ROBERTSDALE, Alabama— If you, like thousands of others, enjoyed a sausage dog this past weekend at the Elberta German Sausage Festival, you have Farm Fresh Meats in Robertsdale to thank for it.

“We use a special formula twice a year for this festival only,” said Farm Fresh President Chuck Childress. Farm Fresh first began providing sausage for the festival in 1976, and has been the exclusive provider of sausage for the festival for the last 18 years.

“We were asked for 200 pounds of sausage in 1976,” Childress said. “At one time we were up to 7,500 pounds.”

This year, Farm Fresh made 6,500 pounds for sale by the Elberta Fire Department and Childress estimated they would sell another 7,500 pounds for people to take home over the two days of the festival.

Preparation for the festival, which is held every year in March and November, begins months in advance, Childress said, but the actual sausage making operation is done over a three-day period.

“We try to start as close to the festival as possible so the product is as fresh as possible,” Childress said.

Sausage is packed to ship out on Thursday, two days before the festival. The process of making the sausage begins three days before with selection, rough cutting and seasoning the pork and beef mixture.

“We use only the finest cuts of meat,” Childress said, “with no additives or preservatives. It really is a fine-quality sausage.”

While chopping and mixing is done in one room, day two of the operation is moved into a cool room, which is kept at 48 degrees.

Then it’s all hands-on-deck, as Childress, General Manager Rick Comstock, Assistant Manager Holly Crawford, along with employees Tina Armstead, Josh Salter and Lee St. John run the meat through a second mixer and grinder to get the finished product, then put the sausage into natural casings and get it packed for shipping.

Machines do the work of grinding and mixing the product before it’s run through another machine to stuff into the casings. Otherwise the work is all done by hand, Childress said.

“We try to get as much as we can packed up in one day,” Childress said. But with this much sausage to grind and stuff, the work takes nearly two days to complete before it is ready to ship out Thursday morning.

The entire process takes about 30 hours of work, Childress said.

“We’re really proud of our product and people enjoy it,” Childress said. In addition to sausage, a small amount – about 60 pounds – of the same mixture is used for stuffed cabbage and goulash which was sold Saturday and Sunday by the Elberta Little League.

While the taste and quality of the sausage is bar-none, Childress said, be warned, if you took sausage to eat at home and it is still in your refrigerator or freezer, chances are it will no longer be as good as the fresh product.

“It doesn’t have any preservatives in it, so it has a very short shelf life,” Childress said. I would not keep it more than three days. Even if you put it in the freezer, after more than a week it will lose its flavor.”

But have no fear, while this particular formula is made specifically for the festival, Farm Fresh prepares meat fresh every day at the business located on Highway 59. If you’re a hunter, they will also process your fresh game. Stop by or call, 251-947-7385 for more information.