Grass-Fed Lamb

Here at Northfield Farm, we choose to do things the traditional way - rearing our lambs slowly on the pastures of our Rutland–Leicestershire farm or sourcing our lamb from likeminded farmers we know well and trust. Our animals spend their days growing naturally and living well.

Raising lamb slowly isn’t just better for the animals and the environment - it’s what gives our meat its rich, distinctive flavour and tenderness. Slow-grown, free-range lamb develops a depth of taste that grain-fed, intensively reared meat simply can’t match.

Lamb raised on pasture develops a richer flavour and a naturally balanced nutritional profile, with more omega-3s and other nutrients than grain-fed meat. This means our lamb is as nutritious as it is delicious.

Whether you’re looking for lamb for your Sunday roasts, bbq or just for your midweek meals, our lamb delivers restaurant quality in your kitchen. If you’re looking for a leg of lamb, lamb chops or a shoulder cut for slow cooking, our expert butchers here on the farm prepare everything ready to order.

We supply grass-fed lamb online, with nationwide delivery direct from our farm to your door or visit our shop here on the farm, one of our stalls at Oakham or Uppingham Market or at our stall at Borough Market in London. However you choose to shop, you can trust in the flavour, provenance and quality.

Taste the difference of grass-fed, free-range lamb from Northfield Farm, where you can trust in the flavour and the quality.

Sustainability has always been at the heart of what we do. For more than 30 years, our family has put the environment and animal welfare at the centre of everything we do. This means that we always work to choose more sustainable farming methods.

Not only is sustainable farming better for the environment but it is also better for you. Our lambs are grass-fed which helps them produce exceptional flavour and a better nutritional content. Especially, when compared to grain-fed animals that aren’t free to roam and often raised too quickly.

Buying meat and produce from us here at Northfield Farm means you’re supporting local British farming, choosing better animal welfare and a healthier environment.

From our farm in the heart of the Leicestershire countryside, we supply quality, tasty meat directly to customers. At Northfield Farm, we have lamb available for online delivery, or visit our farm shop or at our stall in Borough Market.

The Lamb we sell is raised and finished on Rutland and Leicestershire farms, and is allowed to reach mature weight without being pushed.

So when you choose Northfield lamb you get lamb reared by the same families, in the same fields, who have the same way of doing things - and all this shows in how it tastes.

Why choose grass-fed Lamb from Northfield Farm?

Our grass-fed Lamb is born and raised on the same Rutland–Leicestershire pastures the family has farmed since 1994.

They live outside on grass and clover for most of the year, only coming in for lambing when the weather turns.

It’s a slow, pasture-based system, and that tends to show in the flavour. What you get is lamb with a bit more depth and character than what you’d get from faster-grown animals.

When demand goes beyond our own flock, we buy from a small number of farming friends we know and trust, who rear their sheep to the same standards.

Everything is butchered to order here on the farm, by hand. So when you buy our lamb you know it comes from the same families, the same fields and from people who have the same way of doing things.

Put simply, yes. Our sheep spend almost all their lives outdoors on permanent pasture, grazing grass and clover. 

Lambs grow up alongside the ewes in the same fields and are weaned as late as we can manage to keep things settled. Through winter, they transfer to hay and silage harvested from our own fields - the same diet, just preserved. If the weather has prevented us from harvesting enough sileage to feed them through winter we buy in sileage from a neighbouring farm. Much like our cattle we sometimes have to supplement our finishing Lambs with a locally grown rolled barley blend, depending on what the weather is doing and how this affects grass growth.

The flock grows at its own pace, slower than more intensive systems, but that tends to suit both the animals and the meat.

When we need to buy in more Lamb, it’s from farming friends we know and trust, who manage their flocks in the same way.

If you ever want to know where something’s come from, just ask – call or email us or come to our farm shop or one of our market stalls and we can talk you through it. 

We offer a full range of cuts across the carcass. 

For roasting, there’s leg of lamb (on the bone or boned and rolled), shoulder (on the bone or boneless) and best end of rack for something more special. For quicker cooking, we cut Barnsley chops, loin chops, leg steaks, noisettes and lamb cutlets. For slow cooking, there’s shanks, neck fillet, breast and diced lamb for stews and curries. And then the classic staples: mince for shepherd’s pie, hand-pressed lamb and mint burgers and lamb and mint sausage rolls.

Each cut suits a different kind of meal. A shoulder, cooked slowly, will often see you through a few days, while a rack is a great choice for a special occasion.

If you’re not sure what you need, give us a call or come and see us - we’re always happy to talk through the choices with you, either at the farm shop, at Borough Market and our other market stalls or on the phone (you’ll often get Leo or Marc answering in the middle of doing the farm jobs).

“Ethically sourced” is one of those phrases that gets used a lot, often with no substance behind it. 

What does it mean for us? In our opinion it’s about looking after the sheep properly while they’re here and handling things with care when their time comes.

Our flock lives outside on grass for most of the year, only coming in if a ewe needs help at lambing or when the weather turns against them. They’re slow-grown, never pushed and fed on grass, hay and silage from our own land.

When the time comes, their journey is short. Our Lamb goes to a small local abattoir just a mile away. Keeping things close helps keep stress levels for the sheep at minimum, which matters in its own right and also shows in the meat.

When we buy Lamb, it’s from farming friends we know well and have visited, who work to the same standards as us.

We don’t make a big show of all this, because it’s just how we think it should be done.

These are all the same animal, just at different ages.

Lamb is a sheep under a year old. Most British lamb is somewhere between five and twelve months at slaughter, tender and mild in flavour.

Hogget comes from sheep between one and two years old. By that point it’s had a summer or two on grass, which brings more depth of flavour, a little more fat and a bit more texture without becoming tough. It largely disappeared from British shops in the second half of the twentieth century, but it’s starting to find its way back. A great decision in our opinion.

Mutton is from sheep over two years old, often older ewes that have raised lambs of their own. It’s darker, richer and more deeply flavoured, with the kind of strength that suits slow cooking and spices. It used to be the main sheep meat eaten in Britain. These days, it’s probably the most overlooked.

If you’d like to try hogget or mutton, just ask us - either at the farm shop, at Borough Market, or on the phone. We don’t always list mutton online, but we can usually set some aside for you.

No

We deliver nationwide using a 24-hour courier service, Thursday to Saturday.

Everything is packed in a cardboard box, with sheep’s wool insulation and icepacks inside. This keeps the contents cold for up to 48 hours. 

We include a return envelope for the wool liners. If you send them back to us we’ll give you £5 credit towards a future order so that the wool gets a second life.

Our Lamb is vacuum-packed and sent fresh, so it travels well and will keep in the fridge for up to four days once it arrives. The exception is bones, which are sent pre-frozen.

If you’d like to freeze your Lamb, it does that very well. Vacuum-packed cuts can be frozen for many months without losing quality. Lay them flat, label with the date, and defrost slowly in the fridge when you’re ready to cook.