Farm & Craft Sausage Series

Where Our Farm Meets Their Craft

We’re excited to finally share something new we’ve been working toward over the past few months. As our relationships with local food connections grow, we find ourselves dreaming of ways to bring their craft together with our farm. This idea became the Farm & Craft Sausage Series.

A few times a year, we’ll team up with a local producer who already uses and believes in our pasture-raised meats. Together, we’ll create a small, seasonal batch of sausage that reflects both of our worlds - what they do best and what we’ve spent generations doing on our farm.

What makes this series different starts right here at the farm.

Our pork comes from heritage-breed pigs raised outdoors on pasture, just as they have been on this same farm for generations. Our breeding lines stretch back as far as 50 years, rooted in animals selected for mothering ability, heartiness, and, most importantly, deep, true pork flavor. These animals grow slower, move freely, and live as pigs were meant to - rooting, grazing, and developing real muscle and fat structure. That slow growth and natural life show up in the texture, juiciness, and richness of the meat.

This is the kind of pork that doesn’t need much dressing up, just thoughtful pairing. And that’s exactly why working with craft producers comes naturally. When both sides care deeply about ingredients, process, and place, the result is special.

Our First Collaboration: Virtue Cider | Old Pork Cider Bratwurst

We’re kicking off the series with Virtue Cider, a longtime friend of the farm and a local producer whose values align with our own. Based in Fennville, Michigan, Virtue is known for crafting traditional ciders using simple ingredients, time-honored methods, and fruit grown close to home. Their ciders are shaped by soil, season, and orchard, just like our meats are shaped by pasture, weather, and care.

For this first sausage, we partnered with Virtue using their Old Spot cider, a dry, funky, still hard cider that brings a lift to our richly flavored pork. Old Spot cider pays homage to the Gloucestershire Old spot heritage breed pig. According to orchard folklore, these traditional orchard pigs developed their spots from bruises caused by apples falling from the trees in the orchards where pigs grazed. The balance between not too sweet, and not too dry is what makes this brat so special. Nothing overpowering. Just two crafts coming together in a way that lets each shine.

Truly Small Batch • Truly Seasonal • Truly Local

This is not a mass-produced product. Each Farm & Craft sausage is made in a very limited batch, tied to the season, the partner, and the availability of ingredients. Once this run is gone, it won’t be remade. The next collaboration will be entirely different with a new producer, new flavor, new season.

That’s what makes this series so meaningful to us. It represents:

• Real partnerships
• Clean, honest ingredients
• Seasonal production
• Deep connection to place
• And food made with intention, not shortcuts

This series is our way of celebrating the people we work alongside every week - the brewers, cidermakers, and food producers who care deeply about what they create and the local farms they choose to support.

It’s a way to share something special with you - meat and craft, pasture and orchard, farm and community - coming together in one memorable package.

Once they’re gone, they’re gone. And the next chapter begins.