Despite the wintry weather over the weekend I headed down to Radcliffe Butchers in Castletown to meet up with Zoe Thompson of Radcliffe’s and George Steriopulos of the Manx Loagthan Produce Company and Co-operative.
The tasting had been organised by Zoe who along with brother Chris have now taken on the mantle of running the family butchers from their now retired father. Both them and their staff are extremely knowledgeable and passionate about local meat and they have really built the business in Castletown to be one of the best butchers on the island.
There was a good number of people around the village on Saturday morning and a decent number taking advantage of the tasting, with Loaghtan shoulder, sausage, casserole and burger on on offer for those passing through Malew street.
George Steriopulos is a great character and a fantastic champion of the Manx Loagthan sheep after himself his wife and a small number of local farmers saved the the breed from near extinction. Now he has formed a local co-operative of farmers who are all passionate about the breed and the distinctive character that it has over conventional lamb. Manx Loagthan is much darker in colour with only 5% fat compared to 28% in conventional lamb with 15% less cholesterol. Despite it being the healthier option the lack of fat doesn’t mean lack of flavour as the natural herbage of the hillside heather and grasses all add to creating a very special and unique flavoursome meat, making it possibly the most exclusive lamb in the world which can now proudly boast the coveted PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) accreditation from the European Union.
Check out my short video here of George talking about the Manx Loaghtan Lamb special qualtities!
The Loagthtan Lamb is certainly something the Isle of Man should be very proud of and its great to see local people really trying hard to not only raise the profile of this great product both locally and further afield. All in all I think it went down really well with everyone. The butchers was certainly doing a roaring trade (but it probably would do anyway!) It was great to see people young and old sampling such a great product and giving such positive feedback. I reckon Zoe will be putting on other similar events in the future, so keep a look out. As for me, well, after tasting Loagthan many times I honestly think its one of the reasons I could never be vegetarian!
