A bunch of people on Kickstarting the Butcher Shop, here on my blog and in person have asked about having bacon in the rewards. Everyone loves bacon. Salt, sugar, fat, protein and smoke! What’s not to love!
Yesterday morning I added a bunch of bacon tiers. They are upgrades of the existing tiers. So for example if you have the Farmer’s Basket Mini Sampler ($59) now for just $10 more you can upgrade your pledge and reward level to the Farmer’s Basket Mini & Bacon Sampler ($69). Same goes for all the other meat tiers such as the Sausage Sampler and Pick of the Pig as well as the Year subscriptions. If you prefer ham instead of bacon you can get ham instead, or get some of both! Options for everyone’s taste buds. And of course, all Decade subscriptions automatically get free upgrades to smoked meats including bacon and hams already.

Current Bacon Label
Note that the smokehouse that does our bacon right now does use minimal nitrates. See a discussion of this at NoWeirdStuff.org. Once we have our own smokehouse in late 2013 or 2014 we will be able to offer smoking with or without nitrates/nitrites and without the liquid smoke. You’ll have the choice of getting your bacon sooner done at the existing smokehouse or later if you prefer no-nitrates/nitrites and smoked right here on Sugar Mountain Farm.
So, if you love bacon, check out the new bacon reward tiers and upgrade now as there is a limited supply!
See the new reward levels at: Kickstarting the Butcher Shop
Outdoors: 50°F/40°F 2″ Good Rain over night ending ~4 am
Tiny Cottage: 65°F/62°F
Daily Spark: Everything is good when wrapped in bacon.
If you have not seen this article from WAPF, it is interesting re: curing salts:
http://www.westonaprice.org/blogs/kdaniel/2012/03/29/save-your-bacon-sizzling-bits-about-nitrites-dirty-little-secrets-about-celery-salt-and-other-aporkalyptic-news/
Interesting concept. We’ve sold bacon, and pork, to many vegetarians, and vegans. Their real issue is, they explained, is they chose to change their diet out of protest of how the animals were treated at factory farms. Being able to get to produced humanely out on pasture and without the industrialization solved their qualms and made them feel good about eating meat again. And, as one lady put it, “Your bacon is sooo good!”
The rest of the article is quite good too. One of the things that people who ask for nitrate/nitrite free have to remember is that not having those salts in the meat changes the color and the flavor a bit. Celery juice, which is naturally very high in nitrate as are many vegetables, is one alternative way of curing without the ‘industrial sodium nitrate’. The USDA is in the process of considering regulations regarding the use of natural cures like this.
Another important thing to understand is that nitrates and nitrites, in moderation, are not evil. In fact, they are found in quite high levels in many vegetables like celery and spinach. These chemicals have been found to actually protect use from certain types of gastrointestinal cancers. In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s there was a great hew and cry that nitrates and nitrites were evil cancer causing agents of the devil but that was based on massive over feeding to lab rats. Don’t be a lab rat. Eat everything in moderation. And enjoy your bacon.
Bacon is the candy of meat.
Bacon rules.