Headed to Florida last week to see family and was driving past Ft. Pierce where I knew from his posts that Rick Nepas is enjoying the winter with his wife in their big 5th wheel trailer. They invited us to drop by, and as you might imagine, I was very excited to see how Rick turns out one batch of sausage after another in his trailer environment.
That's Rick on the left, and me with a stick of his ginger/pepper salami. If the visit uncovered anything special, it was that creativity, experience and experimentation are the key ingredients to Rick making outstanding sausage. That salami I'm holding was a knock out! Plus, Rick generously had me try several other creations that were uniformly great, further opening my eyes to all the possibilities in the sausage world.
Rick has way less room to work and only basic sausage making equipment. His fermenting location - a corner of his bedroom closet - is as basic as it gets. His ability reminds me of a professional photography school I attended many years ago. One of the senior instructors was an old German; in one class he used examples that we agreed were astonishing in terms of advanced techniques and creativity. I had the most current Nikon equipment, and others had very expensive Leicas and other professional cameras, and we talked about getting even more expensive stuff so we could take better pictures. Well, the instructor then noted that all the pictures we had been in awe of were taken with a no-cost, home made pinhole camera in 1929! It floored everybody. No difference here at all - Rick Nepas is always experimenting and creating.
That's Rick on the left, and me with a stick of his ginger/pepper salami. If the visit uncovered anything special, it was that creativity, experience and experimentation are the key ingredients to Rick making outstanding sausage. That salami I'm holding was a knock out! Plus, Rick generously had me try several other creations that were uniformly great, further opening my eyes to all the possibilities in the sausage world.
Rick has way less room to work and only basic sausage making equipment. His fermenting location - a corner of his bedroom closet - is as basic as it gets. His ability reminds me of a professional photography school I attended many years ago. One of the senior instructors was an old German; in one class he used examples that we agreed were astonishing in terms of advanced techniques and creativity. I had the most current Nikon equipment, and others had very expensive Leicas and other professional cameras, and we talked about getting even more expensive stuff so we could take better pictures. Well, the instructor then noted that all the pictures we had been in awe of were taken with a no-cost, home made pinhole camera in 1929! It floored everybody. No difference here at all - Rick Nepas is always experimenting and creating.
