This Saturday thousands will head to Elberta for its celebrated German Sausage Festival beginning at 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. at Town Park near downtown. Expect plenty of sausage, festival food, beverages, arts and crafts from 200 vendors, and live music throughout the day.   

The highlight of the event is, of course, its namesake: the German Sausage, a tradition for this small Baldwin County community.  

Legendary and a well-kept secret for more than three decades, the festival’s unique German sausage recipe will be served in mass once again to the tune of 14,000 pounds this year, charcoal grilled on a 30-foot long open-pit fire, said Steve Kirkpatrick, Chief of the Elberta Volunteer Fire Department and a festival organizer.  

“We light the grill at 5 a.m., put the sausage on at 7:30, and we’re ready to sell at 8,” Kirkpatrick said.  “The grill has to be good and hot or they won’t cook right.”

About five tons of charcoal will be used to cook the sausage, Kirkpatrick said, and 12 volunteers must work the grill all-day until the sausage supply runs out, which usually happens before the festival ends due to its popularity.  

The secret recipe was created by the late “Pop” Stucki, who worked for the Elberta Locker Plant, owned by Wendell Bolden.  When Stucki passed away, Bolden provided Stucki’s recipe solely to the Elberta Sausage Festival, which celebrated its first year in 1977 and was started to help raise money for the town’s only volunteer fire department.  

Stucki’s recipe grew in demand and certainly supply over the years from hundreds of pounds grilled at the semi-annual festival to thousands.  

In 1977, 100 pounds of sausage were cooked on two-backyard grills, but by 1980, the poundage increased to 2,000 and by 1993, over 7,000 pounds was consumed – nearly 21,000 sandwiches.

After the Elberta Locker Plant closed, the garlic-based sausage recipe was entrusted to Farm Fresh Meats of Robertsdale.  

Chuck Childress, owner of Farm Fresh Meats since its opening in 1976, said that he has continued the tradition by preparing Stucki’s recipe exclusively for the festival, and he does not sell it to anyone else or at any other time.  

“It’s an agreement between me and the fire department, and that’s probably the success of it,” Childress said.  “It’s a garlic based seasoning, but that’s about all I can really elaborate on it without getting in trouble.”

He said the recipe is stored in only one place – his head.  

Kirkpatrick joked that, “if he told you (the recipe), I’d have to kill him,” but he is pretty sure that would not happen.    

Childress said that they will begin preparing the festival sausage early Wednesday morning and will finish the 14,000 pound order by close of business Thursday.  

A few years ago, his company purchased a stainless steel, custom-made sausage processing machine from a German company for $150,000, which efficiently packs the product.   

“We use no preservatives, only high-quality muscle-meat, no table-scraps, and it has to be made right before it’s used,” Childress said.  “We’ll stand by quality until we close our doors.”

On Friday, fire department volunteers will pick up the seven-tons of meat and begin preparations for Saturday morning, Kirkpatrick said.  

The spring festival held in March raked in $38,000 for the Elberta Volunteer Fire Department, Kirkpatrick said, and other charitable organizations will also be at the event raising money for their causes.  

But as for ensuring your share of the sausage, Childress recommends heading out to the festival early.

“I stress come early because they’ll probably start serving at 8 a.m.,” he said.

Admission to the event is free.  Any questions including reserving a vendor booth should be directed to the Elberta Volunteer Fire Department at 986-5805.