By ROWENA PLETT

Staff writer

Visit any Swedish restaurant and you are likely to find potato sausage on the menu. And for folks who live in a Swedish community like the one at Burdick, the ethnic tradition is often on their dinner tables.

Dan Hageberg, head meat processor at Burdick Meat Market, said potato sausage is especially popular during the holidays. He combines ground beef and pork with onions, potatoes, and salt and pepper, then stuffs the mixture into casings.

He said potato sausage is a Swedish tradition passed down from one generation to another. His father, Gary, grew up on it. Veterinarian Robert Novak of Lost Springs also grew up on it.

“That is top good stuff,” Novak said. “In my veterinary work, I inspected meat over there (at Burdick Meat Market) for years, and I always brought some potato sausage home,” he said.

His wife, Hallie, was fixing some just the other day. She cut it into servings and browned it in a skillet, turning it over several times until it was cooked through.

She has a Czech background.

“It’s a little different,” she said. “You kind of acquire a taste for it. The flavors come out as it cooks.”

The meat market is especially busy processing beef, pork, and deer in days leading up to the holidays. Hageberg, his wife, Dee, and three others are working overtime to fill all the orders that have come in.

“Everybody wants jerky, summer sausage, and steaks,” Hageberg said. “This time of year we have to run the smokehouse 24/7.”

The number of deer they process is down, he said. Whereas they used to process around 100 head, it’s more like 30 or 40 now.

After 30 years working in the kill barn, Dan, 57, took over from his father in the processing plant five years ago. Dee has worked there for 20 years.

“I like to wrap meat and interact with customers,” she said.

The business will be 100 years old in 2020.