In my neck of the woods...the northeast...it goes on sale when it's plentiful which is usually in the Spring. I just paid $34+ for a small loin having about 6 chops on it. That's high for here considering that I bought it at a wholesaler. But my mouth is watering for lamb and common sense be damned. :-)

Yes, usually Spring, think Easter. Have you looked at Costco? They seem to have the best combination of quality plus price on meat.

Geez Louise...$149 is crazy!!! I get it year round for $5 to $6 a pound from Sam's Club or a small local market here in Southern CA. The lamb leg I get at Sam's is boneless; the other market has bone-in and boneless.

Yes...sushipup is right regarding better prices in Spring, depending on your location.

My mother bought lamb by the side when I was a kid. We used to get great California lamb. Nowadays people talk up Colorado lamb, but I don't like it as well, and I think the grazing lands in California have all been paved over. The best lamb now comes from New Zealand, but it's out of season at this time of year. We seem to see it from early Spring to late Fall, our seasons It's more sticker shock lamb. My favorite food since childhood has been double cut rib lamb chops. I don't look at the price. Mixed in with the rest of my shopping, it's not so bad. Looking too closely, it's ridiculous. When you compare a roast to rib chops, it seems like a bargain! :)

It's the same here, Sherry, although if you're rich enough there's a farm upstate which will butcher to order, but you have to buy the whole lamb. Otherwise, only at Easter.

ETA When I was a kid you could get some form of lamb most of the time, but all that shelf space goes for packs of chicken parts now.

We're going to Costco on Saturday. I went through the kitchen trash and found the wrapper. I bought this one, bone in, 7.5 lbs, on April 27th for $43.86. May have to wait until spring.

The New Zealand spring lamb should be just finishing, plllog. When do you usually get it?

Lamb/goat birthing season around here is about Dec-Feb. Australia/NZ is about the opposite. Normally lamb meat season is about 6 months after the lambing season, so NZ lamb should be coming right about now.

My sister and I used to share a lamb each year, but the butchering costs got out of hand! We just buy some from time to time.

I may be a off on the dates. It seems to me that the NZ lamb goes away around the end of November and comes back around March. That could be way off, though. I know it happens, but I've never noted the dates precisely.

$43 sounds about right:

It's been so long since I've bought any I can't even remember how much it was back then. But this was when our paychecks were minimal and I was still able to buy it on occasion. Now I look at the price and just pass it by. I don't understand why it's so way out of bounds price-wise. Is it because it's all from New Zealand now? The only time I miss it is when I get a hankering for lamb curry. I just settle for chicken curry instead.

Yes, even during the couple of weeks when it's available it's ridiculously expensive, although Aldi did have rack of lamb once this year at a seemingly-good price until you realized that it was mostly the fat cap.

But all meat has gotten expensive as it's become popular. I saw about a pound and a half of beef stew bones in Publix for $14.00 last week. Durned bone both drinkers.

Way back, when the beef steak and prime rib roast were worshiped as all American dinner-time fare, I could get soup bones, flank steak, ox tails, etc. almost for free, they could hardly give this stuff away. Now it's just as expensive as the "good" stuff. And if they had shown me a skirt steak I probably would have thrown it back at them, now it's like buying a filet. And chicken wings were either thrown away or saved for chicken broth. I really don't recall seeing packages of just wings back then. Can you tell I'm ancient?

"----But all meat has gotten expensive as it's become popular. ---'

Lots of meat, food, fruits are being exported to other countries that's why food is more expensive.

Lots of meat, food, fruits have been damaged by extreme weather.

dcarch

Sorry, dcarch, but if it were the weather I would expect all beef to have risen proportionately, not a 1000% increase in what used to be off-cuts with no increase in steaks or ground meat. It's just cashing in on trends. Just like chicken thighs used to be cheap, but now that they're popular they're just as much as breast meat.

LOL about the skirt steak. It's a small cut, and just the one piece, so limited by nature. They used to be part of the cowboys' pay because no one wanted them. Then fajitas, which were peasant food and something to use skirt for that was good, since skirt can so easily be tough, got so popular and such a restaurant staple that they had to make it out of other cuts, though they don't taste "right". Then chefs on TV started talking about the tremendous flavor of skirt (true) and showing people other ways to make it well... Now, it's gold. :)

So strange that lamb is so out of fashion that it has scarcity prices, and isn't even available everywhere.

So strange that lamb is so out of fashion that it has scarcity prices, and isn't even available everywhere.

It's funny what unlikely ramifications there are from things like this. Harp strings used to be made of sheep gut, for many hundreds of years, but with the decline in eating lamb/mutton the makers switched to beef about twenty-some years ago and all the strings now are much inferior to the ones we used to be able to get. I believe that in my young days someone once told me it took 14 sheep to string a concert grand.

you might also check out your local county fairs -- June - Aug. Following the show, many of the kids send their lambs to market. If you talk to one of the 4Hers you might be able to pick up a lamb after the fair. Also many of the meat packers will have legs of lamb etc that they sell around fair time. It's kind of a cost-sharing deal where a kid might allow a portion of the lamb to go towards compensation for butchering. Our fair is in July. I used to get a half a cow, or a swine, or even a lamb after the fair. All cuts are sold for the same per pound price ... which is usually cheaper than buying a certain cut at the store. Since the kids are all gone now, we don't buy as much, because it lasts so long. BUt they love to come visit and go shopping in the freezer before they leave.

dave

leg lamb usually goes on sale 2 weeks before Easter at $2.50-3.50 a lb

so at most i am paying $28 for 8lbs leg lamb at $3.50 a lb

W I just checked Winn Dixie. They have semi-bonless Australian legs for $6.99 a pound.e get lamb here year round, mostly from New Zealand. However, it's rarely less than $6 a pound for semi-boneless legs. We used to get some lamb from east-central Pennsylvania that was more tasty than the imported lamb. Haven't seen it for a long time.