Lothar Erbe, a sausage-maker and Catholic from Frankfurt,
generates laughter and plenty of conversations. But the real
reason people congregate at his farmers market stand and his
Purcellville retail store is simple: His hand-made,
ultra-fresh sausages are gourmet-quality – no commercial
brands can outclass them, especially his tender, lean lamb
sausages.
How did this natural comedian choose sausage-making over show
biz? He came from a hard-working German family and had an
uncle who was a farmer. Erbe also had a natural affinity for
the butcher’s profession.
Erbe started butchering and making sausages in 1978. “I made
an internship with a local butcher, and I was there in the
fall season for two weeks,” he said. “I did so well that he
said I could come back whenever I wanted.”
Not only did teenager Erbe come back, but also he became an
official apprentice a year later, working with this master
butcher until 1982.
“During that time, you have to go to a vocational school,” he
said. “They teach all sorts of courses, including chemistry,
physics, math and biology.” After vocational school and his
apprenticeship, Erbe received a diploma from the local
butchers’ guild, allowing him to work as a professional.
He then packed his bags and went to work in France, Spain and
Italy. Much to his surprise, local butchering techniques
differed greatly from the German protocol.
“So in Alsace-Lorraine – which was first German, then French,
then German and then French – butchers cut the meat in many
different ways,” he said. He learned, for example, that
French butchers identify and cut seven different muscles in a
chuck roast.
Throughout his travels, Erbe always was making sausages.
“Since my work as an apprentice butcher, I was making
sausages, curing hams, making bacon, making it all,” he said.
“I can make 985 different sausages. In Germany, there are at
least 3,500 different kinds of sausages.”
When he moved to the United States with his American wife in
2006, Erbe had to apply for work authorization and permanent
residence. Once he received his papers, he worked as a meat
cutter in a local grocery store and later was hired by a
country butcher shop in Fauquier County.
“All the farmers in neighboring counties bring their meat to
this butcher,” he said, adding that the owner allowed Erbe to
start Lothar’s Sausages business so he could sell at farmers
markets. “I was allowed to use that facility to make
sausages, bacon and hams,” he said. “I put a label on my
product with my name, and it is a good feeling.”
Recently Erbe launched his own retail business, working 14 to
15 hours daily to make and sell his product. He asked Father
Ronald S. Escalante, pastor of St. Francis de Sales Church in
Purcellville, where Erbe is a parishioner, to bless the store
and the cross Erbe hung on the wall. Erbe credits his strong
faith for this success.
“There is God, and He helps you, listens to you when you talk
to Him,” he said. “I think it is God’s will that I come here
and that I make the sausages. I came back to this career.
When sitting in church, I feel peace and the spirit. That is
nice.”
Greeley, a freelance writer, chef and parishioner of St.
Veronica Church in Chantilly, can be reached at
[email protected].
If you go
Lothar’s Gourmet Sausages, 860 E. Main St., Suite A,
Purcellville
For information call 540/338-1500.
