Making gyros and tzatziki sauce

It was a pleasant surprise to find I really like lamb—when we enjoyed it in homemade gyros and later as bite-size lamb chops.

Maybe you live on a farm or live close to a farm where you see the animals you eat. But that’s new for me. And it raises eyebrows when I talk to my co-workers in the Twin Cities area about keeping sheep for fiber and meat.

We’re not keeping our “farm” for any reason other than because I had a wild hare to put sheep on the green grass that thrives on our perpetually moist clay soil. And I think personally, I’ve just enjoyed the presence of sheep and the relatively minor challenge (compared to full-size livestock) of moving them and caring for them.

They say sheep are an annual animal and their reproduction matches our local deer. They breed in the late fall or winter and give birth five months later when it’s warm. By next fall, ewes and rams are (technically) able to start the process over again, though breeding sheep under a year old is a very bad idea.

For the farmers out there, this is ordinary and probably not worth noting, but for me it was a new experience to bring a ram on property in December 2024, care for lambs in spring 2025, move them across the fields all summer, then schedule with a butcher and go home in the fall 2025 with a box full of frozen, paper-wrapped meat.

At any rate, the meat was tender and the flavor was mild. The spices and cooking made for delicious meals we enjoyed with my parents.

We followed this recipe for Gyro Meat with Tzatziki Sauce from Alton Brown and this recipe for Pita Bread.