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- By Natalie Pitfield
When you live on acreage, going away can be problematic.
There are pet minding services but they’re like a Forrest Gump box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get. Some house sitters are excellent, and some leave a bit to be desired. And when you have the equivalent of a mini zoo, finding one person who has experience with ALL your pets can be a challenge.
We knew we’d struggle to travel while looking after our menagerie, so we built a lovely outdoor area, put in a pool and accepted that holidays at home would be the norm. Then my parents retired and moved onto our property, and we had some built-in house minders.
This was extremely useful, and we were so grateful for their love and support.
As we neared retirement age, my husband sat me down one day and gently suggested that it might be time to stop saying yes to every request to adopt an animal in need. I suffer from arthritis and have already had double knee surgery plus a hip replacement.
Doing both knees at once was a real challenge. I literally didn’t have a leg to stand on. But I worked hard at rehab and recovered well. Though I was also quite aware that I’d need further replacements in future as my joints failed. My plan was to focus on the things I could do rather than the things I couldn’t do.
But taking care of so many animals definitely was taking a toll. So, while I gasped in horror when he first suggested it, I came to realise the sad truth – you can only do what you can do.
We’d given twenty-three years to animal care and now we needed to care for ourselves a bit more. The plan was that as each animal went to the big farm in the sky, we wouldn’t replace them.
That’s easier said than done and I worried about whoever was left being lonely. But many of our critters got along well with their paddock neighbours so we were optimistic it would all work out.
RECIPE: MOROCCAN LAMB SHANKS
Ingredients
4 lamb shanks
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 aubergine, chopped
1 handful prunes
1 handful olives
Fresh rosemary
Fresh sage
Fresh parsley
Fresh mint
Lemon zest
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp sugar
1 cup white wine
2 cans chopped tomatoes
1 can butter beans or cannellini beans, drained
1 cup chicken stock
Salt & pepper
Method
1. Brown lamb shanks in some olive oil in a large pot. Remove and set aside.
2. Add onion and sauté for a few minutes. Add garlic. Add sweet potato and aubergine.
Cook for a few minutes.
3. Add wine and deglaze the pan. Add tomatoes, chicken stock, beans, sage, rosemary
and spices/sugar. Season with salt and pepper. Return lamb to pan. Cover and simmer
on a low heat for 2-2.5 hours, stirring occasionally.
4. When lamb is tender and falling off the bone remove it from the pan and keep it
warm. Increase the heat of the pan and reduce sauce till thick (approximately half an
hour). Stir occasionally to prevent vegetables burning on the bottom of the pan.
5. When sauce is thick add parsley, mint and a little lemon zest for zing. Add lamb back
to pan. Stir together.
6. Serve with white rice.
