When the Undo’s Upper Ohio Valley Italian Heritage Festival opens this weekend, one of its most popular booths will feature the Bellaire Sons of Italy sausage sandwiches. The link sausages are grilled to perfection and topped with caramelized onions and peppers, served on a soft bun.  But the work that goes into the sausages starts weeks ahead, and involves many hands on deck among the Sons of Italy members.

President Bill Ault says they’ve been cutting up and grinding 3,000 pounds of pork for three weeks. And they start with pork “so fresh that it was oinking recently,” he says. “We keep busy for weeks and weeks before the festival,” Ault noted. “The recipe is the same we’ve had forever.” They say many family recipes involved “a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but nothing measured, nothing written down,” he said.