So the other day Jean decided she wanted to make some sausage. She told me about it, and said for me to get out of the house as she wanted to do some cleaning as well. Needless to say, I found things to do outside all day. I think it might have been related to cutting firewood, or other work outside, but as the day is gone cannot recall all the details. So today a day or so later after Jean had pulled out several packages of meat from the freezer (large and small with varying labels saying things like Pieces, parts and even some specific names) with some interesting labels, which she thawed in the oven, we were about ready to start. Note I said start, as there is a process involved here. First and foremost going back to the beginning of summer, there was butchering a hog for the meat. Details would be forthcoming, if you are interested, if not I will skip it, as this is after all about making sausage. The butchering and packaging it should be noted were done by 3 people. first the lady who had the pig (thank you most sincerely Steph) and then the other folks who showed for a short while who helped skin and clean the gust out of the pig. it has been a few months so I must beg forgiveness on the names of those folks. The last 2 being of course Jean and I. The details of the day are a blur, but as I said if they are wanted give me a shout and I might divulge a few of them. Steph and Jean did most of the packaging with some help from plastic bags, butcher paper, tape and a lot of bottles with a certain content that made the day more bearable. The pig after all outweighed all of us about 2 times or more over To say the least it was an all day long task. I was in charge of cutting and removing certain pieces and giving the right label, while the ladies did all the packaging and labeling. I think the bottles help them get creative with the titles on the packages. Skip a few months, or a full season or so, to say winter. Like in the first few days, and you find Jean and I looking at indoor activities. Today's being making sausage. So after Jean had cleaned the freezer (in the house) and pulled several packages of meat from the freezer (outside in the garage) inside to thaw, we found our self ready to start. Jean being a wise woman knew to lay down a cloth to work on, and set to making the area as tidy as possible. This included getting the bowls lined up, and spices pulled from the spice cupboard before starting to do something silly like unwrap and cut the meat into grindable sized pieces. After all that and a few appropriately placed towels I started to remove meat from packages and cut it down to one inch or so sized pieces. However there were a few surprises in there, as the things I found were not always the title of the packages. Refer to small brown bottles and contents. They tend to skew reality, or at least what we perceive. This being noted, I will make a motion here to not drink and label. After that though, the contents were humorous. Titles like pieces means chucks of stuff to be used for stew, or other, not usually a heart. Back strap is usually a cut from the region on either side of the spine, not the liver, and so forth, but aside from that everything was still after all from a pig ;-) I finally got the pieces cut down to a size that would fit into the grinder and Jean took the initiative and got it all ground down. Then we divided it out into 5 different bowls and took a bowl each and made some recipe that seemed right for the contents. A list of spices included curry, maple syrup, sugar, sea salt, mustard powder, dill seeds, cinnamon, ginger, ground black pepper and a bit of cheyene pepper, molasses and probably a few things I am forgetting, but not all in the same batch! We got that done about 7 or so tonight and even remembered to get the casings ready by soaking them early on before we started to cut anything. Jean had also pulled all the parts out to be used for stuffing the suasage, which included a couple of different sized tubes. We both took turns so got time in on using them and of course casting on the casings as well as stuffing them. Close to 4 hours later with one change on who was stuffing and who was working the stuffer/grinder we finally managed to finish. Jean looked at me when we were over and said she wanted me to write up a bit about what we had just done. I did have a bit of a chuckle when I thought back to her write up on making Liverworst. Though to be honest, I have already had over a pint of it to eat (as she is a fine cook, and makes things quite tasty to say the least) I did have to laugh when she told me I could start with something like Preparation time 6 months (even if in this case it is highly accurate)

One PW-fired Vivitar on each side of a light box (translucent plexiglas) slightly above the level of the books. The USB key is angled to make use of the specular highlight to bring out the "face" . Both flashes at 1/2 power to allow them to be at least two meters away from the sides of the lightbox, in an attempt to get very soft light (large light source). Camera synced at 1/200th sec to help black out the black cloth backdrop and base (taped one end of the cloth to the wall, and draped the loose end across a table.