Every New Year’s at Gary’s parents, the neighboring farmers get together to make sausage out of their butchered hogs. They all pitch in throughout the year on feed, and when the pigs are fat around Christmas, it’s time to butcher.

The skinned hog minus its entrails hangs for a couple of days in the cold barn.

The farmers grab the hog, and bring it to the chopping table.

With their sharp knives, the farmers cut out all of the bones and connective tissue. The fat is left to mix with the meat.

The meat is then put into a meat grinder with spices.

The ground meat is then put into a cast iron sausage stuffer. They use natural casings for the sausage. It’s a two person job; one person cranks, the other person stuffs.

The individual links are made by twisting the stuffed casing.

The end product is vats of sausage links that are then divided up between all who helped. We were lucky enough to come home with a few links of our own as well.