Friday, January 15, 2010

The Home Stretch...

We're in the home stretch here at Salt & Time. Last week, my dad and I drove down to Houston to pick up a bunch of supplies at Allied Kenco. Whether you're a home sausage maker or producing commercially, Allied Kenco can hook you up with everything you need. Cody and the staff there are super friendly and helpful and a pleasure to work with. They do mail order, but since I was ordering a couple hundred pounds of curing salts and casings, I figured I'd save on shipping costs and pick them up. Plus, I've never been to Houston, and I've been hearing great things about Feast. Feast lived up to the hype with its menu. We were still full from lunch, and we needed to get back on the road, so we had a light dinner. The highlight for me was definitely chicken hearts on toast. I have to admit, that I'm not much for chicken liver, but chicken hearts are yummy. I did have flashbacks to my days at Marin Sun Farms when I would sort through chicken offal to separate out the hearts from the livers for the farmers market.

With the pantry now full of supplies, we finished up the last major work on the shop this week, and are ready to start production. Next week, I'm picking up my first batch of pork from Richardson Farms and we will be off and running. I'll have some pictures up of the first batch, but in the mean time, here are some photos of the shop.






7 comments:

  1. Ben,

    Wow, that was fast! It's incredible how quickly you are up and going. The pig pictures at Richardson farms are great. I love the one of all of them in the waller. Happy pigs are tasty pigs!

    Best of luck, I hope you are making tasty salamis as I type!

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  2. the shop looks great!
    what exactly are you going to be producing?

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  3. The shop looks great...clean, minimal.

    If you don't mind, I have a few questions...What are the dimensions of the shop? What equipment/resources have you put together (size of walk-ins, cutting tables, etc.)? How have you organized the areas/functionality of the shop?

    Best of luck with everything!

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  4. DMS, in the grand scheme of things, It has happened fast, but I've been working on the shop for 3 months, so I'm very excited to be done. Let me know when you want to come visit!

    Jamie, I'll be doing all varieties of cured meats as well as some fresh and cooked sausages.I will also be doing some pickles and condiments. I'll update the sight with more specifics as I go.

    Bryce the walk in is 12X20, with a 12x8 freezer and a 12 X 12 Fridge. I've modified it to use one side as a curing chamber and the other as a fridge. the shop is about 30 X 30 and I have a big cutting table in the middle and smaller work tables around it with my grinder, buffalo chopper and sausage stuffer on them. Feel free to email me if you want more details at ben@saltandtime.com

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  5. Where is the shop located? Do you have a store front or are you going to be selling at one of the farmer's markets? I can't wait to try some of your stuff.

    Jeremiah

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  6. Jeremiah, my shop is South East of Austin. I don't have a store front, but I hope to be at Farmers Markets by March. Thanks for your interest!

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  7. looks so good benny ! congrats and best of luck as you get it going!! i know youll kill it! (pun intended)

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