"Always remember: If you're alone in the kitchen and you drop the lamb, you can always just pick it up. Who's going to know?” - Julia Child

Holistically managed and pastured lamb stands unrivaled with its rich flavor and nutrient density, packed with essential proteins, vitamins, minerals, and Omega-3s, making it the discerning choice for not only the best chefs in the world, but for anyone seeking superior taste and nutrient density.

Sheep, with their gentle grazing habits, transform pastures into vibrant ecosystems, enhancing soil health and promoting diverse plant growth.

Embrace the harmony of nature by purchasing lamb, promising the finest meat for your table, healthier pastures for your local farm, and a sustainable future.

“Technically, I suppose I’m a grass farmer.” Good grass - good pasture, and a well managed flock of superior sheep is what we believe will allow us to carry on the legacy of our mentor, John Jamison of Jamison farm - the most famous lamb farm in the country and the go-to source of pinnacle lamb for the deities of the American culinary world. Where our mentor provided for the likes of Julia Child, Alice Waters, Daniel Boulud, Dan Barber, Wolfgang Puck, Jean-Louis Palladin …. all of them having publically declared Jamison lamb the best lamb in the United States, we aim to please the chefs of our own generation.

Like most of the prime lamb regions in the world, it’s hilly and wet at Ridgemeade Farm, just like at Jamison Farm. There are other legendary lamb producers in the area, such as Elysian Fields, but where they are aiming for huge, heavy, fat sheep to maximize poundage sales, we sell young, tender, and refuse to feed grain of any type. Our sheep are 100% grass fed and grass finished - period.

As John always tells me, in spring, the lambs feast on early season mustard leaves, garlic-chives and pick up subtle allium notes. Going into the summer, the fields are blossoming with wildflowers and wild anise, which promote exquisite herbaceous undertones. Fall brings nutrient-dense fescue that helps the lambs fatten up for winter, and they also eat Queen Anne’s lace, a relative of the carrot, which sweetens the meat.

A culinary afficinado himself, Ragghianti revels in drawing out the best in each part of the meat his family riases on Ridgemeade, which also includes pastured turkey, chicken, and eggs, and forested heritage breed pork, like the rare lard breed, Mangalitsa.

Lamb, Ragghianti says, is the finest meat in the world. More nutrient dense than beef, more interesting, more subtle, and more profound.

Most of the commercial lamb produced in places such as Colorado is grain-fed, rendering it greasy with a hint of rancidity, yet more expensive than, beef. “In grain-based Colorado lamb, they want a big fat cover with a dumbed-down flavor. Lamb on grain is not that interesting at all,” says chef Dan Barber, and in fact, we suggest that it’s actually quite terrible for the pallet as well as the environment - not to mention the animal that suffers while being force fed an unnatural feed that makes it sick.

Just like at Jaimson’s farm, it’s precisely because of geography — the hills, elevation, rainfall and, most importantly, the grasses of western Pennsylvania and in particular, our special micro-climate along the shores of Lake Erie huddle just over the north side of the ______ ridge, that make our lamb unparalleled.

It’s special because of where we are, becuase of what they eat, becuase of the climate, the geography, and because of our dedication to intensively rotating them through the pastures so that they are always on fresh, tender grass. The difference is night and day.