Book Review: Coyotes in the Pasture & Wolves at the Door (raising sheep, cooking lamb), Part 2: The Rest of the Story

Coyotes in the Pasture & Wolves at the Door, by John & Sukey Jamison (Word Association Publishers, 2018, 187 pp, $35), Part 2: The Rest of the Story (reviewed by Emily Steele, cook, and Skye Anderson, non-cook)

A Memoir Spiced with Lamb Recipes

Coyotes in the Pasture & Wolves at the Door has both word and pictures, plus recipes thrown in for good measure. Yesterday we focused on the words and today, on the recipes (and pictures) thanks to co-reviewer Emily Steele.

Lamb is not the most popular meat, perhaps because of its expense or the slightly gamey taste but it can be cooked with very few ingredients, allowing the flavor to star. And the Jamisons of western Pennsylvania have perfected raising sheep, pasture-fed, over the past 50 years. They were also the first to offer mail-order lamb and to sell to the best chefs: they even befriended Julia Child!

The recipes included in Coyotes are easily created by the average cook, given quality meat, like Lamb Leg Mini Roast, p 176.

We especially loved the idea of lamb spaghetti and lamb risotto and lamb stroganoff, along with lamb burgers and rack of lamb. And, of course, also included are three notes from Julia Child and a photo of her kitchen.

What We Might Suggest

Short chapters told perhaps chronologically, with 2-3 photos and a delicious recipe make Coyotes a fun book to keep - and to use!. A good idea, but perhaps difficult to carry out, would be to coordinate the chapters with the recipes and, of course, to caption the photos (but later, we found a list of the photos in the back of the book and even without that, it was fairly easy to discern who was in each photo from the accompanying story). The recipe photos were taken professionally while the family and farm photos vary in quality - but that is part of the charm of this book written so well by two English majors.

The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

If you would like to meet John and Sukey Jamison, we invite you to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival where they will be selling and signing their book and giving a lecture/workshop. The Festival is always on the first full weekend in May, at the Howard County, MD, fairgrounds.

We can't wait to meet the Jamisons at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival on May 4th and 5th this year. Won't you join us?