Like you need one more reason to buy local eggs:

Roughly 2,000 people have fallen sick this summer from salmonella enteritidis, in what has become one of the biggest salmonella epidemics in years.

There are almost three times as many cases as would be expected from recent years’ trends, according to a report yesterday from the Centers from Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That number likely doesn’t include most cases from the last two to three weeks, either, because case reports do not reach the CDC immediately.  During that time hundreds of millions of eggs have been recalled by an Iowa-based firm, Wright County Egg, due to suspected salmonella contamination.

- TIME : Thousands are sick in salmonella outbreak

Smell that? That is the smell of hanging meat slowly changing state. Tasty, tasty meat. It’s hanging out at Salt and Time, Ben Runkle’s new venture. He honed this craft at some of Northern California’s top charcuterie houses (Fatted Calf, Marin Sun Farms) before opening his doors in Austin. For August, he is introducing new cured products each week along with other salt transformed items (Pickled Fennel, Pickled Beets and Fig & Balsamic jam).

Lonzino – whole cured pork loin, great with peaches or melons (pictured above).

Wild Pig Prosciutto – Countryside Farms wild pig, salt, time. Limited quantities.

Double Pecan Bacon – Richardson Farms pork belly brined in 512 Brewery Pecan Porter and smoked over Pecan wood.

Mangalitsa Rilletes – Revival Meat’s Mangalitsa pork, black peppercorns and fennel.

Pickled Okra – Johnson Backyard Garden organic okra, Springdale Farms Garlic.

Fresh Italian Sausage – Richardson Farms Pork, ready for the grill or pizza.

Pancetta – cured pork belly, great on pizza, pasta alla carbonara or wrapped around anything and thrown on the grill. Hell, put some in your pocket and hand it out to strangers.

Stop by and say hi to Ben at the HOPE Farmers’ Market on Sundays or try selected samples at the Antonelli’s Cheese Shop. If you are a member of Farm House Delivery, check your box, they offer Salt and Time products also.

Salt and Time : Artisanal Salumi and Pickles

I don’t like chocolate and I don’t like people who do. That being said, I just found a chocolate that I love. So, what does that make me? Correct! Ambidextrous.

The thing that bugs me is how most chocolates are overly sweet and tend to coat my mouth with an unpleasant tackiness. Askinosie doesn’t play that game. Dark Ecuadorian Arriba chocolate has a clean cocoa (not coca, but that’s tasty too) flavor and addictive ‘Nibble’ bits mixed in. The name of the farmer is on each batch and part of the sales go directly back to each farm. Cool deal.

Askinosie Chocolate – San Jose Del Tambo Nibble Bar + Cocoa Nibs: Available at the Antonelli’s Cheese Shop

Breaking down the mix, WIRED deconstructs the mysteriously wonderful brown fluid that is Worcestershire Sauce: Anchovies, Vinegar, Onions, Molasses, High-Fructose Corn Syrup, Salt, Garlic, Tamarind, Cloves, Chili Pepper and water. Good news and bad news. I love Tamarind. I hate Corn Syrup. Proper proportions? Anyone’s guess.