Since 1979, Farm Fresh Meats owner Chuck Childress has made the one-of-a-kind sausage that draws 30,000 people to Elberta twice a year for the Elberta Sausage Festival.
“My first order for them in 1979 was around 200 pounds,” Childress said. …
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Since 1979, Farm Fresh Meats owner Chuck Childress has made the one-of-a-kind sausage that draws 30,000 people to Elberta twice a year for the Elberta Sausage Festival.
“My first order for them in 1979 was around 200 pounds,” Childress said. “Now, we make more than six tons for this one day.”
The recipe is an old one — it is credited to Alfred “Pop” Stucki, who managed Elberta's Locker Plant from 1953 until his death in 1973 — but in partnership with the Elberta Volunteer Fire Department, Childress has helped perfect it, mostly by using fresh, premium ingredients.
“It's not just the recipe; it's the quality of meat that goes in it,” Childress said. “It's a combination of both.”
Childress only uses premium beef chuck and pork shoulders in the famous sausage.
Because there are no preservatives added to the meat, Childress said he and his staff at Farm Fresh don't start making the sausage until three days before the event.
“We really have to roll our sleeves up in the back for two days to get it done,” he said. “It's really tedious, because we have to keep it right at freezing, but not frozen, for them to cook it that Saturday.”
Two years ago, Childress invested in a huge machine from Germany that takes much of the physical labor out of grinding and stuffing the sausage, but it is still a mammoth task.
“We hand link every link, so we'll have four or five girls doing nothing but linking back there,” he said. “We pride ourself in what we make. We don't cut corners.”
Although Childress has been making the sausage for 34 years now, it is still a major undertaking.
“I'm always glad when that day's over, but it's not as stressful as it used to be,” he said. “I used to sweat bullets when I was younger, worrying about the turnout and bills to pay and everything, but we've been really fortunate and it's turned out really good.”
Every year, the fall and spring sausage festivals bring in more than $80,000 for the Elberta Volunteer Fire Department, which covers 60 square miles around Elberta and has 36 volunteers, 10 fire trucks and three stations.
Childress said Farm Fresh doesn't make a lot of profit from the festival.
“We're not here to get rich; we're here to make a living and give the customer and the fire department the best product they could possibly buy at a reasonable price,” he said. “But we get a lot of exposure, and that's good for Farm Fresh.”
Farm Fresh Meats has been in business since 1976.
After growing up on a Baldwin County dairy farm and graduating from Robertsdale High School in 1975, Childress thought he was going to Auburn to study veterinary medicine, but his father asked him if he'd be interested in staying home and running the new business he'd dreamed up instead.
So at 18, Childress became a business owner.
“I went to Auburn for a few months to learn to slaughter and the basic processing, and I've been here ever since,” Childress said.
Although the business has changed over the years — they used to slaughter animals for customers — Childress said the basic premise remains the same, and Farm Fresh offers a service customers can't find at the grocery store.
“There's so many people watching cooking shows now, and they come in and want the crown roast or the prime rib deboned and pre-tied — we do all that,” he said. “It's custom. We try to offer personal service to all of our customers. We are an old-fashioned butcher shop, and we're actually a dying breed.”
But even though local butcher shops around the country are going out of business, Childress said Farm Fresh is doing just fine.
“Business is rocking along, even though the economy is in the tank,” he said. “People have to eat, and they don't mind paying for something that's good.”
