Overcast, 23 degrees

Been cold again. Funny how a week of 33+ temps. makes us feel the cold so fully again. Kind of a drag, since we know it isn't going to warm up much for a good while. I await Sun Prairie Jimmy's prognostication tomorrow!

Last night we made a new batch of sausages. We made sweet italian sausage, and some apple brats. Lake Geneva makes totally delicious cherry and apple brats, which inspired me to try a sweet fruit flavor. We will consume them for dinner tonight, and I do look forward to it!

The sausage making process itself did not go as smoothly as I would have liked. First, I believe I'm coming down with a new version of a cold or something, so my energy level was low. And I have to say, though the meat grinder we bought from Northern Tool got high marks and reviews on the nets, I have found it to be a confusing and vexing, indeed frustrating and angering little appliance. The issues stem mainly from the very, very poorly written instructions included with the unit. This thing is clearly made somewhere far away, and their english writing skills are sorely lacking. Normally I am fairly adept at interpretation, but I have to say this particular little machine does not lend itself to intuitive or logical assembly, resulting in multiple episodes of jaw-gritting force jamming meat in one end and getting a disgusting mush out the other end, unfit for consumption. And when you have taken the time to raise this meat yourself, this is more than disappointing. After many re-tries involving taking it apart again, pulling mushy gooey pork out, cleaning it, and picking up any of the attachment parts, holding it up to the machine, looking again at the pictures, trying to read the ridiculous instructions, "Wait, try this one this way", "No, that can't be right, it looks backwards", "No, no...wait...like this? No. this one? No...."
And then, finally, it seems we figured it out by turning the blade backwards, or what appeared to be backwards, and voila, we got nicely ground pork coming out the other end! Finally!
By the way, we were grinding "pork trim", as it was labeled from the butcher. I highly recommend anyone who has the interest or ability to make your own sausage, etc. to ask for your pork trim back. It makes very nice sausage grindings. If you have your pork processed into sausage at the butcher, they will use this to make your sausage for you. We kept the pork very cold through the whole process, almost freezing, by stashing it in the freezer whenever we were working on other things for a few minutes, and by setting the bowl in another bowl of ice while we were grinding. This keeps the pork from getting too pasty a consistency.

After grinding, we added spices and other flavorings, and mixed it up using the kitchenaid paddle mixer. Then, after chilled again, stuffed into natural casings. Supper is going to be served in a short while, I'll let you know how it came out!

Today I also met with a pig farmer as a potential source for our future stock, but I was able to determine pretty quickly determine this was not where we would be getting our pigs from. His pigs were a little rough looking, not very uniform, I saw quite a few hernias which can impede growth. I thanked him for his time and left. I met with a couple other pig farmers a couple of weeks ago, and I really liked the stock from one of them. Very strong, healthy, growthy pigs. And he raises Berkshires, the breed Karen and have been keen on getting and trying. Berkshires are said to produce the most flavorful, marbeled pork of any pig, and they are highly sought ofter in Japan, called Kurobuta there, "black pig". Berkshires are an old, heritage breed, and as such may not grow quite as fast as many of the more modern commercial breeds which produce the dry, white pork common in the supermarkets of the United States. So Berks have fallen out of favor with commercial pork farmers, and that means that Berkshires have become a bit of a rarity, and hard to find. However, foodies and gourmets and anyone else who really enjoys a juicy, tender, flavorful pork roast or chop are asking for Berkshire meat.
Here is an article that sums it up nicely. We'll be taking orders soon.