pantoum's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LITTLE PLASTIC-WRAPPED FARE (No. 259 � SUNDAY � 2 October 2005) 10:30 PM and I am sleepy, sleepy, sleepy. Spent most of the weekend out at Farmgrrl and Rosa�s farm, helping out and hanging out during their first official Open Barn. October is lovely in the southlands�is my favorite time of year here because it's not too cold and the humidity is finally lifting�and it was wonderful to be outdoors. Farmgrrl and Rosa live far off the beaten path, down a narrow dirt road that winds by pastures and stables before ending at their pasture and pond and homestead. Turn in the drive and you�re suddenly surrounded by many old outbuildings that feature chinking and hand-hewn timber. The gallery is in one of these outbuildings. Rosa, who used to make storyboards for Nickolodeon, now creates colorful creatures out of tin and nails these creatures to the exterior wall of one of the other outbuildings (and one of these creatures�a cool blue bird with sage green spots�is now the front tag on my little electric blue beetlebug. (Oh I get to start a trend. What fun!) We arranged several large stumps around a bonfire so the intoxicating smell of burning wood permeated our weekend. And Rosa and I played guitars around the fire in between visitors. Several people who came out to the gallery were former peace corp. volunteers who had lived in Africa, like Rosa, or in Latin America, like Rosa. And they ooohed and ahhhed over the collectibles, asked how in the world the women got those, say, wonderful Guatemalan paintings back here. �On our backs,� Farmgrrl said. �We rolled them up and carried them the rest of the trip.� Today their friend Em was there with her four-year-old twins and upscale pork. Em raises and breeds a rare pig called the Ossabaw and supplies several local chefs and the New York City market with the pork. Ossabaws have been dubbed the perfect pig because the meat tastes great and the liquidy fat is actually good for you. (Southerners everywhere can commence rejoicing now!) The Ossabaws, named after a barrier island in Georgia where 200 genetically pure pigs remained, are descended from 700 Ib�rico hogs left along the southeast coast by Ferdinand De Soto in the early 1500s. Spaniards let their Ib�ricos graze on acorns and then cure the meat for two to five years into J�mon Ib�rico, an incredibly flavorful ham with droplets of fat that gourmands everywhere drool over. This delicacy sells for $50/pound in Europe but regulations make it unavailable in the US. (Damn it all.) You see, the breed has a �thrifty gene,� which some humans also have. When the Ib�ricos were abandoned, they had to adapt to living on very little�mostly just on acorns, and this gene allowed the pigs to convert fat very quickly. As a result, their fat is rich in oleic acid�the fat found in olive oil that promotes the production of �good� cholesterol. In times of plenty, this trait can lead to obesity, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes but, limit the Ib�ricos to a healthy diet of acorns, peanuts, and alfalfa, and thrive. And their meat is actually good for us southerners who love to consume our pork. These wild pigs grow slower than traditional breeds, so it takes a long time to bring one to market. But we grilled one of their ham steaks for diner tonight and it was remarkably good, tasted far more like the pork I remember from my grandparents� farm than the stuff I buy at market. (Em says that�s because they�re in containers and can�t move around�which is also the reason they�re so loaded down with bad cholesterol.) She has not had her wild pigs long enough to make J�mon Ib�rico, but man oh man am I looking forward to trying that one day ... and I know where I�ll be buying my pork in the future. I bought several shoulders from her in anticipation of the South Cackylacky barbecue feast that I will prepare for my friends soon, plus some sausage, ribs, a ham steak, and some chops. And now here�s policyspeak from the Animal Welfare Institute to which Em belongs. The Institute improves the welfare of pigs by stopping the growth of animal factories for the benefit of animals, consumers, farm families, rural communities, and the environment. Its high husbandry standards include Well-managed pastures for pigs. When pigs are sheltered in barns, they must be bedded on straw or other suitable materials for comfort and to allow for expression of instinctive behaviors, such as rooting, nesting and playing. � It was kind of hard on this introvert to hang out and talk to strangers for an entire weekend, but satisfying too because most of the people who came to the art sale were really interesting people (and also because Farmgrrl and Rosa are really cool people). One woman�a designer with a lover twenty years her junior�who was so excited by the gallery that she came back the next afternoon with her dyke daughter and her daughter's lover to introduce them to us�and she told me that I remind her of Wynonna Judd. "Please know I mean that as a compliment," she said. "I think she�s lovely." I have decided that she meant that I am overweight but pull it off okay if I'm sitting on a Harley. Hmmf. Farmgrrl and Rosa and Em and her twins and I ended the weekend with another lovely cookout featuring garlicky chicken and the same gourmet ham steak from the night before and a nice big salad with fresh figs and olives that I made, plus some good fresh bread. And I drove home reminded again of the fact that it is far better to eat less really good, locally produced food than it is to chow down on a smorgasbord of plastic-wrapped mass-produced fare. Couldn�t sleep Saturday night and wound up watching very bad TV and drinking too much wine and am ashamed to say that I actually watched a gory show entitled �World�s Deadliest Hippos.� It was about a mean hippo that attacked a canoeist. (Of all the ways the National Geographic channel can present nature, and this is what thy choose to sensationalize.) Yet I watched it, didn�t I? � And now it�s Monday afternoon. I just returned from lunch with a new dyke employee and had one of the best salads I�ve ever tasted: arugula with sliced pears, blue cheese, walnuts, smoked trout, and a really, really good homemade vinaigrette. O man was it tasty! Must go home now though and watch the movie "Distant." Haven�t heard anything about it, but thought the description sounded interesting�and, even if it sucks, the cinematography should be first rate. I also rented "Kinsey," which is very good and very timely. And now I understand that Prez. Bush just nominated a lawyer who has never served as a judge to the Supreme Court, so I must google this and fast. Ta ta. BEST OF SPAM: why let people know about your intimate life 33736? (Because I�m too stupid to start a new blog) � Don�t expose your intimate life (I know! I know!) � adjust christ READING: Layers, an instructional magazine for designers, and the Association of American University Presses' newsletter SANG IN SHOWER: �You�ve got me wrapped around your finger. Do you have to, do you have to, do you have to let it linger?��A song that takes on a whole new meaning for fist fuckers, don't you think? I think Natalie Merchant sang it. 2:52 p.m. - 2005-10-03 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
||||||
|
||||||