{"id":493531,"date":"2026-02-21T00:35:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T00:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/493531\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T00:35:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T00:35:25","slug":"farmers-hands-off-approach-creates-unusual-lamb-with-distinct-flavour-chefs-say-is-like-nothing-else-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/493531\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmer’s hands-off approach creates unusual lamb with distinct flavour chefs say is like nothing else in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Frank Egan imagined he would spend the rest of his days peacefully farming the English Suffolk sheep he had been running for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n

But when his wife became sick and needed his care, he was faced with a choice.<\/p>\n

“It was give up the wife or give up the sheep,” he said.<\/p>\n

It was a fork in the road that ultimately led to a years-long “experiment”, which transformed the way the 83-year-old farms and has also helped expats feel more at home in Australia.<\/p>\n

\"Braidwood<\/p>\n

Braidwood farmer Frank Egan was forced to sell off his flock of English Suffolk sheep to care for his wife. (ABC News: James Tugwell)<\/p>\n

Building a composite herd<\/p>\n

Mr Egan researched animal breeds that required less hands-on maintenance so that he could keep farming.<\/p>\n

“I have to have some stock on the place otherwise I’m going to get too fat and so will the dogs,” he said he thought at the time.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mr Egan said his experimental approach was the only way he would have been able to continue farming. (ABC News: James Tugwell)<\/p>\n

He bought a total of 100 head of nine different purebred sheep species \u2014 from Iran, across Africa, the UK and Australia.<\/p>\n

The purebreds each had a narrow gene pool, including traits Mr Egan thought were suitable for his environment.<\/p>\n

He picked out animals with desirable characteristics \u2014 no wool, no horns and no tails \u2014 and let them naturally crossbreed.<\/p>\n

Like a 16th-century peasant<\/p>\n

Seven years later, he now has a flock of unusual-looking “naturally adapted composites” and a farming approach reminiscent of a 16th-century peasant, he said.<\/p>\n

\"Sheep<\/p>\n

The naturally adapted composites on Mr Egan’s farm have never been vaccinated nor drenched. (ABC News: James Tugwell)<\/p>\n

“This flock has not been vaccinated or drenched for six generations,” Mr Egan said.<\/p>\n

“My sheep come into the yards once a year to get an ear tag. The rest of the time they’re just out there.”<\/p>\n

He said his approach was to “change the livestock to suit the landscape, don’t change the landscape to suit the livestock”.<\/p>\n

It has saved him time as well as money on pharmaceuticals, he said.<\/p>\n

But when he tells other farmers, their eyes often roll back in their heads.<\/p>\n

“The reply has been ‘are any of your sheep still alive?’ Yeah \u2014 they’re alive and thriving and I’m looking after their health,” Mr Egan said.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got to get their natural immunity back up where it should be. Years of line breeding with the same genetics weakens the animals.”<\/p>\n

Around 20 per cent of adults died in the first few years, he said, but now “each generation is naturally healthier and stronger than the one before it.”<\/p>\n

Suppling local restaurants\"Sheep<\/p>\n

Mr Egan said his lamb meat was less fatty than that traditionally sold in Australian supermarkets. (ABC News: James Tugwell)<\/p>\n

Mr Egan sells his sheep to hobby farmers wanting a low-maintenance pet, and has begun supplying local, expat-run kitchens in Braidwood in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales.<\/p>\n

He said his meat was appealing to chefs cooking Middle Eastern, Asian and Indian cuisines.<\/p>\n

“The meat from these sheep is different,” Mr Egan said.<\/p>\n

“You don’t grill it, you don’t fry it, you don’t roast it. It’s a meat that’s designed for curries and casseroles.<\/p>\n

“You can’t compete against the people that supply Woolies and Coles, but you can find a little niche.”<\/p>\n

Mr Egan said supplying local kitchens was “proof of concept”.<\/p>\n

“What I’ve spent all these years doing actually works,” he said.<\/p>\n

Like coming home to Java\"A<\/p>\n

The owner of an Indonesian restaurant in Braidwood, Daniar Robinson, says the flavour of Mr Egan’s lamb suits her native cuisine. (ABC News: James Tugwell)<\/p>\n

When Daniar Robinson moved from Indonesia in 1999, she found Australian flavours were no match for those of her homeland.<\/p>\n

“I missed a lot of Indonesian food \u2014 the complexity of the flavour,” she said.<\/p>\n

She now runs a local Indonesian restaurant in Braidwood, just 20 minutes from Mr Egan’s farm.<\/p>\n

“He gave me a sample of his lamb, and the taste just reminds me of the goat meat in Indonesia,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I put in some roast garlic, I put in some turmeric and boom \u2014 it was amazing.<\/p>\n

“And the smell \u2014 it doesn’t smell like lamb. It’s hard to describe, but you can taste it.”<\/p>\n

\"meat<\/p>\n

Ms Robinson said the smell of the lamb cooking was completely different to traditional supermarket products. (ABC News: James Tugwell)<\/p>\n

Ms Robinson “never imagined” she’d be eating meat like that in Braidwood.<\/p>\n

“I feel thankful and grateful that Australia managed to grow everything we need,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We don’t need to travel to Indonesia just to get this flavour.”\"Daniar<\/p>\n

When Ms Robinson moved to Australia she missed the taste of Indonesian food. (ABC News: James Tugwell)<\/p>\n

Tucking into what Ms Robinson called an “experimental stir fry”, Mr Egan grins in delight.<\/p>\n

“They may not look pretty, but they taste bloody good,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Frank Egan imagined he would spend the rest of his days peacefully farming the English Suffolk sheep he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2666,64,63,98426,2667,249005,249007,134,249006,33479,249009,249010,43550,249008,25656],"class_list":{"0":"post-493531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-act","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-braidwood","12":"tag-canberra","13":"tag-crossbreeding","14":"tag-daniar-robinson","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-frank-egan","17":"tag-goodnews","18":"tag-indonesian-food","19":"tag-java-braidwood","20":"tag-lamb","21":"tag-pure-bred","22":"tag-sheep"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}