Visitors see how the sausage is made at Schaumburg 'Smokehouse' event

Visitors to Spring Valley's Heritage Farm got to see how the sausage is made Sunday during the Schaumburg Park District's "From Hog House to Smokehouse" program.

Dressed in period attire, staff and volunteers butchered half a hog, rendered the lard, hung meat in the smokehouse, made fresh pork schnitzel and sausage - all while teaching visitors about the annual fall ritual for German families on the farm in the 1880s.

Program coordinator Monique Inglot said farmers in those days typically would butcher one pig per family member each November.

"That's what they would eat the whole winter," she said.

They demonstrated the butchering process on half a 200-pound pig, cutting pieces for bacon, removing the loin, shoulders and ribs, while saving the lard, organs and everything else.

"Absolutely nothing would go to waste," she said.

It truly was used head to toe, as they would make head cheese and pickle the feet.

Inglot said they've been holding the program annually for more than 20 years.