New lamb brand from pioneering Northern Irish food business

A new lamb meat brand has been developed by one of Northern Ireland's most progressive farming families.

Lisnacree Lamb is the new and natural lamb brand launched by Harnett's of Waringstown county Down, a farming enterprise long recognised as a leader in award-winning culinary oils such as rapeseed, linseed and hemp.

The lambs are raised on their farm on the slopes of Northern Ireland's iconic Mourne Mountains from a flock of black faced mountain sheep, free to roam the heather-clad hills overlooking Kilkeel in county Down.

The lambs are then finished on grass closer to the Irish Sea coastline which gives the meat added flavour from natural salt sea air.

The business is also raising Hebridean mountain sheep and lambs on Duvillaun, a remote island off the coast of county Mayo in the Republic of Ireland.

The company, which is also investing heavily in wind technology to power the farm and the production of culinary oils, has already launched a Duvillaun Sea Salt from natural salt harvested from the island's Atlantic coastline.

Jane Harnett, a director of the farming business, says: "We've been looking at the potential of lamb reared in a natural environment such as the Mourne Mountains and Duvillaun for some time because of the growing market interest in premium meat.

"Mourne Mountain Lamb is now a recognised product which we are keen to play a part in its further success especially in markets outside Northern Ireland.

"Lisnacree Lamb is a lean meat that has a rich flavour and is low in fat because of the rugged, natural environment and fresh sea air in which the sheep and lambs are reared.

"We'll be using our marketing and branding experience and contacts used in our successful culinary oils to build the new Lisnascree Lamb brand in Northern Ireland and Britain," she adds.

The Harnett's 250-acre family farm at Waringstown is the only one on the island of Ireland able to grow and market its own range of oilseeds which it has been producing commercially since 2007. The family's farming heritage there stretches back to the 18th century.