I was in Petaluma the other day and decided to take a walk. It is so beautiful down by the river with the cobblestone streets and old buildings. I was so surprised when I walked up to the last downtown farmer’s market right as it was closing.

The light was dimming but hitting the booths just right when I walked into a young woman’s booth who was selling homemade sausage. Tara Ross, the founder of Gypsy Girl Sausage, creates these amazing sausages in Santa Rosa. I’m looking forward to getting to know her better and eating lots of her sausages because she is also following the Paleo lifestyle!

First I tried Gypsy Girl’s “The Calabrian Love Sausage”. The recipe includes pork, pork fat, white wine, Calabrian chilis, salt, fennel seed, garlic, sugar, spices, sage, lemon zest, celery juice powder in lamb or pork casings. I sautéed one large onion and 2 small banana peppers from Tara Firma Farms and then put them in a bowl while I cooked the sausage. When I turned the sausage over, I added the onions and peppers back in the pan. I added a 1/2 tablespoon of coconut aminos at the end.

It was delicious. I don’t know how she does it but the wine flavor really comes through in the sausage!

The following day for breakfast, I opened a package of “Harrisa Hottie”. The ingredients are: pork, beef, pork fat, apricot juice, dried apricots, salt, green onions, chili powder, habañero peppers, cherry powder, cane sugar, spices, flavorings and celery juice powder. I made patties from the uncased meat and served them with some scrambled eggs and sautéed kale. These sausages, hands down, have to be the best sausages I have ever eaten. Greg and Ben were with me at breakfast and they also raved about the sausages. The package of sausage meat is quite large and I had a little fresh meat left for the next day’s breakfast. I made an egg and sausage scramble with the Harissa Hottie meat. The Gypsy Girl Sausage Company is seriously going to cut my intake of bacon.