pig pickin’
C and I were ratting the streets all day today. Drove out to the German Coast Farmer’s Market at Ormond Plantation in Destrehan this morning, and I wound up spending almost $50.00 on a ton of stuff, to be expounded on in a later post. This is by far a true farmer’s market with much more produce for sale than objet d’art. There were a couple butchers selling fresh sausage, tasso, andouille, and hogshead cheese. The 4-H club was distributing free trees, and C picked up several mayhaw saplings.
We drove back into the city and stopped at Colton School on St. Claude. The Prospect 1 exhibits were open for the last weekend and there were presentations commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King and the upcoming Inauguration. Down street in the next block, the Universal Furniture building was open and we perused the art for sale at The St. Claude Collective.
After all the art we ventured into the Bywater to the Brickyard on Chartres for the Cochon Ball. What was not mentioned in the Times Picayune was the beneficiary of the donation money. The owner of Maveric Heritage Ranch was at the entrance accepting donations to help with the restoration of the barn and replenishing of livestock (pigs) he lost in a fire this past November. The ranch is located in South Dakota, and the owners are participants in the Slow Food movement. I think I heard him say their ranch supplies pork to Cochon Restaurant.
There were two huge rotisseries set up, one with a boneless rolled head-on pig and the other with the pig split into two. A third station had a cajun microwave going with 4 pork butts inside. A few bonfires were scattered around the brickyard. The foosball field was roped off and the players had PVC with ropes to string them together, and after about an hour the game fell apart, making way for folks to gather around the food. Sausages and a wonderfully flavored boudin was served as appetizers, and around the different piles of bricks were bags of citrus, wine stations and coolers full of Miller High Life. C and I hung around the spits for warmth, watching the men tend the fires and prepare for the pig picking. Donald Link was there supervising the food preparation and I saw Poppy Tooker floating around the yard. A New Yorker in town for the weekend was chatting us up, talking about food and more food. As soon as the men took off the cover to the cajun microwave, I looked to the other side of the yard and saw the huge table set up for serving. People started moving over to the tables as Link and his men placed each pig and the pork butts on the table. Once they began carving the crowd was looking intently, respectfully, until one lady took a piece of pork skin, then the masses began serving themselves. A nice spicy cole slaw and some navy beans with sausage accompanied the pork. I’d venture to guess there were a couple hundred folks there. The food went quick, and as we left the owner of the Maveric Ranch hadn’t gotten a plate yet, so I offered to bring him a nice serving of his pork with accoutrements. Thanks so much to whomever sponsored (paid for) this event, in conjunction with Prospect 1.
the mosquito coast 