Homemade Sausage Making

I just got the word that our buddy and member (story28) Jason Story is getting married! I've gotten to know this incredible young man quite well as I've tried to help him with his plans to develop a charcuterie shop in D.C. He gave his sweet Carolina a ring recently and even took her to South America. I've got their photo on my desk and believe that Carolina is about the prettiest thing to ever come down the pike. She is gorgeous and very supportive to Jason. She will be the "brains of the outfit" and run the front counter and take care of business. Jason has actually worked for some well known culinary concerns and has finished the program at the Culinary Institute Of America. These kids plan to make their home above their shop in D.C. and will offer all sorts of smoked products to the public. Good luck kids... and congratulations! We'll see you soon...

Your ol' Unca Bear

Unca Bear
Does story28 sport a stash like unca bear?
Congrats!
Wally

Naw, he's so danged good lookin', he just doesn't need one. At my age, I have to get out the "Just For Men" dark brown... just to darken the dad-gummed thing enough to show up in a photo. Yes, yes, (ahem.. ahem...) my babe-catchin' moustachio has worked wonders over time, but just needs a bit of tendin' now and then.

Hey Jason, how about posting a photo of you and Carolina right here.........?
Again, congratulations!

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

CW

Yeah we`re kinda like fine aged salami with a little white mold cover.

"Just For Men"

Mother won`t let me touch the stuff, I think she`s concerned about the babe catching part

Well talk about a nice surprise! Although, I have to admit, CW speaks too highly of my looks; most of it is due to careful and copious amounts of make up . Truth is, I don't think I could even pull of a mustache like his, so I get by with the 5 o'clock shadow as best as I can. But, yes Carolina and I are certainly getting married (next June) and doing what every young couple does out of college: open a charcuterie and salumeria together .

As CW mentioned, she will be handling business operations, while I stay chained in the dungeon/production area . If anyone happens to be interested in the business or just plain interested in what it takes to go about opening this type of business; feel free to ask away.

We took this picture down in Colombia on a coffee plantation turned theme park; yeah we thought it was an odd combination too

[URL=http://://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/228/082he.jpg/]

CW , were we ever that young?
Jason and Carolina, Good luck and good cooking. We want to hear from you on a regular basis. We have some very good hog farmers in Harford county that field raise their hogs.

ssorllih wrote:CW , were we ever that young?
Jason and Carolina, Good luck and good cooking. We want to hear from you on a regular basis. We have some very good hog farmers in Harford county that field raise their hogs.

Thanks for the well wishes Ross. You'll have to come out and see us once we get rolling! I will definitely keep you guys posted on the goings on. Right now we are hoping to start production by late Oct. so there is a lot going on between construction, equipment, interior design, menu and service development, and website design. It is a pretty exciting time!

I am going to have to check out that hog farm you mentioned. If you don't mind giving me a bit more info that is. We plan on selling at a local farmer's market and one of their stipulations is sourcing the majority of products within a 200 mile radius, so I will keep my fingers crossed they are neighbors to us. Sourcing out purveyors is actually what I had on my agenda today, so talk about perfect timing...

http://www.harfordfarms.com/ProductList ... oductID=13
Links to Harford county farms that sell or raise hogs.
You can probably find similar website for all of the Washington metro area. Most of Maryland , Virginna and much of Pennsylvania are within the 200 mile radius you must meet. The eastern shore is primarily agricultural. If you find the ri8ght supplier you can probably discuss which feeds to use for finishing the pigs. Delaware grows thousands of acres of potatoes and potato fed hogs are mentioned is some of the sausage recipes in the Marianski books.

www.eatwild.com is a good jumping off point for free-range, forage, and grass-fed farms and ranches. Each state has its own page of growers and what they offer, contact info, etc. Virginia has a lot of farms offering Tamworth, Duroc, and crosses.

One operation, Babes In The Woods (www.forestfed.com), has drop-offs in NoVA. There are also a lot of growers over around Sperryville and Winchester, and of course, down the valley and in southeast Va around Smithville.

P.S.: I'm in NoVA fairly often to visit one of my brewing students, so I'll be interested in knowing the progress of your shop. I'll definitely be in, once you're open.

Nice to put a face to the mails Jason

Thanks for the input guys. I will be sure to take a look at all of those suggestions and links. As to not use this great forum for my own purposes, I didn't want to flood the place promoting the shop, but I certainly will keep you posted!

Hey everybody. We just made a facebook page for our business so friends and family can share in the construction and remodeling process which is about to start later this week. We certainly can use all of the support we can get, so if you would like to help out, take a look at the link and click "like". Thanks to everyone for the encouragement and help so far!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Three-Li ... 0593634840

Your FB page is doing well so far, I have added my "like"

Bubba wrote:Your FB page is doing well so far, I have added my "like"

Why thank you ! It does seem to be doing pretty good so far. Hopefully we can keep up at the pace we are going now for a few more weeks, that would be nice! What is your alias out there in the real world?

And the website is ready! After a few months, we have finally have it up and running. Everyone can check it out at www.threelittlepigsdc.com