Birdseye & Tanner Brooks Farm produces USDA CERTIFIED GRASS FED, grass-finished, pure bred, registered Galloway beef and pure bred Icelandic lamb. The two breeds have a well-earned, long-standing, reputation as the very best you can buy for taste and flavor, for thriving on grass alone, and for yielding meat high in Omega-3s.
In addition to lamb, we produce mutton, hogget*, and delicious mutton sausage (Sweet, Chorizo Merguez, and Spicey Italian). We sell sheepskins and fleeces, yarn, roving, and felt --- even, as available, horn buttons. Our yarn, in a variety of natural (undyed) colors can be found at In Sheep's Clothing Yarn Shop, 10 Water Street,Torrington, CT, and by mail order, or at the barn.
Undermountain Weavers, in Salisbury CT, (860-435-9265; moc/loa//letsreGK), using century-old hand looms, weave unique and beautiful rugs, shawls, blankets, and, even, neckties, from our undyed yarn. These are heirlooms.
In raising our animals, no prophylactic antibiotics, no hormones, are ever used. Fed local hay and haylage in winter, our cattle and sheep are on pasture (all pasture fertilizers and inputs are organic) all year around, and slaughtered seasonally in the fall, when the grass season ends. Both our flock and herd are small. Our animals get careful attention. None of them ever see a feedlot. No grain or corn is ever used. This diet helps preserve the food value of the meat, and is natural to the animals.
All beef is dry aged up to 28 days. Sold by the whole, half, and quarter, it is butchered to your order, and wrapped, boxed and quick-frozen for you. We like to sell wholesale and retail from the barn, and locally, at the Cornwall Country Market, on Route 7 in Cornwall Bridge, at The Local, across the covered bridge from Route 7, in West Cornwall, and at the Berkshire Country Store in Norfolk, and, seasonally, our products can be found at the Cornwall Cooperative Farmers Market. Nearby customers and those who enjoy a beautiful drive (see 'Contact Us') often pick up at the barn.
Prices are based on hanging carcass weights (see 'Pricing').
Average beef hanging weight is 600 - 800 lbs. According to the USDA, with beef, 60% to 65% of that will be take home cuts. Of this, 40% is hamburger, 20% is steaks and 40% is roasts and miscellaneous. You will need a 16 cubic foot freezer to store a whole beef. Frozen grassfed beef easily keeps over a year.
For lamb, the yield is 55% to 65% of hanging weight. Pricing and packaging are similar to beef, but we don't sell quarters of lamb, or have package deals: Icelandics are medium-sized sheep, and delicious: a quarter wouldn't last a minute. But we do sell retail cuts straight from the barn freezer. Half a lamb will fit neatly into a refrigerator freezer.
Please ask about buying sheep or cattle for your farm.
*Hogget is a term for lamb older than one year, and less than two years, old. With our Icelandics, the difference is that our lambs are true lambs, and smaller. We can't tell the difference in taste, and we don't think you'll be able to, either.
Our Motto: "The Grass Does It!"
In addition to lamb, we produce mutton, hogget*, and delicious mutton sausage (Sweet, Chorizo Merguez, and Spicey Italian). We sell sheepskins and fleeces, yarn, roving, and felt --- even, as available, horn buttons. Our yarn, in a variety of natural (undyed) colors can be found at In Sheep's Clothing Yarn Shop, 10 Water Street,Torrington, CT, and by mail order, or at the barn.
Undermountain Weavers, in Salisbury CT, (860-435-9265; moc/loa//letsreGK), using century-old hand looms, weave unique and beautiful rugs, shawls, blankets, and, even, neckties, from our undyed yarn. These are heirlooms.
In raising our animals, no prophylactic antibiotics, no hormones, are ever used. Fed local hay and haylage in winter, our cattle and sheep are on pasture (all pasture fertilizers and inputs are organic) all year around, and slaughtered seasonally in the fall, when the grass season ends. Both our flock and herd are small. Our animals get careful attention. None of them ever see a feedlot. No grain or corn is ever used. This diet helps preserve the food value of the meat, and is natural to the animals.
All beef is dry aged up to 28 days. Sold by the whole, half, and quarter, it is butchered to your order, and wrapped, boxed and quick-frozen for you. We like to sell wholesale and retail from the barn, and locally, at the Cornwall Country Market, on Route 7 in Cornwall Bridge, at The Local, across the covered bridge from Route 7, in West Cornwall, and at the Berkshire Country Store in Norfolk, and, seasonally, our products can be found at the Cornwall Cooperative Farmers Market. Nearby customers and those who enjoy a beautiful drive (see 'Contact Us') often pick up at the barn.
Prices are based on hanging carcass weights (see 'Pricing').
Average beef hanging weight is 600 - 800 lbs. According to the USDA, with beef, 60% to 65% of that will be take home cuts. Of this, 40% is hamburger, 20% is steaks and 40% is roasts and miscellaneous. You will need a 16 cubic foot freezer to store a whole beef. Frozen grassfed beef easily keeps over a year.
For lamb, the yield is 55% to 65% of hanging weight. Pricing and packaging are similar to beef, but we don't sell quarters of lamb, or have package deals: Icelandics are medium-sized sheep, and delicious: a quarter wouldn't last a minute. But we do sell retail cuts straight from the barn freezer. Half a lamb will fit neatly into a refrigerator freezer.
Please ask about buying sheep or cattle for your farm.
*Hogget is a term for lamb older than one year, and less than two years, old. With our Icelandics, the difference is that our lambs are true lambs, and smaller. We can't tell the difference in taste, and we don't think you'll be able to, either.
Our Motto: "The Grass Does It!"
