Hog Wild

It's pig pick up day, and I am ready.

The basement freezer has been cleaned out... I think Freud might have had something to do with it, as one night last week, someone (probably me) went to the freezer for a popsicle, but didn't close the door all of the way.  By morning, everything inside had melted into an unappealing mush, and I was forced to throw it all in the trash can.  I might have shed a few tears over the batches of lovingly cooked lentil soup and zip-locked bags of pre-marinated flank steak that would never be the stars of our dinner table, but at least now I had a place to put the pig.

Armed with our two small red coolers, cloth shopping bags, and dreams of the pork chops I was going to make for dinner, Bob and I headed off to the last meeting of the East Lansing Farmer's market on this cold, late-October Sunday morning.

First, we did our regular shopping... eggs (of course!), sun chokes, baby cabbages, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, onions, garlic, popcorn and, on impulse, some kimchee.  We put the produce in the car, and put in our order at the Trailer Park'd food truck...  pollo torto and a pulled pork sandwich, which we ate shivering on the seats of the metal picnic table while we plotted our pig plans together.

Then, at last, we made our way to Christine at Spartan Country Meats and immediately, we discovered the first flaw in our plan....  and it was a big one.  There was no way in hell all of that pork was going to fit in our puny little coolers, not even with the added capacity of our shopping bags.  Lesson number one:  95 pounds of pork takes up a lot of room.

Luckily, Christine is the trusting type, and she offered to let us borrow her coolers to transport the meat, as long as we promised to bring them right back.  Phew, bullet dodged.

We dragged the two big blue coolers of pig through the farmer's market, passed the bemused glances of our neighbors, and hoisted them into the car.  And we were off.  

It was while unpacking the pork that I discovered the second flaw in the plan... all the pork was already frozen, rock solid.  There would sadly be no pork chops thawed in time for dinner.  A dream deferred is a dream denied...  Lesson number two:  always have a back up plan.  

And another thing... I had asked for all of the pig fat and bones to be included, dreaming of the soups I can make, and the dishes to which I will add that buttery delicious pig flavor.  Unfortunately, I neglected to ask that the bones and the fat be packaged in something smaller than a Sam's Club-sized grab bag.  I can't think, off-hand, of any family recipe that calls for 18 pounds of pig fat at a go.  So I guess I will spend the next few days thawing bones and fat, repackaging them into single use-sized portions, and refreezing.  Lesson number three:   packaging matters, and one needs to be specific.

But look at that freezer.  Just look at it!  It's a pork lover's paradise, full of chops, ribs, shoulders,  ham, sausages, bacon and bones... and I have all winter to dream.