Sausage

The deal to sell Parks Sausage Co.'s Park Heights plant to a Philadelphia deli meat manufacturer is less than a week away from being signed, Parks majority owner Franco Harris said last night.The plant is scheduled to close this weekend. The price of the sale to Dietz & Watson, a privately owned company that employs about 500 and has more than $100 million in annual sales, was not disclosed.Harris, a Hall of Fame running back with the Pittsburgh Steelers, said that in the short term, the sale of the 133,000-square-foot factory on Reisterstown Road would mean the loss of 35 to 45 jobs.

Philadelphia-based Dietz & Watson Inc. closed its deal yesterday to buy the furloughed Parks Sausage Co. plant in Park Heights, Parks President Lydell Mitchell confirmed.Dietz & Watson, which makes high-quality delicatessen meats, wanted the 133,000-square-foot factory to help its growing business and to be close to Baltimore-Washington customers, such as the Giant Food Inc. and Super Fresh Stores grocery chains. Dietz & Watson, founded in 1940, has been expanding its factory in the Philadelphia area, too."

Raymond V. Haysbert, the 79-year-old former chairman of Parks Sausage Co., was in stable condition last night at Good Samaritan Hospital after suffering a heart attack Sunday evening at a political fund-raiser, his family said.Haysbert was speaking at an event for City Council candidate Sylvia Williams in Northeast Baltimore when he fell and hit his head. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed until paramedics arrived.It was the second heart attack for Haysbert, who in 1952 joined the sausage business started in Baltimore by Henry G. Parks Jr. In 1969, the company became the first minority-owned firm in the United States to go public.

Virginia Weatherford, a retired home economics teacher who helped her husband establish Parks Sausage Co., died Thursday of pneumonia at Union Memorial Hospital. She was 81 and lived in Roland Park.Formerly married to businessman and City Councilman Henry G. Parks Jr., she used her training as a dietitian to create recipes and promote the product that was widely recognized through commercials as "More Parks sausages, Mom, please."Mrs. Weatherford's recipe for sausage stuffing appeared on one-pound packages of the sage-laced Parks sausage for more than 40 years.

The sale of the former Parks Sausage Co. plant in Park Heights to Philadelphia-based Dietz & Watson Inc. should be consummated Monday, a state economic development official said late yesterday."

Before its Park Heights plant was bought by another meat company early this month, Parks Sausage Co. won extensions on two loans it is receiving from Baltimore.Parks, which sold the plant to Philadelphia-based Dietz & Watson Inc. Feb. 2, gets a $500,000 Urban Development Action Grant and a $180,094 purchase money mortgage from the city.Parks, which is continuing to market the Parks Sausage line by outsourcing production to other manufacturers, does not pay interest on either loan.The two loans were to be repaid over 15 years, said Jeffrey P. Pillas, chief financial officer of Baltimore Development Corp.

Towson men's lacrosse coach Carl Runk doesn't back down from pressure easily. Just ask the Arizona barbers union.In the mid-1960s, that group attempted to stop Runk from cutting his wrestlers' hair as a high school coach in Tucson. But he refused.Three decades later, people are still asking Runk when he's going to quit. This time they're not referring to his hairstyling, yet the answer remains the same."A lot of people come up to me and ask me about retirement," said Runk, 62, in his 31st year with the Tigers, who play at No. 3 Johns Hopkins tomorrow.

* Item: Red Baron Breakfast Pizza* Servings per package: 2* Cost: About $2.69* Preparation time: 3-5 minutes in microwave or 20 minutes in conventional oven* Review: It's not as convenient as an Egg McMuffin (too messy for commuting), yet this mini breakfast pizza is a hearty option for the morning rush. The sausage scramble flavor features a biscuit-style crust topped with sausage bits, scrambled eggs and Cheddar and mozzarella cheeses. Fat watchers won't be happy (nearly half the calories are from fat)

Philadelphia-based Dietz & Watson Inc., a maker of high-quality deli meats, is negotiating to buy the long-troubled Parks Sausage Co. of Baltimore, sources in the industry and close to the talks say.No deal has been reached and both companies declined to discuss whether they are talking about a sale. It is not clear whether a sale would include just Parks' building and equipment, or the whole business complete with its unionized work force."There's no deal until there's a deal," said an industry source.

State financing issues that were threatening a deal to allow a Philadelphia deli meat company to acquire the Parks Sausage Co.'s Park Heights plant are close to being resolved, a state official close to the negotiations said yesterday.Dietz & Watson officials appeared to eliminate a major stumbling block by assuring legislators that any current and former Parks Sausage workers would be given preference when the buyer begins hiring at the Baltimore plant, said the state official.Robert C. Brennan, assistant secretary of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, said Dietz & Watson appears to have satisfied state lawmakers who delayed a proposal this month that would have given the Philadelphia company $750,000 in state "sunny day" economic development money.

The less people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they'll sleep at night." I agree and disagree with that remark, which is attributed to Otto von Bismarck, founder and chancellor of the German Empire in the 19th century. While I accept that watching the legislative process can be unsettling, I have to say that after seeing Sam Poole make deer sausage, I had an untroubled night. Poole operates Sam's Deer Processing, a spare, health department-approved operation set up in buildings behind Poole's Carroll County home.

On a recent orange evening as the sun sank and red leaves dropped from the dogwood, I stood in the backyard, grilling bratwurst, racing daylight. Darkness sneaks up on backyard grillers these days. A few weeks ago we could cook in daylight as late as 8 o'clock. Now the sun disappears around 7. Yesterday the season officially changed to fall as the sun crossed the equator. It was the autumnal equinox, when the hours of day and night were approximately equal. That balance won't last long; the night is gaining.

A fire in a small Baltimore County meatpacker's attic has sounded an alarm throughout the Baltimore-Washington German culinary community. As Oktoberfest gatherings loom on the fall calendar, no more fresh sausages, wursts, frankfurters and other smoked delicacies - at least for now. "People don't always realize that we serve the German, Swiss and Austrian embassies in Washington," said Sonya Weber, the daughter of Egon Binkert, who founded Binkert's in...

Sausage and rapini (also known as broccoli raab) are a popular combination over pasta, especially the classic orecchiette dish of southern Italy, but they taste great with the earthy flavor of lentils as well. A little blue cheese at the end provides some creaminess. This dish could be adapted to use other greens instead, such as spinach, chard or kale; just remember to adjust the cooking time. Joe Gray writes for the Chicago Tribune, which provided the recipe analysis. Lentils With Sausage and Rapini Serves 4 -- Total time: 37 minutes 2 cups water 1 cup green lentils, rinsed, drained 3/4 teaspoon salt (divided use)

LOCKHART, TEXAS / / David Brent, the chief deputy sheriff of Caldwell County, has to be politically correct when making his rounds, especially when it comes to lunchtime. With four top barbecue joints all within his district, he prefers to eat rather than talk. The Lone Star State is widely known for its outstanding smokehouses, which produce some of the most succulent, slow-cooked meats on the planet. But this quiet town of 12,000, a 30-minute drive south of the state capital, has a special status.

Sausage, fennel, onion and tomatoes make a robust pasta topping. I adapted the recipe here from Tom Colicchio, award-winning chef of Craft and Gramercy Tavern in New York and judge on Bravo's Top Chef. Italian turkey sausage often is seasoned with fennel seed. Also called sweet anise, fennel is a large white bulb with celerylike stems and feathery green leaves. It has a mild licorice flavor and can be eaten raw or cooked. Wine suggestion --A perfect match for this fennel-scented dish is a big rich red that has a hint of licorice itself - syrah.

Palmyra, Pa. -- Where there's smoke, there's history in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, where Lebanon bologna has remained a popular foodstuff since the 18th century. The uninitiated may dismiss Lebanon bologna as an obscure luncheon meat, but for those who grew up eating slices of the stuff in sandwiches, served fried with eggs or smeared with cream cheese, it is an "identity food" redolent of southeastern Pennsylvania's distinctive culinary heritage. "True Lebanon sausage," writes Evan Jones in American Food: The Gastronomic Story, "is made of nothing but coarsely ground beef pre-cured and aged in barrels, then seasoned with sweet herbs and assertive spices, forced into airtight casings, and smoked over smoldering sawdust for a matter of days."

As soon as you step through the front door of 524 S. Washington St., it hits you: the spicy, smoky, garlicky and altogether unmistakable smell of tradition. For 86 years at this tan rowhouse on a residential Fells Point street, a family named Ostrowksi has practiced carnivorous magic, making homemade sausages that people return for again and again. For 86 years, it's been one Ostrowski or another grinding, seasoning and hand-shaping that meat, working to the dictates of time-tested recipes.

Baby, it's cold outside, very cold. And when you come inside, you want something warming, and you want it right away. This dish almost could be called "snow-shovel soup" in honor of its warming properties after that hated winter task, but it's not quite a soup, nor quite a pasta dish. The broth gets added near the end, and it's just enough to float the stars of the dish: the sausage, greens and other vegetables. All you need add is a good crusty bread. For dessert, a bit of a downscale guilty pleasure after the healthful- ness of the main dish: canned cling peaches in heavy syrup (light syrup only saves you about 20 calories, so who are we kidding?

Soup seems to suffer from bad press lately. My husband, a trencherman if ever there was one, says soup isn't dinner; it's a snack. My neighbor says soup is supper fit only for sick people. Bosh, I say. On a gusty autumn evening, soup is the absolute best thing for supper. If you've had the foresight to stock your freezer with chicken and beef stock, soup is a sure bet. If you haven't, then canned stock will do very nicely, thank you. There are, of course, long-simmered soups, the kind left on the back of the range to fill the house with their homey aroma.