Try over 15 types of locally produced sausage and vote for the best at this year’s Great Framlingham Sausage Festival on Sunday, October 8.

East Anglian Daily Times: The Great Framlingham Sausage Festival. Picture: Rose LingThe Great Framlingham Sausage Festival. Picture: Rose Ling (Image: Rose Ling)

A deliciously savoury smoky mist will fill the streets of Framllngham this Sunday (October 8) as The Great Framlingham Sausage Festival begins.

Originally created as a fringe event for Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival, the family-friendly homage to one of Suffolk’s best products (pork) now has a life of its own, and this year boasts an incredible 15 producers, cooking up their own recipe links.

Visit one of the designated points around Framlingham to pick up your £5 trail map, which entitles you to try all the sausages, casting your vote for the best.

We caught up with most of the producers participating to find out what they’re bringing along this year.

East Anglian Daily Times: The Great Framlingham Sausage Festival. Picture: Rose LingThe Great Framlingham Sausage Festival. Picture: Rose Ling (Image: Rose Ling)

Jabulela

The name Jabulela means ‘enjoy’ in Zulu, and enjoyment is exactly what South African caterers Sarah and Paul hope visitors to the festival will get out of their two authentic sausages.

The duo cook everything, from potjie (layered stew with homemade honey or beer bread), to boerewors sausages over traditional firewood and everything they make is gluten-free and created with local produce.

“We’ll be serving traditional South African boerewors, which is a beef and pork mix,” the couple said. “We will also have a gluten-free chicken boerewors filled with peppers, apricot and our boerewors spice.”

Friday Street Farm Shop

Young butcher Toby Edwards of the farm shop’s butchery team said he’s nervous (and excited) to be in charge of this year’s two entries into the competition.

“I’m the apprentice here and the boss has let me take charge this year as an experiment. I’m really looking forward to it.

“Our sausages are both new creations,” he said. “We decided to make Blythburgh pork and Aspall Cyder sausages basically because we wanted to source ingredients from the East Anglian region. They include mustard and local sage and thyme. The other one is a Stowmarket chicken sausage with Italian spices. When you say chicken people think it’ll be bland but the one we entered last year was quite successful.”

Musks

Ed, from Newmarket-based Musks said: “We’re entering our Pork and Cyder sausage, which we’ve produced for a number of years. We use all pork shoulder and bread as a filling for our product, which includes diced apple and Aspall Premier Cru Cyder. It’s a popular sausage. It’s a bit sweeter than traditional varieties and, funnily enough, we find kids quite like it because of the sweetness. On the day Graham will be our face at the festival – it’s our first time and we’re very pleased to be attending.”

Powters

Powters began making Newmarket Sausages in 1881 from a shop in Wellington Street, where the business still trades from to this day – albeit on a larger scale. Today the Newmarket Sausage has protected status, and nine varieties are produced by the fifth generation business.

Tristan Powter said: “We have a team of skilled butchers to carefully trim and hand select all the cuts of British pork we use in our sausages. We then mix our secret blend of herbs and spices and using natural skins and no artificial flavours or colours produce what we believe to be the best sausages you will find made to the highest standards.”

This year Powters will enter Chilli Pig – a spicy twist of the traditional pork sausage, made with crushed chillies and a hint of paprika - and Newmarket Pig – the most famous sausage from the brand, loved by generations.

Emmerdale Farm Shop

This farm shop is known for its sausages (producing around 30 different types) and is no stranger to the festival, having won with entries both last year, and the year before.

Butcher Steve Notley said: “We’re entering a hog roast sausage this year with pork, apple, sage and onion, made with free-range Blythburgh pork. We sell it here all the while – it’s one of our specialities. We won last year with Moroccan lamb sausages and the year before with gluten-free sausages. We use the primest produce we can and carefully put the recipes together for maximum flavour.”

Pepperells

A third generation business since 1965, Pepperells supplies a range of cut meats and in-house manufactured products to local businesses, including a comprehensive array of gluten-free burgers and sausages. Rebecca Pepperell said: “We were lucky enough to win the gluten-free category last year, so this year we’re putting in our gluten-free Norfolk sausage. I’m a coeliac myself. On my diagnosis in 2010 I gave my hubby Chris the challenge to produce a gluten-free sausage as good as ‘normal’ sausages. They have the same spices and include a gluten-free rusk. I fully approved of what he came up with. A couple of years ago we discovered another gluten-free rusk and it’s made them even better than before (and we were really pleased with the original product). Our entry this year has a hint of pepper about it, but it’s a secret recipe!”

Dunnett Butchers

David from Dunnett Butchers took over the business in 1985 and specialises in free-range pork and local beef, buying in whole beef and lamb carcasses and butchering them down himself in the traditional way. “We make all our own sausages in lots of different flavours,” he said. “This is our first year entering the festival – I went down last year to take a look. We sell a lot of sausages within Eye and a good 10 to 15 mile radius – some even go down to London. And the one we’ve chosen to enter this year is our plain pork one which we sell the most of. It’s the same recipe since 1979 and we have great feedback on them. They’re made with slightly spiced free-range pork and a lot of our customers call them the Eye Sausage!”

Meat Masons

Known locally as The Secret Sausage Shop, James Goodchild’s Essex-based butchery makes fine sausages using only the sweetest part of the pig – the shoulder – and a secret combination of herbs and spices, with full traceability. This year James is bringing a hog roast sausage. “It tastes like you’re eating a hog roast with all the trimmings,” James said proudly.”

Suffolk Black Pigs

Based in Ufford, the Frost family’s business rears pedigree Large Black pigs, which live outdoors, free-range from the moment they’re born. Every animal and therefore every product, has full traceability.

Anita Frost said this year the family will enter a traditional pork sausage, made with prime and just a little fat to add to their succulent flavour.

J R Creasey

Creasey’s is known for its sausages, so expect great things on Sunday. Butcher Dan Wilson said: “We’re bringing our gluten-free honey and mustard sausages. We make this one non gluten-free in the shop but had this recipe done especially for the festival. The pork is sourced from local farms in a 15 mile radius. We’ve entered every year and have always been at the top but never won. We’ve put a lot of work in this year and spent a lot of time on the recipe so fingers crossed.”

Hall Farm

This butchery won’t have to go far to take part in the competition – it’s based on Market Hill in Framlingham and has been part of the festival since the beginning. Butcher Daniel Tompkins said: “Our ethos is to source everything very close to Framingham, including beef from my own family and local pork from the owner’s own pork farm – everything’s from within a 30 mile radius. We’ve won the festival in the past and this year we’re making a gluten-free sausage with pork, sun-dried tomatoes and basil. In the past we won with our Autumn Gold sausage – that’s made with marmalade!”

Also takin part are Procter’s, Jimmy’s Farm, Lane Farm and a mystery producer.

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