Lamb: It’s B-A-A-Ack

Everyone has heard about the pleasures of spring lamb, but fully a third of American lamb comes to market in the fall.

These are lambs, born in the spring, that “summer” in the Rockies. Beginning about the middle of September and running through the middle of November, they are brought from Idaho mountain pastures to Colorado for slaughter.

As a result, just when lamb prices should be skyrocketing (traditional lamb-cooking season begins when people switch from quickly cooked grill-ready meats to roasts and stews), they are maintaining their level and even dropping. Last week, legs of lamb were being specialed in some local grocery stores at under $2.50 a pound.

Spring lambs, which are born in the fall, come primarily from the mountain areas of California and Arizona.

* You’ll see a lot of beef advertised at low prices these days, but industry analysts say there’s no real reason for it. It’s just that beef is very attractive to shoppers and when stores offer it as a loss-leader--in effect, selling it at cost or even below--sales of both beef and other items increase dramatically. One survey by a company that tracks the beef industry found meat sales increase 1,000% when prime cuts of beef are specialed.

* Salad shrimp, those tiny, fingernail-sized things you buy already cooked and peeled, are at their lowest prices in years. A tremendous oversupply from the Pacific Northwest, Ecuador and India has driven prices to around $2.50 a pound in some stores.

* Prices on pears and apples continue to decline as supplies increase, while prices of melons will increase until supplies from Mexico and Baja California begin at the end of the month.

* Broccoli prices have returned to normal after the late-summer crunch of August and September. The same is true for most vegetables--cauliflower and leaf lettuces especially. Iceberg is a bit higher, as harvest is shifting from Salinas to the Huron area.