| They make around 18,000 pounds (more
or less) of various kinds of sausage in any given year. Folks, I
want you to know that is a lot of sausage when you look the
population of the area. They make a pure pork, beef, pork and
beef, pork and deer, turkey, and if you come in with a special
request, like no seasoning, just salt, they will make that up for
you (I ordered some like that for my Dad, who had ulcers) too.
Clifton is weighing the seasoning ingredients that will be used to season the pork. He said it insures consistency to weight the seasoning. For "x" amount of seasoning, you have "y" pounds of meat, and it will come out perfect time after time.
The Monday I was there they killed 5 cows, made
200 pounds of pure pork sausage, 25 pounds of deer sausage, and a
10 pound special order of sausage. They were in perpetual motion
the whole time I was there, each having their job to do, and doing
it in synchronized motion. It was like watching a ballet,
everybody, everywhere, and nobody running into anybody. I stayed
out of their way and just shot pictures. Randy was the official
"slaughterer" of the cows, Dana was the meat chopper,
Sue was the sausage maker and Clifton was the
"conductor" of this perfectly orchestrated morning.
Clifton says "first you start with a very sharp knife" because everything you do in a slaughter house requires a few cuts and slices. |
