Respecting the lamb
Elysian Fields Farm has its sights on a new paradigm in the food movement
High-end restaurants that source fresh and sustainable red meat often share the name of its farm, appetizing descriptions of the protein and its sides — fried squash blossoms and potato puree with seared grass-fed rib-eye or braised lamb shank with crispy garlic confit and charred tomato puree or caramelized apples and black truffle essence with roasted pork loin — and the eye-popping price. And that’s about it. Now, a new paradigm in the food movement for red meat protein is in the works. and it deals specifically with lamb. Elysian Fields Farm in Ruff Creek near Waynesburg is developing a concept where a tracking number will direct consumers to its redeveloped website for traceable date profile of its prime-cut lamb that is served on menus at restaurants and retail shops. It will be available in late October in time for the holiday season.
The tracking number on each cut sold will provide information about the farm where it was raised that is more than just the name and the animal’s birth and harvest date. It also will feature wine pairings and recipes for the product along with tips from chefs on how best to cook it.
Technical details regarding the feed composition, water quality and how forage samples are measured routinely will be included. So will a brief bio of the farmer who raised the animal because Elysian Fields also gets its lamb from 10 other small family farms in Western Pennsylvania and southeastern Ohio.
“This model will shift the focus from the product to the animal. We feel a lot of consumers want that connection,” says Keith Martin, 61, who owns and operates Elysian Fields. “It will connect the consumer intimately with the animal and in turn make the person understand that the lamb is the one responsible for the lovely dinner.”
With consumers being able to trace the source of the product, it will integrate them to the values under which the animal was raised, he says, making them the last energizer to that effort.
Understanding lamb
Understanding and respecting the lamb — a cross between a Dorset ewe and a Suffolk ram — has been his philosophy since he started Elysian Fields in 1989. So he wants to take his on-the-farm experience and hone it into a messaging component for the consumer. His son, Sam, who previously worked for an ad firm in San Diego, is leading that marketing effort and coordinating with Aplana Software for the
custom software part and with Gatesman on redesigning Elysian Fields’ website.
Born and raised in Rices Landing in Greene County, Mr. Martin went from being an investment broker at the former Parker/Hunter Inc. for 6 ½ years to a sheep farmer when he became disillusioned by the go-go ’80s, junk bonds and limited partnerships. When he did some soul-searching he realized the people who meant most to him were farmers. It was then that he came across Edgar Miller’s sheep farm near Washington, Pa., and embarked on a new career.
His wife, Mary, who is a flight attendant, came up with the name Elysian Fields on one of her trips when she saw it mentioned in a coffee table book titled, “Dictionary of Cultural Literacy.”
Elysian Fields is 200 acres of pristine green farmland and has about 200 lambs that are all hand-fed with dry hay that is harvested at its peak. The topography, grass, welldrained soil all contribute to an ideal environment to raise sheep. To get their attention when they are out in the pasture over the hill, Mr. Martin just has to cup his hands around his mouth and bellow shee-ee-eep, and about 80 animals obediently fall into a single line and head down in his direction. “They know myvoice; I talk to them all the time,” he says, as he coaxes the stragglers, calling them “my pretty girls,” to join the flock.
“Being a farmer is very humbling. I am the agent — just the voice of the lamb. The principal is the lamb,” he says.
Pure Bred brand
In the mid-’90s, he started selling lamb to the famed French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., and in 2005, he partnered with its chef Thomas Keller and launched the Pure Bred brand to add another layer of value; today 89 percent of his product is Pure Bred.
Over the 30-plus years of farming, his operation has grown, and he now has two facilities — the farm in Ruff Creek focuses on the mail-order business and specialty cuts while the larger one in Morgantown, W. Va., handles the slaughtering and large orders.Pure Bred is served at acclaimed restaurants across the country, including the Duquesne Club, Downtown, The Inn at Little Washington in Washington, Va., Danny Meyer’s and Daniel Boulud’s restaurants in New York, and Grant Achatz’s restaurants in Chicago.
“I have never looked back since buying the farm or regretted the decision. Not one time,” he says. It’s not the height of your passion but it’s the depth of your commitment that will ensure you success in farming.”
Currently all Pure Bred product labels have a tracking number, Mr. Martin says, but they are not being used and are ending up in the dumpster. He wants to change that, and that’s where the idea for the tracking number on a placard came in. It invites the consumer to visit the new website that will have the data profile of the lamb.
As details of the concept are being hashed out, Elysian Fields is in talks with avant-garde restaurants and premium retail shops to get them onboard. So far, a restaurant group in Chicago, a butcher shop in New York City and a private club in Western Pennsylvania are agreeable to the concept.
He is mindful that from a business perspective some restaurants might be reluctant, especially if there are other proteins such as beef on the menu and the source doesn’t want to reveal any information. “It might have a customer not having Elysian Fields lamb asking, ‘Where is my little placard?’”
He also noted that some restaurants are stuck in a quality-driven program and don’t know the quantifiable value that is stacked over the quality description of the product. “They buy my lamb because it is great lamb, it is high-quality lamb and their customers love it,” he says. “At this point, to some extent, it is all they care about. We have talked about the tracking number and the data associated with it, but they don’t wantto take the next step.”
And he is sensitive that not all diners would like to be lectured to about how they should think or feel about something. “We get that,” he says. “The intention is not to stick it in somebody’s face or ruffle feathers. We want to gently steer the person.”
There are nuances that restaurateurs need to considerstarting with when they should present the placard. Would it be before the meal so that the guest knows exactly what is being ordered, or would it be when it is time to pay the bill after a satisfying meal, knowing that the protein was worth its value? Mr. Martin is leaving it up to the restaurant to decide if it wants to engage directly with the customer or do it postmeal with a small gift of complimentarylamb.
With regard to Mr. Keller, even though he has had a big influence in marketing Pure Bred and the lamb is served at the French Laundry, there are no plans to feature the placard at the Napa Valley restaurant. “It is all about the dining experience the patrons have at his restaurant, and he does not want to deflect from that. He wants the focus to be, as it should be, on the culinary level he works on,” Mr. Martin says.
Curriculum on lamb
Also in the near future is an educational component that will tie Mr. Martin’s belief in holistically raising lambs with the program at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. A year and half ago, the school’s board approved a curriculum written by Mr. Martin for an agriculture philosophy course that will be done in segments and video streamed from the farm into the classroom.
“It is now a matter of getting a curriculum developed,” he says. “It will be animal focused and not product focused. The lamb has been with us for seven months but as a product just for a few weeks. That’s what we are changing in the minds of young chefs.”
This year, Elysian Fields is the sponsor of the Western Pennsylvania Lamb CookOff at Ace Hotel in East Liberty on July 22 when 34 local and and national chefs will compete in a culinary battle using Pure Bred. It will be supplying 20 animals that are selected personally by Mr. Martin to ensure that they are of uniform maturity and size. “They are all spring lamb born in January and the meat will have a nice blush that will contrast nicely with the crystalline fat,” he says.
He hopes that as much as the festivalgoers enjoy the good quality of the lamb, they also will be educated and engaged to think about the animal.
“It is incumbent on all of us to be aware of our consumption,” he says philosophically. And that’s what he also wants to convey by introducing the tracking number at restaurants and retail shops.