Kirkwood Meat

Kirkwood is an unspoilt, natural, extensive farm in South Scotland.  We specialise in holidays and we produce beef and lamb that really tastes good!

Reared on Kirkwood’s lush fields, our lambs & cattle are about the purest.  We farm in the most natural of ways - minimal use of drugs, fertilisers or chemicals.  Our animals have a good life with natural food, which ensures the highest quality.

We keep both lambs and cattle till they are older to give more flavour, and all animals are killed humanely at the local abattoir and then cut by a local butcher. Most importantly the carcasses are hung for the optimum length of time.

Mostly we sell our meat in PACKS. Weights are approximate (because sizes of joints and animals differ). Sometimes  we make up packs slightly differently. Our prices are unashamedly higher than the cheapest meat in supermarkets but our packs are very good value for the top quality meat we produce.

You can print our order form and post it to us with your cheque.

Beef
We offer two packs - £100 or £150.  Normally these are frozen, as killing a beast on demand is impractical as we like it to hang for at least 3 weeks. The family pack contains more quantity of the lesser cuts while the Dinner Party pack contains best quality cuts in lesser quantities.

 Lamb (or hogget)
Our packs of lamb are exactly half a lamb each.  Two halves, therefore, make a whole lamb and so is better value for money as we do  not charge twice the price.

Half a lamb (approx. 8 - 10kg) consists of:

Whole lamb (approx 17- 20kg) £110

Frozen Meat vs Fresh Meat

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in his brilliant book “The River Cottage Meat book” says:

“Good quality extensively reared meat that has been well hung and skilfully butchered will emerge from a freezer with great credit - far, far better eating than poor-quality fresh meat.”   “At home we eat a lot of beef and hogget that has been frozen, all of which has been properly hung and we are confident that it makes for far better eating."

"So if you can source a ready supply of top-quality meat but its location makes regular purchases difficult then you should certainly consider buying in bulk for the freezer.”

Everyone who cooks meat should have this book!

What Makes Meat "Taste"?

The taste of meat is really important, yet it has been lost by supermarkets. Why does some meat taste good while some is bland?

Of all the reasons, the key factor is hanging. The carcass must be hung properly. Beef must be hung for at least 3 weeks and lamb for at least a week. The next most important factor is the age of the animal. Too many are killed too young for supermarkets - this helps profit but ruins the taste. Cattle should be around 24-30 months old, while lamb should be 7 months to a year or more - this is often known as hogget.  Age gives the meat flavour - for an even stronger flavour try mutton, but of course its tougher. With hogget you get tenderness and flavour!

The next most influential factor is food - what the animal has been eating! Grass is the best and most natural food.  Fat content can be good not bad. Consumers used to shun fat on meat, mainly for health reasons but fat is worth its value as it provides much of the flavour. So let it flavour the meat while it cooks, then throw the fat away, don’t eat it. 

Other factors are more minor:- stress should be minimised and there’s country of origin and breed. Obviously both the cut of meat and cooking make a big difference!

All our animals are killed locally - Lockerbie - with minimal stress and are 100% Scotch ! Cattle are Aberdeen Angus crossed.

Home Made Meals

We are embarking on a new venture by offering our guests coming to Kirkwood a choice of meals using our own meat.  Initially we will have a small simple menu to choose from but if it proves a success we will be more extensive.

The dishes are all cooked by Kirsteen Steel and Sheri Blackett using the Aga in the kitchen at Kirkwood.  Kirsteen has undertaken a Cooksafe Food Safety Management course.  Only meat from Kirkwood will be used. They will be presented in microwaveable dishes in either 4 or 2 portions and will have been frozen, so once defrosted cannot be refrozen. 

A meal can be ready and waiting for you when you arrive on Sunday evening - already defrosted and just needs to be put in the microwave.  Alternatively, it could be frozen and placed in the freezer in the cottage and eaten later in the week - whichever you choose.  All you need worry about is the accompanying vegetables.

Eggs
We also usually have our own freshly laid free range eggs available to buy, only £4 per dozen

Venison (almost always frozen as only occasionally do these need to be culled)
From wild roe deer  - a whole butchered carcass costs £75 or half costs £40.

If you don't have Adobe Acrobat Reader, download it here