Day Seven of the Lunar New Year: Another Bowl of Clear-Simmered Lamb Broth
On the very last day of the holidays, let’s have another light and delicious meal. The Harigobi herders’ “Clear-Simmered Free-Roaming Sheep” is wonderfully simple to prepare—everyone who has tasted this grassland lamb raised by Harigobi herders through four-season transhumance can’t stop singing its praises or reaching for another helping.
The sheep here are born on natural pastures and graze freely—no intensive fattening, no antibiotics, no water injection. They migrate with the seasons across different grazing lands. As the flocks move between pastures, different forage grasses provide different trace minerals. For this reason, Ujimqin sheep are renowned for their mild flavour, even fat distribution, and tender, juicy meat. One bite of the lamb and you taste the fresh fragrance of the grassland.
Compared to fixed fencing, single-pasture grazing, or grain supplementation, four-season transhumance both preserves the grassland ecosystem and keeps the lamb’s true flavour intact. This grassland lamb, raised in the spirit of free grazing, is growing ever rarer.
Rangelands are more than just grazing grounds—they are tied to the ecological environment, the local economy, and the lives of the herders. 2026 is the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists. Foodthink will continue to follow the stories of our local herding regions and pastoralists. We hope you will take every opportunity to learn more about herders’ lives, support locally produced pastoral goods, and use your actions to stand behind the grasslands and the livelihoods of the people who depend on them.
Ingredients:
Original herder’s version: lamb from a Harigobi herder’s home, salt. That’s it.
Jishi’s adapted version: add white radish, carrot, ginger, wood ear mushroom, and ground pepper to taste
Method:
Simmer in salted water until the meat is fall-apart tender.
Note:
The herders’ “free-roaming sheep” walk the grasslands all year round, sampling dozens of species of grass—the meat simply has no gamey taste. The method is clean and simple, letting the quality of the meat and its natural fragrance shine.
For more stories from the Harigobi herders, click 👉🏻Life Among True Pastoralists on the Ujimqin Grassland to learn more. To make a purchase, follow @Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market
Dinner’s almost on! This New Year, taste something truly good—with a real origin behind it.
Foodthink, together with fellow growers from the Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market, brings you a collection of ‘New Year Recipes’ made from their very own ingredients.
In this collection, you’ll find no recipes measured to the exact gram or minute, no fancy, complicated techniques.
What you will find is an unwavering confidence in the ingredients, and plain, heartfelt instructions spoken as if to family.
Thoughtfully grown ingredients need no overthinking—a clean, easy method and just the right heat, and that’s all it takes.
In this collection, behind every dish stands a real person—fellow growers who know exactly what makes their produce special, and how best to honour that goodness.
When a block of tofu can give you its name, a chicken can lay out its life story, and a radish dares you not to peel it—great flavour simply follows of its own accord.
From the second to the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, one grower’s New Year dish each day—six in all.
Day 2 of the Lunar New Year: Aromatically Steamed Mountain Free-Range Pork
Day 3 of the Lunar New Year: Ultimate Stir-Fried Chicken
Day 4 of the Lunar New Year: Tofu Braised in Sauce
Day 5 of the Lunar New Year: Radish Sashimi
Day 6 of the Lunar New Year: All-Purpose Red Sour Soup
Grow with care, cook with ease, eat with peace of mind.
