Sausage Partners hasn’t opened its doors yet, but anyone who’s eaten at Ceili Cottage may be familiar with its products already (hint: try the bangers and mash for a taste of the Naked Pig sausage). Ceili Cottage’s head chef Kyle Deming and his wife, Lorraine, are the masterminds behind Sausage Partners, which produces a variety of made-from-scratch pickles, preserves, meat products and yes, sausages. This summer, they’ll be branching out with a retail outlet of their own at Queen and Greenwood.
The idea started around two years ago at a birthday party for Patrick McMurray (owner of Ceili Cottage and Starfish). The Demings provided some catering in the form of homemade sausages filled with free-range, hormone-free and antibiotic-free pork from Kawartha Ecological Growers. They became an instant hit. “People were begging to know where they could buy them,” recalls co-owner Lorraine Deming.
The answer, at the time, was nowhere. These days, they can either be found at a Kawartha Ecological Growers Farmer’s Market or on the menu at Ceili Cottage. By summertime, they’ll be at the Sausage Partners shop, along with other products like locally sourced beef, pork, poultry and game (geese, venison goat), as well as sustainably farmed or wild-caught fish. Expect prepared food items too, like terrine and a sticky toffee pudding (also available at Ceili Cottage).
The progenitor of it all, the sausage, has changed little since it’s first incarnation two years ago. The Demings have refined the recipe, but ingredients are essentially the same: pork, salt, pepper, onions and that’s about it (hence the name, Naked Pig sausages). “We don’t want to add a thousand flavours and spices,” Deming says. “We want to taste the meat.”
Responsibility is a top priority, she says, so meats will be sourced from carefully chosen providers. “We’re all about the well being of the animals,” she says. “We want to be good to them.”
Sausage Partners, 1378 Queen St East, 647-227-0031