The first of the season’s salt marsh lamb is arriving in butchers’ shops and on mail order lists. The speciality, long prized in France as l’agneau pré-salé, has been gaining in popularity over the years, with chefs and producers extolling its sweet and tender virtues.

WHAT IS SALT MARSH LAMB? The lambs graze on marshes in coastal estuaries that are washed by the tides and support a range of salt-tolerant grasses and herbs such as samphire, sparta grass, sorrel and sea lavender. In the various parts of the country where the lamb is raised as a speciality, notably around Harlech and the Gower Peninsula in Wales, the Somerset levels and Morecambe Bay, the nature of the plants may be subtly different.

“Of course, I would say ours is best,” jokes Stuart Higginson of Higginson & Daughter, whose Holker salt marsh lamb is raised on local farms including Lord Cavendish’s Holker Hall estate. And no, the lamb doesn’t taste of salt or seaweedy, but has a darker colour and more delicate, sweet flavour. “It is usually very tender, probably because there are no hills for the lambs to walk up and down.”

SOUNDS PRETTY NATURAL Salt marsh lamb is probably one of the most organic of meats in the generic sense of the word. “Sheep are pretty wild, full stop,” says Higginson, “but on conventional grass they are prone to parasites like worms and flukes, which require treatment, whereas the salt water cleanses the pastures of parasites. Also, there is no fertiliser used on marshland.”

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IS THE MEAT ANY BETTER FOR YOU? As well as ticking all the feel-good boxes in terms of being local and natural, there is some evidence that meat from animals that have grazed on biodiverse pastures contains higher levels of nutrients than those that graze on conventional grass. Studies carried out at Bristol University vet school by Professor Jeff Wood and farm animal scientist Frances Whittington found that the vitamin E content was higher in heather and salt marsh-grazed lambs than in those reared on conventional grass.

Vitamin E is beneficial not only in terms of health, but in that it is an antioxidant and therefore helps the keeping qualities of the meat and its fat. Meat from the biodiverse lambs was also higher in omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids, at levels previously identified with oily fish, and in alpha-linoleic acid, a compound which may have anti-carcinogenic properties.

WHERE TO BUY Higginson & Daughter, Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria (015395 34367). Welsh salt marsh lamb: Edwards of Conwy (01492 592443; www.edwardsofconwy.co.uk); Gower Salt Marsh Lamb, Weobley Castle Farm (01792 391421; www.gowersaltmarsh lamb.co.uk). From the Somerset levels: Andrew Moore’s Thoroughly Wild Meat Company (01963 824788; www.thoroughlywildmeat.co.uk).

Readers’ queries

I have been hearing a lot about ostrich eggs recently. Where can I buy them?
Clarence Court ostrich eggs are available in selected Waitrose stores until August. They weigh around 2lb and cost £15.99 each.

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