From Our Family to Yours
Our story begins with Karl Perl, a Romanian cattle farmer who spent his youth hunting in the mountains. As his farm grew, he built a small kitchen and smokehouse to craft sausage from his surplus beef and venison.
This humble chalet smokehouse stoked a lifelong passion for sausage, cheese, and bold flavor. Karl always took his time, slow-smoking his cured sausages over hickory and other hardwoods, developing flavor through natural fermentation, herbs, and spices. No byproducts, no shortcuts.
Now, three generations later, we still follow that lead. Every sausage and meat snack we make is naturally fermented, slow-smoked for over 16 hours, and is cured without artificial preservatives. All of our cheese is proudly made in Wisconsin, where tradition still shapes the craft.
Our Apex Wild Game sticks take it even further with 100% grass-fed, antibiotic-free beef, venison, elk, and bison, completely free of pork, nitrates, and nitrites.
From our farm to your door, every product we make carries the same dedication Karl put into that first smokehouse. Whether you’re stocking up for yourself or sharing the gift of bold flavor with someone you love, you can count on us for meats and cheeses crafted the right way.
In a world of ultra-processed products, we stay true to what works.
How We Cure Our Meats
At Farmers Market Foods, we believe great flavor starts with great craft. That’s why we use traditional meat curing methods to bring out the best in sausage, salami, and meat stick. Here’s how we do it — and how it’s different from others:
Our Tradition, Our Methods
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High Standards of Animal Welfare: All of our grass-fed beef, venison, elk, and bison are raised with no antibiotics ever, and are responsibly sourced from free-range ranches wherever possible.
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Natural Curing Ingredients: We use natural ingredients like celery powder and whole spices to cure and season our sausage, not synthetic nitrates/nitrites or sodium erythorbate.
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Live & Active Culture Fermentation: Just like sourdough bread, probiotic yogurt, and raw milk cheese, we use lactic acid starter cultures to develop flavor, texture and naturally preserve our sausage and salami.
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Slow Hardwood Smoking: Our meats are slow-smoked over hardwoods like hickory and applewood for 16+ hours, creating authentic smoky flavor and adding another level of preservation power.
What We Never Use
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Artificial Ingredients: Artificial preservatives, antioxidants, or nitrates/nitrites used in ultra-processed foods for production efficiency and cost reduction, not for quality.
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Industrial Acids: Encapsulated acids coated in hydrogenated vegetable oils that fake the fermentation process without the natural power of probiotics.
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Artificial Flavorings: Liquid smoke that poorly imitates the real hardwood smoke and corn syrup solids/MSG to mimic the savory flavor of traditional sausages.
We stay true to tradition — slow, natural, and honest — so you get the full, classic flavor of quality cured meats.