Farm Girl Meats Update & Sausage Cooking Tips

I have a special relationship with Katie Short of Farm Girl Meats.  Our friendship started about 5 years ago when I was chatting with her at the Argenta Farmers Market.  She told me she had a copy of Nourishing Traditions.  At that very moment I knew we were kindred spirits.  Fast forward a few years.  Now she comes to my house twice a month to deliver meat and egg shares to 25+ families.  (I'm lucky enough to have a flat driveway in a central location!) Katie is a gifted communicator and I asked her permission to republish this week's shareholder newsletter in this space.  --Julie

This week is all about the hickories. Those lovely trees turning all shades of red are also dropping gold all over our land, and the pigs just can't get enough. Not only are the nuts irresistible to the pigs, high in protein and good fats, and abundant, they will add depth and sweetness to our finishing hogs. I wish I could say we planned our hog harvest to follow the hickory drop, but this year it was just a bit of delicious serendipity. Some of the meat in this week's offerings will be from hickory-fattened hogs, but a better array will be available in early December.

The hens don't seem to care much about the nuts, but they are nearly out of the annual molt and feeling sassy with their fresh new plumage. They compete with each other for the prime roosting spots at night and the roosters vie for their attention during the day- needless to say its always noisy in chicken town these days. As for the meat birds, they are almost ready to harvest! We can expect some chicken in the basket as early as next delivery.

How to Cook a Link Sausage

Do your links ever split while cooking? Are they crumbly when you try to bite or cut them? 

We'll save the meat science behind the challenges for another day and get right to some simple ways to make the most of our lovingly raised, carefully seasoned sausages:

For the grill, parboil first. To do this, put your room temperature sausages in a deep saucepan or soup pot and cover generously with cold water. Now place the pan over medium-low heat and bring it to a simmer. Remove from heat immediately. Now your links are ready to brown up on the grill to your liking, texture preserved! 

Start on the stove, move to the oven. 

Preheat your oven to 375 and lightly oil an oven-safe frying pan, cast iron is ideal. On the stove top over medium heat, brown your sausages on all sides. Now, place the whole skillet in the oven and set the timer for 8 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, and the sausages from the pan, giving them 2-3 minutes rest before eating. 

=========

For more details about the Farm Girl Meat/Egg Share, click here.  Farm Girl Meats website is here.  She's also on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook (check out the video of the pigs eating hickories).  Email Katie for additional questions: katie AT farmgirlfood.com