Ewe have to be joking.....................

With the recent 'foot and mouth' scare in the south of England, the repercussions of restricting the movement of livestock have hit the farmers really hard here in the north, especially as it came just when the livestock markets were about to start and the farmers would be selling this year's lambs on for fattening up ready for entering the food chain.

The Government's response to this has been to offer farmers a measly £15.00 per lamb to have it slaughtered and incinerated, By the time the lambs have been ferried across to the mainland etc. there is little of the £15.00 per lamb left to compensate the farmer for the loss of his stock and livelihood. It seems positively criminal to me when you think of all the starving mouths there are around the world that need feeding. It also seems crazy to me that the Government continues to allow lamb imports into the UK when our own farmers are forced into corners with their backs against the wall. What ever happened to charity begins at home? We should be supporting our farmers and buying British lamb - talk about importing coal to Newcastle!

One way we have helped support one of the local farmers is to buy a couple of his lambs that have been slaughtered on the island and our freezer is now fully stocked with every conceivable cut of lamb you can think of - any suggestions/recipes on what to cook with the lamb greatly welcomed.

We have enjoyed leg of lamb as part of our Sunday roast today and as delicious as the lamb was (this is real lean organic lamb I'm talking about from the wild rugged hills of Mull - not your supermarket rubbish), I have mild indigestion at the thought that the only reason the lamb found it's way on my plate to start with was because it had a death warrant on it's head courtesy of the incompetence of HM Government!!

One thing's for sure, when I find I can't sleep tonight because of the indigestion, I won't be counting sheep to help me sleep!