Brandywine Table: Easter Feast from the Farmstead

If you’re hosting Easter dinner this year on April 20th, you’ll want something special on the menu. For some, that’s a glazed ham. But for many, Easter, spring and renewal all mean it’s time to cook lamb. To find where to source locally grown lamb, we talked with owners of a family-run sheep farm in Downingtown.

Megan and Brian Bogle, co-owners of True North Farmstead, cook simple main dishes for their family of five, whether it’s a daily meal or for the Easter holiday. “If you have good, quality ingredients, you don’t have to do much to them,” Megan said. “All you have to do is salt and pepper the food, and cook it right.”

Their sheep and dairy farm focuses on milk- and grass-fed spring lamb along with farmstead sheep’s milk cheese and yogurt made on site. These ingredients are the basis of delicacies like a roasted leg of lamb that Megan tops with a classic French demiglace. “We harvest our lambs at three to four months of age, so it’s a tender lamb with a clean and mild taste,” she said.

Megan pairs her moist, roasted lamb with favorite side dishes — classic French fondant potatoes, along with roasted Brussels sprouts or broccoli. Brian was initially drawn to the peasant style of French cooking after experimenting with Julia Child’s approachable way of cooking classic cuisine.

The Bogles’ special meals often begin with a cheese appetizer of whipped brebis cheese, made using their soft, spreadable sheep’s milk cheese, served with sliced baguette. “You can top it with olive oil, or if you want something sweet, use honey or jam.”

Their lamb meat, offered seasonally and in a variety of cuts, inspires Megan to make lamb stew if she has a lamb shoulder to cook — an ideal cut for slow-cooked stews since it’s a tougher meat. This dish makes a hearty and warming meal on those occasional stillchilly April days.

For everyday meals, the Bogles use ground lamb, with its mellow and mild flavor, as a substitute for ground beef in family-friendly meals. They’ll use ground lamb for Bolognese sauce over pasta or to make hamburgers (lamb burgers?).

As farm owners for over a decade, the Bogles are proud to offer quality ingredients to the community. Since each of their eight East Friesian/Lacuane mix ewes produces about two lambs each spring, the meat is in high demand and is sold quickly once it’s processed. “I like knowing how the lambs were raised, and we can provide that information for people,” said Megan.

Read on for a short course on the most desirable lamb cuts and some tasty recipes from True North Farmstead to inspire your Easter holiday meal!

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