Want-to-Be Home Butchers Stuff Sausages at Stratford Ecological Center

Published in The Delaware Gazette , March 3, 2012

Stratford Ecological Center volunteers received warm thanks from the staff at the annual volunteer appreciation dinner in early February. This year is the 20th anniversary of the construction of the first buildings at Stratford, and Jane Walsh, Volunteer Coordinator, shared the history in pictures of those early days on the farm. After a meal, including home-raised meats and salad greens, and the recognition of the many volunteers who make Stratford’s operation possible, the floor was cleared. Lively square dancing followed, graciously led by caller Cheryl Hagerty, which rounded out the evening perfectly.

Training for maple sugar tour guides took place in mid February. This training always provides an opportunity to come out of hibernation and have a rejuvenating walk through the woods to the Sugar Shack. It was encouraging to have so many old and potential new guides share their support for our mission and clearly enjoy their involvement with the Center.

April Hoy, Education Coordinator, indicated she was going to provide an infallible way to recognize a maple tree without its leaves. She encouraged us to look around as we walked, and it was nice to spot a squirrel’s drey high in the trees and see the young beech trees still dressed in dry, brown leaves, but which were the maples? All of a sudden April pointed out the white buckets hanging on the tree trunks; these, she said with authority, are maple trees! Laughing, she went on to say that it is not easy to identify the black and sugar maples favored at Stratford, but the younger trees have straight striations at the bottom of the trunk and are smoother higher up, with the twigs growing opposite each other. All I can say is, thank goodness for those white buckets.

The first maple sugar tour of the season took place on February 22 and coincided with the production of our first three gallons of maple syrup. Sixth and seventh graders from a Columbus after-school program gamely ventured out, and even asked questions and carried heavy buckets. One girl said she had always wanted to know the difference between white and brown sugar and thought white sugar was the better of the two. This led into a discussion that raw sugar is naturally brown, that many foods are processed, and how so much of our foods are leading to obesity. It is a pleasure to challenge these thoughtful young people, and encourage them to share so we both expand our knowledge.

Other happenings on that same February day: April saw a red-winged black bird, a sure harbinger of spring; the first blue birds were out and about, which always happens when the sap rises; April showed us the tell-tale series of pecks about five feet off the ground on a maple tree, where a yellow-bellied sapsucker had drilled for sap; Roxy, our sow, was reveling in the thoughts of a clean pen as she said goodbye to the boar, who returned happily and no worse for wear to Ed Snavely’s farm; and a red-faced Tunis ewe gave birth to the first of this year’s lambs, boy and girl twins, one with a white spot on top of its head. It was a big day.

Sylvia Zimmerman, a local cheese maker and Stratford Board member, hosted a work shop on sausage preparation last Sunday at Stratford. It was amazing to me that so many would have an interest in making their own sausage, but the class was full with twenty participants. Under the expert guidance of 4th generation sausage maker Albert Thurn of Thurn’s Specialty Meats in German Village, the group completed the process from start to finish. Albert, who first had a knife placed in his hand at age eleven, brought along half a pig cut into jigsaw-like pieces. He re-assembled the pig to show everyone where the various cuts of meat are located. Sausage meat is ground from meat of the butcher’s choosing, according to the type of sausage they want to produce.

That day the group made an Italian, a Mild, and a Sage, as well as deer-meat sausage. For the Sage sausage they first ground up the meat, then beat it with sage and ice to form sausage meat. The ice stopped the fat warming up and oozing during beating. The sausage meat was stuffed into lamb casings and twirled to make individual sausages. Some were cooked and eaten, but many went home with the newly-minted sausage makers.

Last Monday, Johnny Diloretto and Good Day Columbus paid a very early visit to Stratford to televise life on the farm. Gabe Ross, Assistant Farmer, answered questions on maple sugaring and demonstrated tapping, but the star attractions were the twin lambs he held in his arms and, as usual, the cats. Two of them even followed the TV crew into the woods and were running up the tree trunks in the background. Sorry Gabe!

There is still room at the 8:00 a.m. and noon seating for our maple syrup pancake and home-raised sausage breakfast on Saturday, March 17. After breakfast there will be guided tours to the sugar shack. Tickets cost $10 for adults and $7 for children aged 2-12, and reservations are necessary.

“Farm Connection” is a monthly article connecting city folk to life on the Stratford Ecological Center farm. It is published on the first Saturday of the month on the farm and garden page of The Delaware Gazette.