This week’s owner coupon is 20 percent off all hot dogs, including vegetarian options. Learn more about the coupon below.
Just in time for Memorial Day, we’re featuring hot dogs. From traditional to modern versions, we have a hot dog for you.
Beef Dogs from Hickory Nut Gap
Our beef hot dogs come from the Ager family at Hickory Nut Gap Farm, near Asheville. Jamie Ager grew up on the farm, which has been in his family since 1916. While a student at Warren Wilson College, he visited Joel Salatin’s farm and became interested in his grazing concepts, thinking he could apply them to the family farm. When he graduated, he returned home and got started.
The farm’s mission is “to connect sustainable agriculture practices, our family history, and our customers by sharing the family farm experience and serving as an example of healthy land stewardship while providing high quality ethically raised meats.” Or, as Jamie explains it, “We can utilize the production farm that we have here to educate people about agriculture.” During our tour with Jamie, we crossed paths with his wife, Amy, leading a tour group of parents and children. Jamie told the group how they rotate the cattle around the farm, keeping them on small pastures for short periods to prevent overgrazing and concentrated manure, which also protects the nearby springs and creeks.
Calves receive their mother’s milk for months, followed by forages for the rest of their lives; the healthy diet eliminates the need for antibiotics. They don’t use growth hormones, and they practice low stress handling methods. Jamie also tells the crowd about the health benefits of grass-fed beef over conventional beef: lower fat and higher beta-carotene, vitamin E, thiamin, riboflavin, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and omega-3s, to name a few. “We think Weaver Street definitely shares the mission,” he tells me. “It’s nice to be able to work with people that are like-minded, and understand, and care about animal welfare, that care about the environmental ideas of sustainable agriculture, and the ultimate goal, which is health. And that’s what we try to grow on our farm, is healthy food for people to eat.”
Watch a video of our visit on our Youtube channel.
Pork Hog Dogs from The Pig
Sam Suchoff opened The Pig, a pork-centric southern eatery in Chapel Hill, and began forming relationships with a small co-op of NC hog farmers to supply his restaurant. He has always used whole hogs raised on pasture without the use of antibiotics or added hormones to produce pulled pork, hot dogs, bacon, bologna, ham, smoked pork chops, and more. Eventually he began packaging items to sell in stores. He also helped Weaver Street transition our raw pork cuts to a 100% locally sourced program. We’re proud to carry Sam’s pork Hog Dogs.
Sam prides himself on “whole hog utilization,” which means that every part of the animal gets used. This has helped him to strengthen his relationship with the NC Natural Hog Growers Association through the ability to purchase more whole animals, which greatly helps the farmers by eliminating their need to market the animal in pieces (which takes more of their time and thereby reduces profitability).
Making hot dogs and sausage is essential to a whole hog program. While some cuts like bacon and pork chops must come straight from the hog, the recipe for hot dogs and sausage allows more flexibility. Different cuts of meat are mixed with spices in the recipe, allowing Sam to use up less popular cuts like the neck and hams, as well as trimmings from the belly and loin.
Veggie and Turkey Dogs
We carry meat-free Lightlife smart dogs and jumbo smart dogs. Another option is the all-natural turkey dogs or beef hot dogs from Applegate Farms. Founded in 1987, Applegate Farms is one of the pioneers of the natural meat business, making humanely raised antibiotic- and hormone-free meats available to consumers nationwide.
Dress any dog up for a delicious picnic or a quick dinner. Here are some recipe ideas based on delish.com:
- The Reuben Dog: A hot dog on a bun lined with swiss cheese, then topped with thousand island dressing and sauerkraut with caraway seeds.
- The Chili Dog: A hot dog topped with your favorite chili, followed by mustard and coleslaw.
- The Chicago Dog: Perfect for summer, a hot dog topped with fresh tomato, spears of pickle, hot peppers, sweet onion, and relish.
- The BLT Dog: Snuggled next to a strip of bacon, a hot dog topped with mayo, tomato, and shredded lettuce.
This week’s owner coupon is 20 percent off all hot dogs, including vegetarian options, good May 22-29, 2019. Owners, look for the coupon in our weekly e-news, sent on Wednesday morning. If you didn’t get the coupon, you may need to update your email address in our owner database. Contact us at ownershares@weaverstreetmarket.coop.
Not an owner? Become one today to receive the weekly owner coupon as well as the other benefits of ownership, like invitations to the Co-op Fair, a logo T-shirt and bag, and the right to vote in board elections. Learn more here.