Lamb Mix Up, August 2012

Bob picked up the lamb order from the market. As he was leaving he realized something was wrong with the order. He went back inside and discovered that the two largest animals, LuLu and the largest lamb had been processed as the wedding order. The second largest lamb had been ground into burger and stew meat. The two smaller lambs had been processed correctly according to our order. The ewe and the largest lamb were combined into one order box making it impossible to determine mutton from lamb! I was devastated! All this effort to provide lamb for the wedding and it was sabotaged. We can't serve mutton and the beautiful second lamb in burger and stew meat! Emotions were running high. Bob contacted me at work with the news. He said that when the error was discovered Mr. Geukes was very disappointed as well and wanted to make the situation right. He offered to give us two of his lambs from his farm in exchange for the ewe and the largest lamb. These would be processed the last part of August and would be available for pick-up the first part of September when we brought the last three lambs in. This solution was the only viable solution. We accepted his offer, still uncertain as to wether we would use this lamb for the wedding or try and use the two smaller lambs. Would there be enough meat with the smaller lambs? After several discussions, Bob and I decided to try and use the smaller lambs for the wedding. The whole premise was to use food from the house. If Peter didn't think there would be enough we would make more chicken and possibly use some rabbit. Don Jones and Al Valk were willing to buy two Geuke's lamb halves instead of our halves so we could use our's for the wedding. Jordy Whalen decided to wait for several more weeks and purchase our lamb from the second batch of lambs to go the the market. You don't realize the emotional investment in this project until something like this mix-up happens. Hopefully there will be enough and if not, we have a plan B that is acceptable. Carmen