To kill a pig

So on to the meat of it;
I am going to go Kill another pig.  This is not something that I do lightly, nor often at all.  Frankly it is something that has plagued me with nightmares and given me hope all at the same time.  There is something truly religious about taking a life for the sustenance of your village.

It all started way back in 'O8 with the first Sacrificio.  I have a bit of a moral issue with the way our society takes for granted the abundance that we are blessed with.  My God, people, we live in the Pacific Northwest. Abundance drips from the trees and still leaps from the seas.  It however is not supposed to come in little packages at Safeway.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am a fan of conveniece.  (actually that is a lie, but hell, let's go with it for now).  But I am not a fan of consuming... consuming more than our share, more than we need, or consuming blindly.  Most of us go to Costco and pick up a pack of pork chops and never think beyond: Damn that's a good deal!  These were real creatures and for the most part they had truly shitty lives.  We are not treating our fellow beasts the way we ought.

Strictly from a culinary perspective, never mind the ethical or spiritual one, food raised poorly tastes bad.  Has less nutrients and makes us fat. But more importantly it degrades the experience of eating and the joy in fresh food.  We become that much more comfortably numb.

Ok, enough soapbox.  ANYWAY... I commissioned 24 pigs in 2008 from our amazing pig farmer Mark Baker.  He raises them the way you want them to be raised.  I am proud to take my kids there and proud to tell them to LOOK AROUND... this is the right way to do things.   However, I started having second thoughts... who am I to "commission" animals?  This seems awfully anonymous to me.  Hence: A party.

Personality trait #1: When I am uncomfortable or haven't done something, the little part in my brain that should be saying "maybe you should practice this alone first" doesn't work.  My first response is to invite as many people as possible to watch me try.  calms the nerves.

So Jan 13th 2008, I took 70 people, and the press to a small farm on the pennisula to kill my first pig.  I had not only never ever killed anything before, but I also was running and insane fever and had pneumonia.  But whatever.  Once the invites go out, what are you going to do?  There were at least 13 small kids there, many grandparents, several dogs, a band, a BBQ, and a really really cold wet miserable day.  In the style of BraveHeart, I got dressed up, had Heid braid my hair and set off.

To make a really long story a touch shorter, the event was a success.  My first shot was clean and did the job, we cut the throat and gathered the blood (although I did get kicked in the head), and as a village we broke down the pig and salted the parts for the winter.  Everyone got into it and had an amazing time.  Blood was on all of our hands.  We did it together and we were all proud of our role in the circle of life.  It felt to me as if we were tied to something larger, traditions that went back in time.  We were a big family.

(Amusingly, I ended up at the emergency clinic that night with a 103.5 degree fever and was sick for weeks.  The Weekly wrote a huge article the earned Jonathan a major award and many many vegetarians vowed never to speak my name again. C'est la vie.)

So here we go again: on October 23rd I have been asked to travel all the way to Rice, WA to try to recreate this moment.  To bring together a new tribe in an ancient sacrifice for all of us.  There will be blood on all of our hands and we will shake them as brothers, sisters, as family. For more information go to: www.wildinrice.com