influenced by the seasons. Spring lamb appears on sale from May each year and is sweet and mild-flavoured. Pressdee notes that this makes it ideal for light spring casseroles, particularly if warmth of flavour is required. Autumn lamb, however, acquires a stronger, gamey flavour but can be richer in flavour and can be enhanced by the addition of fresh, wild field mushrooms. Although Welsh Mountain Sheep are smaller than other British sheep breeds, it is considered to have a sweeter flavour and to have more meat nearer the bone. Generally, the shoulder of Welsh lamb is more succulent, and has a higher fat content, than the leg. However, due to the difficulty of carving it, shops tend to sell shoulder of lamb already boned and rolled. Up until the nineteenth century, mutton was a popular dish in Wales. However, due to changes in farming practices and food preferences, it is no longer part of the staple diet. However, it can still be found in Victorian recipe books, where the salting, or 'powdering', of mutton and the preparation of 'Welsh Mutton Hams' was a regular item of daily fare. Mutton was commonly found in Ceredigion restaurants catering for the Victorian tourist trade. The importance of sheep in the economy of Ceredigion is reflected in one of the banknotes of a now defunct Ceredigion bank called the Aberystwyth and Tregaron Bank, where the number of black sheep depicted on each banknote corresponded to the value of the note in pounds and with the £5 and £10 notes displaying one ram or two rams, respectively. This gave the bank its alternative name of the Black Sheep Bank or Banc y Ddafad Ddu. Pork Pigs have been an important part of the Ceredigion diet since Medieval times and are recorded in the Laws of Hywel Dda. Up until the middle of the twentieth century every cottage would keep a pig in the back yard. As a result, Welsh cookery books usually include several recipes which Freeman classifies as being based on the "bacon-plus-potatoes theme". The killing of the family pig would be a community event and village households would co-ordinate pig killing in order to avoid an over-supply of pork in the village. When a pig was killed, all the parts of the animal which couldn't be salted or eaten would be given to neighbours with each pig providing a stock of faggots, sausages,