Well, the pigs are back from Hilltown pork. There's a lot of backfat, their toes look like ballerinas, and shortly we'll be tossing one side (wrapped in burlap and bound in chicken wire) into a 6'x3'x3' helluva hole that we dug this afternoon with 4 of us strapping young farmers.

The burlap used to hold organic coffee from Strongtree Coffee in Hudson.  We snacked on spicy purple broccoli and arranged a haybale amphitheater.  We set up picnic tables and mums and corn stalks.  And the young butchers are nearly here, making their way through Brooklyn traffic and up the Taconic.  And there's porkslap beer waiting.
They were well-behaved little piggies going out to slaughter and the chickens are now enjoying their former premises thoroughly.  We think these pigs led quite nice lives, with lots of belly scratches and vegetable scraps and many a mudbath. We're quite excited to give thanks to them this weekend and savor those bellies, trotters and hams at our butchery workshops + feasting event, It Takes A Village We trust that if you're coming, you've officially RSVPd (to anne, at [email protected]), and that you've taken note of our new location - the beautiful Mead Orchards.
In other news, the pork posse is converging.  Listen to yesterday's Greenhorns Radio Show , in which we spoke with Bev Eggleston of EcoFriendly Foods. Bev apprenticed under Joel Salatin and now runs a slaughterhouse.  He sells his pork to Momofuku where they transform it into famous pork buns.
Hogs are great contributors to diverse, small farm operations.  They have strong noses and fatty backs.  They thrive on pasture and can transform a farm's skim milk, old apples and vegetable scraps into beautiful bacon pork chops and ribs. Honestly, we have much, much more to say about pigs and pork - after Sunday.
Love,
Severine, Anne, Coco, Tyler and the village that is making this event possible.