For the last few weeks we’ve featured pastured young lamb from Rinconada Dairy in Rinconada, CA (in between Santa Margarita and Pozo, near Paso Robles in the Central Coast). We’ll have more lamb from them in a while, and starting later this week we’ll have a cheese plate from them, too, all aged raw milk cheese, mostly sheep’s milk (though one cheese has a little goat’s milk, too).

We stopped by the dairy last weekend and met the proprietors, Jim and Christine Maguire, who are gracious hosts and amazing farmers and cheesemakers.

Jim showed us the milking bay and described a little of the dairy’s history to us. Their herd began with a group of East Friesian sheep, noted for the quality of their milk, and over time introduced genetics from Lacaune sheep in order to improve the milk’s consistency and yield.

As a cheesemaker, Christine started basically in their garage. In time it became a business, they started their herd, and became proper farmers. And of course built a cheesemaking shop and so forth.

I found myself very impressed with the quality of their cheeses; I’m not a cheese expert but to my palate it’s as good as anything I’ve had. The Maguires’ craftsmanship and care, unsurprisingly, shows through.

As with most farms — particularly small farms — nothing goes to waste. In order to continue making milk, the ewes must give birth every year. Some percentage of the lambs are male, and as male sheep are not prolific producers of milk, those animals are set aside for eating.

Of course, there’s no lamb feedlot on the Maguire’s ranch. The market lambs simply graze on a pasture in front of the house rather than in back of it (where the dairy sheep are). The lambs we’ve been serving were taken to market very young (spring lambs, or as we call them, young lambs) at around 40 pounds. The remaining lambs from this herd are still grazing in the front yard and gaining weight, and maturing.

In a little while we’ll bring some of these lambs in at a more traditional market weight, I think closer to 80 pounds. To contrast, however, the lamb (often from Colorado) that one sees on many high-end menus is brought to market at 100-120 pounds (I believe those lambs are fattened on a grain based diet). Personally, I prefer the lighter-yet-richer flavor of these smaller, pastured lambs.