of the other cottage owners and I headed off pretty early on Sunday, May 18, to pick up our lamb. My driving partner is actually from the Ottawa area, so we were able to navigate cross-country and find our lamb producer in Russel, Ontario.
This was a bit of a stretch, since my husband and I were planning to head to our cottage, about 1.5 hours southwest of Ottawa. This picture was taken March 1, 2008, and was the most recently I had seen the cottage before heading there in May!
In any case, one of the other cottage owners and I headed off pretty early on Sunday, May 18, to pick up our lamb. My driving partner is actually from the Ottawa area, so we were able to navigate cross-country and find our lamb producer in Russel, Ontario.
We had intended to marinate the lamb in a big plastic container and a lovely mixture of citrus juices, garlic, rosemary, red wine, and olive oil. We took the plastic container and some sheets, but we forgot the marinade! Oops! Oh well, we figured it out about 20 minutes from the cottage and decided we'd have some time between arriving back with the lamb and finalizing the details of the spit, so we kept going.
We made good time and were at the producer's by about 10:15 a.m. The producer brought out the lamb, we wrapped it in a sheet, I paid the bill, we finished stretching our legs and hopped back in the car for the drive back to the cottage.
We made good time and were at the producer's by about 10:15 a.m. The producer brought out the lamb, we wrapped it in a sheet, I paid the bill, we finished stretching our legs and hopped back in the car for the drive back to the cottage.
All this time on Sunday, May 18, the weather was quite lovely and the sun was shining. By the time we got back to the cottage, things were starting to deteriorate. Still, our friends had been busy preparing the cooking site. We popped the lamb in the marinade and prepared some sandwiches for a late lunch.
Soon after that, it was time for the spit guys to spring into action. Gardner and Steve had also spent quite a bit of time during evenings during the previous week to prepare the spit and come up with a plan. It was time to implement that plan!
I soon started to notice a lovely scent wafting around the general area. The lamb smelled really good!
OK, that should be good. time to get that baby off and start carving it up!
Well, that went pretty well, I thought. I would love to do it again, but maybe just with a few lamb roasts - as suggested by someone who did a few of these in his day, there is a bit of waste and it's a bit of work.
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