Saturday, May 22, 2010

I confess


It has been too long. Those last few months of winter really took a long time to transform into spring. I felt a bit like the nascent seeds, curled into myself, waiting for the sun to do its magic, and here it finally is. May 22. I have been busy planting, getting a new bee colony set up for another season and making food projects with my friend Mara. Our latest endeavour? Sausage.
Here is the confession: It was a little gross. I mean c'mon, cutting up chunks of pork fat and then smooshing that into the grinder that makes all sorts of guttural noises and then there was the casing... yup, that's right, 50 feet of pork gut that needs to be soaked, cleaned and then loaded like a water balloon onto the end of the sausage stuffer. This was a great project for a few reasons. 1. We laughed a lot 2. My five year old son was fascinated with the whole process and now informs dinner guests that, "guess what? We eat pork guts!!" 3. and perhaps most important- having a relationship to how foods that we eat actually come into being changes that way we look at them. To get up close and personal (and I still have a long way to go, wild game butchery- here I come) with meat makes me realize the visceral nature of what I am eating and how much goes into the true farm to table journey. I have begun to limit the amount of meat that we eat as a family and when we do it, well, it is good to know where it is coming from and whenever possible to be part of that process. We buy meat shares here and it adds to the flavor knowing that there are giggles as well as garlic in the sausage. If you are inspired, this is a great book and there are a few good tips here. Coming up soon, homemade miso and nuka pickles. I promise I won't stay away so long.