This award is a sign of its quality and prestige, and provides The Pritchard’s Gower Salt Marsh Lamb with legal protection against imitation. From 11 August, only official Gower Salt Marsh Lamb can be sold with the UK GI seal of approval.
Dan & Will Pritchard run Gower Salt Marsh Lamb at Weobley Castle on the Peninsula.
From 11 August 2021, only legitimate Gower Salt Marsh Lamb can be sold with the UK GI logo, guaranteeing its produce comes from lambs which were born and reared on the north Gower coastline.
Wild Sorrel, Sea Lavender and Samphire are just some of the plants found in this unique landscape that make up the diet of the salt marsh lambs that graze there.
The area was the first in Britain to be designated an area of outstanding natural beauty, in 1959. And now Welsh Gower Salt Marsh Lamb is the first British food to be given protected status following Brexit. The scheme is designed to ensure that popular and traditional products from across the country can obtain special status to mark out their authenticity and origin.
This means that shoppers can buy their favourite food and drink with confidence, and producers whose foods are granted GI status benefit from intellectual property protection, so that others cannot imitate them.
The protection has been given as Gower Salt Marsh Lamb producers were able to demonstrate their meat’s characteristics are essentially and exclusively due to its particular area of production.
Produced using knowledge and skills dating back to medieval times, Gower Salt Marsh Lamb comes from lamb born, reared and slaughtered in the Gower area of South Wales. The meat gains its unique characteristics from specific vegetation and environment of the salt marshes on the north Gower coastline, where the lambs graze over long distances for more than half of their lifetime. It is a seasonal product, available from June until the end of December.
Dan & Will Pritchard said:
“We are so pleased that Gower Salt Marsh Lamb is now officially recognised and registered under the new UK GI schemes.
We are the third generation of Pritchards to farm in this amazing location, meaning that we’ve perfected our way of rearing lamb over the years. We currently produce around 1,000 lambs per year – taking care of the whole process to create meat with a unique, local flavour of samphire and sea lavender.
This recognition means that the reputation of our regional product is protected, and it helps us promote traditional agricultural practices and eliminate non-genuine products.”
It’s great that Gower Salt Marsh Lamb can now use the official GI logo to demonstrate its authenticity and provenance.
Fresh Gower Salt Marsh Lamb is available from August to December. Frozen Gower Salt Marsh Lamb is available for the rest of the year at Real Food Hub: https://www.realfoodhub.co.uk/supplier-listing/gower-salt-march-lamb
