[Sca-cooks] Interesting locally-produced foods...(oop)

[S CLEMENGER]

A friend of mine and I went to the local farmers' markets this past Saturday, and amidst the bounty of apples and squashes and onions and so forth, I found a gentleman selling locally-produced sausages, and got such a variety of them, that I felt like I had to share with my foodie friends.
I came home with "Roger's Holiday Habanero" sausages which I'm eating now (as part of a dish of baked autumn veggies--carrots, parsnip, turnips, onion, and fennel tossed with evoo and balsamic vinegar), which are made with pork, cranberries, blueberries, honey, smoked and fresh habaneros, and a fair amount of orange peel.  Very, very good.
In the freezer I have "Christmas Sausages" (pork, chicken, diced green chilies, red peppers, some jalapenos, cilantro, New-Mex chili powder, cumin, garlic, and red wine vinegar), "Spanish Butifarra" ( fine grind pork, with wine, garlic, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg--recommend to eat these with a good brie, some chardonnay, and some baguettes), a "Greek sausage" (port wine, orange peel, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, and garlic),"French Apple," which is supposed to be especially good for breakfast with waffles, and which is flavored with apples, apple juice, wine, cinnamon, nutmeg, black pepper, and allspice, and a "Spanish Chorizo" (air dried pork sausage with smoked paprika, done with 3 sizes of cubed pork--saving this for a paella this winter).  He's got close to another 20 varieties like "French Morel," or "Strasbourg,"  or "Tuscan" or "Jamaican Jerk Sausage."  Mmmmm....I'm in carnivore heaven.....
The sheer variety of flavors and juxtaposition of unusual ingredients and spices really had me thinking of some of those fascinating sausage recipes in Apicius....I'm thinking it might be getting to be time to get out my sausage maker, and play some afternoon....
--Maire