THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 11, 1994 TAG: 9412090255
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines
When Edna Spence twisted homemade sausage into links at Ansell's Market, her hands moved easily with skill that comes from long experience.
As if destined to be links, the pork in its casing slid naturally into plump sausage shapes. Within seconds, Spence tossed the chain of a half-dozen, equal-size links into a container already brimming with sausages, ready for the frying pan.
``Seems like I've been doing it all my life,'' Spence said, not missing a beat with her hands.
``And I have,'' the Creeds native reflected. ``When I was a kid, we hung them on the clothesline to dry out!''
Spence has been working with her brother, Curtis Ansell, at his Back Bay market on Princess Anne Road for a good 40 years. And she has been making sausage for him much the same way they used to as children for 25 or so of those years.
And that homemade taste, reminiscent of big, steaming hot breakfasts around the farmhouse table, is what makes folks come from near and far to shop at Ansell's Market. As longtime patron Emily Capps said, ``You don't find sausage much like this anymore.''
Old Princess Anne County residents like Capps purchase the sausage on regular weekly shopping trips, but others from all over Hampton Roads make a point of buying sausage if they are nearby. Lloyd Cooper, for one, stopped in for a pound and says he always does whenever he comes down that way.
``It reminds me of my uncle,'' Cooper said. ``He used to make homemade sausage.''
Ansell doesn't advertise but the word gets around, helped by Pungo area restaurants that serve the homemade links for breakfast. Pungo Place Restaurant even features ``Ansell's sausage'' on its dinner menu.
``I think Ansell's sausage is more popular and well-known than he realizes,'' Capps remarked.
It's known well enough that 200 or so pounds a week and more during the holidays are required to meet the demand. Every Wednesday morning, Spence and Debby Seeley (``A Yankee we taught how to make Southern sausage,'' Ansell said.) are working away behind the meat counter at the little country store.
Customers can watch as Seeley cranks up the sausage press and extrudes the seasoned ground-up Boston butts through a tube and into a sausage casing. They can see Spence take the casing off the stuffing tube and deftly twist it into links. When the large plastic container of newly made sausage fills to overflowing, Ansell hangs them over long poles to air dry in his big walk-in cooler.
The sausage is made from a recipe that once belonged to long-time Princess Anne County resident, Floyd Bonney, Ansell said. Years ago, Bonney made sausage at his country store on Charity Neck Road.
``When he retired, we started getting calls for it,'' Ansell explained. ``We asked him if he would share his secret, and he was tickled to death. And, for the most part, the sausage is pretty much like he told us.''
There are some differences. For example, Bonney told Ansell that the sausage wouldn't sell in the summer. But it does. ``Of course, they didn't have grills then,'' Ansell reasoned.
Ansell also has branched out. In addition to mild and hot, bulk and link, he sometimes has Italian, beef and turkey sausage on hand and he will take special orders, such as a batch without sage.
For years, Ansell made sausage with Bonney's old hand sausage press.
After Bonney passed away, Ansell returned the press to his family and ordered a ``fancy'' modern one from New York.
``We were fussing and fighting with that thing,'' he said. ``It just wasn't made right.''
A local resident, seeing his troubles, offered to lend him another old press and he was back in business. ``It must have come over on the Mayflower,'' Ansell said.
But it does the job - much to the surprise of USDA inspectors, who have never found the operation lacking, he added.
But it comes as no surprise to folks like Emily Capps and other fans. They know what old-fashioned, homemade sausage is all about.
P.S. Cox Cable TV, WTKR-TV and the Life-Saving Museum of Virginia will be producing another Beach Memories program after the first of the year. The museum folks are looking for long-time beach residents who remember the good old days. Call Ann Dearman at 422-1587 if you know of someone who should have been included on the program invitation list and wasn't.
THE WALK WITH VOLUNTEER Reese Lukei at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, which was scheduled for 1 p.m. today has been canceled and rescheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 18. Call 721-2412 for reservations. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
Curtis Ansell, Debby Seeley and Edna Spence press pork into casings
to form plump sausage links, ready for the frying pan, at Ansell's
Market.
by CNB