Tag: Scratch Meats

I know it’s Groundhog Day today (RIP Milltown Mel), but thanks to a couple of old friends, I also think of it as Ground Hog Day (I mentioned this in early days of the blog). I love sausages and other ground meat preparations (e.g., kabobs, meatballs, burgers). So here’s a shoutout today to a couple of my favorite sausage makers here in Portland.

• Olympia Provisions makes the best Summer Sausage I’ve ever eaten. Fun fact: I used to be one of those teenagers that handed out sausage and cheese in the mall. I like Summer Sausage with sweet-hot mustard, but it’s also good on its own. Order online or find them at some farmers markets.
• Scratch Meats makes high quality sausages with all sorts of different kinds of meats (my household loves the chicken parm sausages), but their Saucissons à I’ail (French Garlic) and Maple Breakfast Sausages are also winners at our house. Their selection is quite expansive, with plenty of variety, so check it out. You can order their sausages online and find them at local farmers markets (I’ve bought them at Hollywood and Montavilla in the past).

True confession: two places I haven’t been to but want to visit are Gartner’s Meat Market and the Eidelweiss Deli, both of which have excellent reputations. I will be making a point to stop in this year. As for my ground hog consumption, I was able to enjoy some pork and leek dumplings from Chin’s Kitchen last night in honor of Lunar New Year and Dumpling Week; I have some leftovers, which I’ll eat for lunch, satisfying the consumption of ground hog today.

Happy Groundhog/Ground Hog Day, everyone! BTW, Stumptown Fil at the Oregon Zoo says we are going to have an early spring. Sounds good to me.