Lamb and Easter: A Seasonal Connection with Lost Meaning
Lamb is often served at Easter. For many it’s a tradition. But few stop to ask why, or what kind of lamb ends up on the plate.
The answer is cultural, religious, and ecological. But the way we produce and eat lamb today has strayed far from all three.
Why lamb?
Lamb has long symbolised new life. In religious contexts—from Jewish Passover to Christian Easter—it represents purity and renewal. But there’s a simpler reason lamb was eaten in spring: that’s when it was available.
Before industrial farming, lamb was seasonal. It was born in early spring, raised on pasture, and eaten when it was ready—often months later. There were no shortcuts. No grain. No sheds.
What we call “Easter lamb” today is usually anything but. It’s often from animals born out of season, reared indoors, and pushed through a high-input system to meet supermarket timelines.
What defines good lamb?
Good lamb doesn’t come from a shed.
It comes from animals raised outdoors, on pasture. It comes from a mother that’s fed on diverse, living soil—herbs, grasses, legumes. That translates directly to the quality of the meat. It’s not just about flavour. It’s about nutritional integrity.
Grass-fed lamb contains higher levels of omega-3s, CLA, and antioxidants. The fat is cleaner. The meat is denser. The animal has grown slower and stronger, in rhythm with the land.
Lamb like this isn’t just better—it’s honest. It reflects the land it was raised on.
Why we overwinter our lambs
At eatTelfit, we lamb later than the industrial norm. We overwinter ewes outdoors, with shelter only when needed. They graze through the winter on permanent pasture—diverse, mixed species grassland. When that’s not enough, we supplement, but only minimally and never with grain.
This system respects natural rhythms. It means lambs are born when the grass starts growing—not before. That’s when the ewes are strongest. That’s when the land can support new life.
Overwintering isn’t about holding animals back. It’s about respecting the ecology. We don’t push animals or land to meet a calendar. We work with what the season provides.
The problem with “early lamb”
To meet retail demand, many lambs are born in December and January. That means housing, feeding cereals and silage, and managing illness. It’s an intensive system masked by a seasonal label.
Fast-fattened lamb may hit the shelves in time for Easter, but it does so at a cost—animal welfare, soil degradation, fossil-fuel feed, and lower-quality meat.
We don’t think that’s acceptable. Not for the animals. Not for the land. Not for the people eating it.
Lamb should be seasonal again
Easter lamb once marked the beginning of the farming year. It made sense ecologically. It was aligned with the landscape. Today, that link has been broken.
We’re rebuilding it.
If you’re going to eat lamb this spring, ask where it came from. Ask how it was raised. Ask when it was born. Because lamb raised properly—on pasture, in rhythm with the land—is something worth preserving.
