John and Sukey Jamison are bidding farewell to the business they’ve enjoyed for 35 years at their farm in Unity.
The couple is phasing out their highly regarded Jamison Farm line of grass-fed lamb products, a decision prompted in part by the covid-19 pandemic.
“We had been thinking about retirement before March,” said John Jamison, 73. “Then, when the pandemic hit, it took away 60% of our business.” The high-end restaurants the farm has catered to around the country had to halt indoor dining under restrictions meant to hinder the spread of the virus.
Save for their own three-week shutdown, the Jamisons kept going through the rest of 2020, with the mail-order business that launched their enterprise.
Now that the busy holiday sales season is over, “We thought maybe this is a good time” to close up shop, Sukey Jamison said.
The couple will sell remaining items on hand.
“We still have some product we’re going to make into sausages, and I’ll make my soups and my stews,” said Sukey Jamison.
When those are sold out, John Jamison said, “We’ll still be raising sheep.”
Their flock of 150 ewes should produce at least 200 lambs in May.
“What we do with those lambs next fall, we don’t know yet,” he said.
That compares to boom years when the Jamisons had as many as 5,000 lambs to sell to top chefs and loyal retail customers.
The Jamisons plan to continue running their federally inspected USDA meat plant near Bradenville to process meat for others now, instead of their own lambs.
“The plant has been an integral part of our business,” said Sukey Jamison. “That’s what made it so special, because we did all our own processing. That made us different, and it made it easier for us to sell our products to restaurants.”
Unity farm phasing out lamb sales
Jamison Farm owners John and Sukey Jamison are ending nationwide sales of lamb products after pandemic cuts out restaurant orders.
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When the Jamisons began to develop their flock, there was no local market for selling lamb to restaurants. Then, in 1988, lamb they prepared for a dinner at Pittsburgh’s LeMont attracted the attention of, and an order from, influential Washington, D.C.-based chef Jean-Louis Palladin.
The Jamisons developed relationships with other leading chefs including Daniel Boulud and Frank Stitt. They also became friends with cooking-show icon Julia Child.
“We would send her lamb, and she would send us her signed cookbooks,” John Jamison said.
The couple penned their own book of recipes and reminiscences, “Coyotes in the Pasture and Wolves at the Door” (Word Association Publishers).
Over the years, John Jamison said, he’s most enjoyed “dealing with the chefs and also a lot of the mail order customers that we’ve had.”
Once remaining orders are filled, the Jamisons will have time to consider other pursuits.
Sukey Jamison will be able to devote more attention to the vegetable garden she grows every year on the couple’s 210-acre farm.
“This is a beautiful farm,” John Jamison said. “Why would we ever want to move? It’s very quiet up here.”
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