Whole Pig Roast at Love Apple Farm

Eat Local Challenge Day 12
(Read What & Why I am Doing This Here)


Chef Chris Avila of Soif and host Chef David Kinch of Manresa carve up the slow-roasted, heritage-breed, once-happily-roaming-outside pig that was served to guests at a wonderful party organised by him and Pim at Love Apple Farm earlier this afternoon. I drove down to the Santa Cruz mountains with Jen Maiser, organiser of this month's Eat Local Challenge where we spent a happy afternoon meeting fascinating people and eating lots of roast piglet and delicious pot luck offerings brought along by the guests. Jen and I walked around the farm learning about how things are grown there with the garden's creator, Cynthia and also Julia from Mariquita. Cynthia kindly picked me one of the baby little radishes (which I had loved so much on an earlier visit to Manresa) as well as a "Lychee tomato" to try. The Chef implored everyone to taste a little of the pig's cheek, fatty and succulent, carved straight from the animal, piping hot, directly into our eagerly waiting hands. I met a man named William Rubel who kindly declared my cookies to be "not bad" before continuing to tell us about his fascinating experiences with the Samburu tribe in Kenya whose milk is mildly smoked. I am looking forward to reading more about his experiences when his new blog is up and running. It was an honour to spend some time with David's parents. David's mother had made some Dutch Pennsylvania "Shoofly Pie" from his paternal grandmother's recipe and I think I can safely speak for just about everyone by saying how much we appreciated being exposed to a traditional American dish us Californians wouldn't often have the opportunity to taste. It was sweet and homey. Just like the afternoon. There is something so special about a group of friends, old and new, coming together around and long, long table and breaking bread together. I feel blessed to have been invited. Thank you David and Pim.

[Anita from Married with Dinner has posted a full photo set of the event on Flickr
and Greg Silva from Casa Gregoria has posted another Flickr set here and my companion for the journey to Love Apple Farm, Jen Maiser, captured her own version of events here.]

Breakfast Day 12
Andante Cavatina Cheese Homemade Cookies [made with a mix of local and non-local organic and fair trade ingredients: picture]

Pot Luck Pignic 12
Pork & other things, some local,some mostly local or partly local or locally made and some probably not local at all.

Drinks Day 12
Tap Water, Filtered sparkling water [from Boccalone], Gloria Ferrer Sparkling half a glass of Riesling Tea (1 Cup).


Code:
100% Local ingredient
Local Artisan using mostly local ingredients
Local Artisan using non-local ingredients
Californian
Totally Un-local
Pre-declared exempt
Restaurants which focus on local produce





© 2008 Sam Breach

Whole Pig Roast at Love Apple Farm