PEOPLE are being urged to get down to their local butchers and do their bit to support next week’s Love Lamb Week.

Launched in 2015 by Blanchland sheep farmer Rachel Lumley, creator of the @LoveBritishLamb Twitter account, the promotion runs for the week beginning September 1.

The aim is to get Joe Public to appreciate the versatility of the meat – and get cooking!

“We want to promote the fact that September is the prime season for lamb and I don’t think a lot of people know that,” said Rachel.

“Everything has been weaned – the lambs have all come off their mothers and have been fed on grass at its best.

“It’s now that people should be going to butchers and ordering a whole lamb to put in their freezers.”

Rachel is delighted at how the campaign has taken off nationally since she launched it last year.

Both AHDB Beef & Lamb and the National Sheep Association have swung behind it, promoting it at a national level and organising a plethora of related events.

“I can’t quite believe it really,” she said, “but it’s great.

“We’re not expecting to set the world on fire, we are realistic, but it would be nice to start to build on the campaign year on year so that lamb has a much higher profile.”

AHDB Beef & Lamb describes the week as a great opportunity for farmers and butchers everywhere to get involved, not only by encouraging consumers to understand how versatile, tasty and easy it is to cook with lamb, but also by providing an insight into how the industry works. “Education” is the keyword.

Its website contains links to marketing material, such as posters, that can be downloaded and a broad range of recipes designed to appeal to a broad range of tastes.

Examples are lamb curry with sweet potatoes, lamb mini roast, and lamb, rosemary and apple burgers with an apple and cider relish.

Part and parcel of its objective to entice newcomers in, AHDB is driving off with a recipe for keema, a traditional Indian curry made out of minced lamb.

It hopes to lead consumers on from there towards higher-value lamb cuts.

Strategy director Laura Ryan said: “Love Lamb Week is an excellent grass-roots campaign which really gives the industry something to get behind in order to promote home-produced lamb.

“By working together with the NSA, we aim to build on the success of last year and make Love Lamb Week 2016 even more engaging, to ensure that we get our message out to as many consumers as possible.”

For its part, the NSA has created a group of Next Generation Ambassadors tasked with driving activity on social media and in their local press.

The wider sheep farming community is also being encouraged to get involved, either by organising a promotional event in their local area or by getting out there on Twitter and Facebook.

Further information and the downloadable promotional material are available on the webpage at beefandlamb.ahdb .org.uk/lovelambweek.

Twitter users can support the campaign via @LoveBritishLamb