Conscientious Carnivores

I'm not a big meat eater, but when I do eat meat, it's important to me that it come from animals that were raised and slaughtered humanely, and, ideally, be from local sources.

We have a wonderful source for local family-raised grass-fed beef, as well as being able to purchase chicken, lamb, pork, sausage, goat, and beef at the Bellingham Farmers Market. The Community Food Co-op is now offering more locally-raised meat, and that's where I came across these sausages.

Heritage Lane Farm, the source of the pork, is a family farm about twenty miles north of us. The Mayberry family raise rare breed livestock, such as Large Black Pigs, an English breed, and Mulefoot Pigs, an American breed, as well as three kinds of sheep and a variety of poultry, ranging from Toulouse Geese to Silver Appleyard Ducks.

Link Lab Artisan Meats is a small artisan sausage company run by David Pearlstein in his Seattle garage. Prior to becoming a sausage maker, he was a reference librarian and worked at Microsoft as a usability engineer. David left Microsoft to become a stay-at-home dad for his young daughter, and doing food projects with her is how he got into sausage-making.

His products are USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) inspected and approved, and as his website notes, "We are extremely particular about sourcing our meat from local farmers who are doing the right thing for their animals, for the soil, and for their farm workers."

Phil and I tried these Rosemary-Sage Sausages for supper tonight, and they were delicious, full of the rosemary and sage flavors that we love. The leftover cooked sausages will be great in soups and in scrambled eggs.

I'm very grateful to live in an area where it's possible to be a conscientious carnivore!