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OCG Show Daily 1 7 Sunday, June 10, 2018 Following the Call of the Wild Sausage By Lorrie Baumann Business consultants are fond of pointing out that threats and opportunities are often two sides of the same situation, and on an even more cliched note, you'd have very little trouble finding a poster that advises you that when life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade. If you want to follow that line of thinking down a well-traveled metaphorical path- way, you'll have no trouble at all making the mental leap from half a million feral hogs rooting up crops in Louisiana to gourmet sausage. So let's talk gourmet sausage. Meet Charlie Munford, Mississippi Farmer and the Founder and Owner of Charlie's Sausage. After earning a mas- ters degree at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, he came back to Louisiana to take over his grandfa- ther's 300-acre farm, Two Run Farm, in Vaughan, Mississippi, where he's been raising animals that he harvested and butchered, along with animals from other local farms, for sale to local customers and then eventually to New Orleans chefs. In 2014, he purchased the Springfield Slaughter House, a state- inspected facility. As a farmer who was also buying ani- mals from other farmers to process in his slaughterhouse, Munford was talking to those other farmers, and he started hearing that they were having problems with feral hogs. According to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries, feral hogs are present in all of Louisiana's 64 parishes. The population has been estimat- ed at 500,000, and the department esti- mates that, because these hogs are so fer- tile, about 75 percent of them should be harvested each year just to keep the popu- lation stable. "Other farmers started telling me they were spending lots of time money catching these wild hogs to keep them out of their crops," Munford says. "I started talking to other farmers, who were saying that the hogs were a nuisance.... They're an invasive species, and the pop- ulation has been expanding rapidly over the last 15 years, with land use change and the lack of hunting pressure. It's great for people to have another option." At right about that same time, the chefs to whom he was selling the local meat he was processing for them started asking him about wild boar sausage. "I had my ear to the ground listening to these chefs," Munford says. You see where this is going. "That was in 2014," Munford says. "We started planning it out and started the harvesting program in 2015.... The Louisiana Department of Agriculture & Forestry gave us a lot of help setting up a harvest program, so that it could be legal and under inspection." Over the course of a year of plan- ning, Octavia Fortier, the company's Executive Chef and Chief Executive Officer, developed recipes for three authentic varieties of sausage that she made from combinations of the wild boar meat and pork shoulder ground coarsely and mixed with earthy spices. The three flavors are Original, Green Onion, and Mild. Her technique borrows from the wisdom of Munford's business partners at Wayne Jacobs Smokehouse in LaPlace, Louisiana, known for their andouille sausage. "She probably did each recipe 50 times before being satis- fied with it," Munford says. The pork shoulder that's added into the boar meat ensures the flavor of wild game while keeping the sausage afford- able, since wild boar costs about three times of the price of conventional pork by the time Munford pays the licensed trap- pers, transports the meat to his processing facility and accounts for comparatively low yield of the carcasses. "You'd think it'd be cheaper, but it's not," he says. The sausage is smoked in a custom- built stainless steel smokehouse that sits inside the processing plant. Outside the plant, a fire-box burns seasoned water oak firewood, and a vacuum system draws the smoke over the sausage so that the smoke penetrates the natural casing, the heat renders the fat and the meat is preserved. "We make it the traditional artisanal Cajun way – hard wood fire, smoky, like with a fireplace," Munford says. "We actually burn logs in a low-heat fireplace, so it's a traditional, natu- ral method. It takes a lot longer, but the fla- vor is so superior when you do it that way." Charlie's Sausage retails for $4.99 for a 12-ounce package. While distribu- tion is currently distributed regionally, it's now produced under U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection, so it's available for sale outside Louisiana. A portion of the profits from the sale of the product goes to conservation of the Gulf South longleaf pine forests, which are threatened by development. In part- nership with organizations like the Longleaf Alliance, preservation of the native longleaf pine forests will save a vanishing ecosystem that now occupies less than 3 percent of its historical range and that provides important wildlife habitat for a variety of species, including game birds, deer and fox squirrels, according to Munford. "We're just trying to keep the boar under control and make a really delicious product," he says. "It's all been driven by our customers, and they're the reason for it." For more information about wholesale availability, contact Via Fortier at 855.601.2RUN or via@tworunfarm.com. Sprouted Grain Breads from Food For Life Food For Life Baking Co., maker of the incredibly delicious and nutritious Ezekiel 4:9 ® Sprouted Grain Bread, is committed to the health of its customers since its inception over 50 years ago. Among the many natural sprouted grain breads are its widely popular Ezekiel 4:9 and Genesis 1:29 ® breads, English muffins, tortillas, buns, cereal, pitas and pasta. Sprouting maximizes digestibility and nutrition while lowering the glycemic index in the company's flourless bakery products. Beyond the commitment to superior nutrition, there's also a commitment to a balanced and protected pH in every loaf. Why is a balanced pH so important? Because Food For Life recognizes that a balanced pH is absolutely essential for optimum health. This is why Food For Life meticulously chooses its ingredients, and refuses to use acidifying agents such as cultured wheat starch, vinegar, calci- um propionate and ascorbic acid – all preservatives. As an amazing benefit of sprouting, grains actually become more alkaline as water and oxygen support the growth of the new plant and naturally balances the pH. While a balanced pH is great for health reasons, helping protect against disease and illness, a higher pH does tend to shorten shelf life. This is why the com- pany primarily sells Food For Life breads frozen. Because of the popularity of its Ezekiel breads, the company is seeing more competitors releasing sprouted grain breads, using acidifying agents like vinegar and cultured wheat starch to extend their shelf life. Unfortunately, these ingredients lower the pH by increasing the acidity which Food For Life feels often defeats the pur- pose of sprouting in the first place. To be a truly healthful product, Food For Life strongly believes in protecting the pH level of its sprouted grain bread tar- geting a balanced pH. Because of the company's commitment to health, you can be assured that Ezekiel 4:9 Bread is the pinnacle of nutrition. Sprouted to maximize nutrition and digestibility! By adding pure filtered water to certified organic grains, legumes and seeds, Food For Life is able to maxi- mize nutrition and digestibility. Enzymes like amylase and protease are released naturally, helping to break down carbo- hydrates and protein, making them easier to digest while maximizing nutrition and lowering the glycemic index. Baked to perfec- tion! Food For Life's slow baking tech- nique means that every sprouted grain loaf is baked at lower temperatures to help preserve important natural vitamins and minerals and never 'flash browned' which can often trap active yeast. Loaded with both types of fiber: sol- uble and insoluble fiber! Yes, Food For Life Ezekiel 4:9 Bread is loaded with both important natural soluble and insol- uble fiber to help your body function at its peak. Aren't all breads just carbs? Amazingly, Food For Life Ezekiel 4:9 breads often contain just as much a pro- tein as the stuff you put on your sand- wich, from all plant-based sources. Ezekiel 4:9 Bread, made with 100 percent organic ingredients. Your body and taste buds will know the difference! Golden Cannoli Expands Original Cannoli Chip Line By Ashley Caprio, New Business Development Manager, Golden Cannoli Shells Company, Inc. Golden Cannoli has expanded its Original Cannoli Chip line with a new flavor and a new size option. Introduced in May 2018, Lemon is now joining the original three cannoli chip flavors of Powdered Sugar, Cinnamon Sugar and Cookies & Cream. There is now also an option of Powdered Sugar and Cinnamon Sugar cannoli chips in peggable, single serve 2 ounce bags. Perfect for conven- ience stores, deli counters and register placement, these 2 ounce bags are great for lunches and a quick, sweet snack. In 1970, cousins Francesco Bono and Angelo Bresciani started their own Italian bakery to sell a variety of items to customers in the Boston area. One of the previous tenants of the bakery they pur- chased left a deep fryer in the back room, which is typically not a piece of equip- ment most bakeries have. They started creating cannoli shells for their own bak- ery use, and quickly, other local bakeries heard of their success. Soon, the cousins were producing and distributing cannoli to nearly all local bakeries, and quickly began to expand production. Francesco and Angelo decided to sell their bakery and open Golden Cannoli, a manufactur- ing facility focused on cannoli shells, cannoli filling and other cannoli related items. They quickly gained popularity, a reputation of having the highest quality products, and a dedication to customer service that no other cannoli company had. Many of the customers that started with Golden Cannoli back in the 1970s are still cus- tomers to this day. As always, Golden Cannoli has continued to innovate the cannoli cate- gory with grocery, bakery and foodser- vice items. Available in addition to the new lines are traditional and chocolate covered cannoli shells, cannoli filling, foodservice cannoli chips, cannoli crumbs for parfaits and ice cream inclu- sions, and pre-filled cannoli options. For more information, email info@ goldencannoli.com, call 617.868.2826, or go to www.goldencannoli.com or www .originalcannolichips.com.