Today I went to town with Mom and Dad, aka Grandma and Grandpa Huesmann, to pick out the spices and order the pork for making this year's deer sausage. Our family has been getting together to grind, mix, stuff, smoke and package our own venison sausage since before the beginning of time. When my sisters and brother were young, we could help mix the spices into the meat. This is still a favorite of the grandkids. As you got older, you could start catching the sausage as it came off the stuffer, or tie the ends together to make the rings. Cranking the stuffer has always been left to the strong armed boys of the family. If you team up a smooth cranker with a good catcher, followed by a fast tier - well it just runs like a well oiled machine. After all that busy work is done, it's time to hang the sausage in the smoker, crack open a beer, and wait.( The smoker is an old refrigerator with some oven controls mounted on it to regulate the heat. We've named it "The Smokin' Stovinator".)
Dad has felt, for the last couple of years now, that it was time to pass the responsibility on to the next generation. ( You know I didn't think much about it until just now as I'm typing this but I'm getting a little misty.) It's the end of an era in our family really...but all things change...time marches on ...(sigh)
Of course Mom and Dad will both be here this year right in the thick of things, sharing the knowledge, the work, the laughs and the beer. Between the kids, grandkids, and now even the great-grandkids helping out, it will take all of us to fill their shoes and carry on this great family tradition.
The 2009 photos above shows Mom and Lindsey adding that "special" ingredient - Blatz Light - that makes our sausage the very best!
Aww...such good memories!! The meat always kinda grossed me out when I was little but I did like pouring the beer on...Good ole Blatz! When I refer to Grandpa, my father in law always asks me..Now are you talking about Crazy George (Grandpma Cross) or Blatz George (Grandpa Huesmann).
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