U-town sausage stuffs 1,400 customers

The 58th annual Uniontown sausage feed Sunday filled the tummies of hundreds once again, despite a brief and heavy snowstorm just hours before the event.

Volunteer Ken Oenning said he and other volunteers watched the squalls of snow storms throughout last week nervously, hoping the weather would let up the day of the feed.

The last squall hit heavy at 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning of the feed, but let up after just one and a half hours.

“The first of last week when it was snowing and snowing and snowing, I was really scared. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, we are really going to have a mess.’ We were lucky that the weather warmed up,” Oenning said with a laugh.

He and a team of other volunteers put the sausage together the Wednesday prior, using 1,700 pounds of pork shoulder and a healthy dose of the secret spices called for in the sausage recipe used at the feed for years.

Oenning himself has volunteered to make the sausage for more than 40 years.

He said they saw roughly 1,400 participants this year. He did not yet know how much money the event raised.

The feed cost $12 a plate for adults and came with traditional side dishes like pie, mashed potatoes, green beans and applesauce.

Last year’s feed saw roughly 1,700 participants. Diners drove in from the Lewiston/Clarkston Valley, Moscow/Pullman and even as far as Spokane, Oenning said.