Other cultures like to save a little for later. The Japanese say "Hara hachi bu," which means, "Eat until you are four-fifths full." Germans warn one another of the dangers of overdoing it with "Tie off the sack before it's full." Michael Pollan, the author of In Defense of Food, decries the destruction of the American diet at the hands of Monsanto and other toxic titans and recalls the thinking of the Prophet Muhammad: a full belly should contain one-third food, one-third drink and one-third air.
Why is it that in the U.S. we don't have a handy saying for pushing away the plate? We have the Pepsi Challenge, we have "supersize," we have the Taco Bell's "fourthmeal" ("We're still open at 1 a.m. !"). But walk away from food?
Which brings me to pork. Local pork, as well as all local food, fills you up. Real food doesn't contain empty calories that can leave you craving a fourthmeal. In Plainfield there is a heritage breed, Gloucestershire Old Spots, that is being saved from extinction by a guy at Manda Farm. Have one of his pork sausages (sold at Elmer's Store in Ashfield) and you're good for the day.
Pork, when it is treated well, as a member of the family, really tastes like heaven. It's very easy to prepare and farm-to-table restaurants have been serving it for several years. A succulent slab of Berkshire Pork is mind-blowing. First of all, the slab is sizeable, and second, it's not salty, just very juicy and fleshy without being fatty.
If that sounds strange, it's because it is. The "Pork, The New White Meat" campaign created all manner of degradation of the meat due to a process that bred the nutrients and flavor, not to mention dignity, out of the animal. Factory Farming 1, visitors 0.
But take heart. Local pork is a phone call or a short drive away. There are no less than 12 local vendors, according to the CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture) website. Recent forays into the world of pork include a trip to Blue Heron Restaurant in Sunderland and some pulled pork cooked up at home from the Austin Brothers Valley Farm in Belchertown.
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At Blue Heron, the house smoked and grilled pork rib chop is a very delicious piece of dinner that is first cooked in a brine, then smoked out in back of the restaurant and finished in a pan. The flavor is intense. The dish is served with a passel of fruit compote and bacon potato hash in a plum vinegar reduction. In the main dining room, with the fireplace and the art and flowers, the complexity of flavors can be savored with the attention to detail that went into the preparation of the dish.
Deb Snow, the chef at Blue Heron, was raised in the Midwest and learned early about real food. On the farm they ate seasonally. Bread was baked at home, pie crusts were made with local lard, and after the harvest, tomatoes, fruits and cucumbers were "put up" or pickled. Nothing came in a package.
Snow can rock a pork chop like anybody's business and does it with finesse and respect.
"Here's what I do," she says. "I buy from Northeast and I buy from Northeast for a reason. Every animal is inspected." Northeast Farm is an aggregator and distributor of food from small farms.
To prove her point, Snow drags me down to the walk-in (cold in there) to see the slab of Berkshire Pork (the breed) with the name of the New York farm on it. We then go to the basement office (cold there, too) to look up the farm on her computer, which reveals that the farm's pigs' diet is "100 percent free from animal proteins (with the exception of mother's milk), antibiotics and added hormones. The pigs are free to come and go outside on lush green pasture or inside Lucki 7 Livestock Company in deeply bedded pens."
All the meat that comes into Blue Heron is purchased from vendors who follow Snow's strict criteria for quality of meat, slaughter process and the number of miles food has to travel to her place. Without getting too graphic, the taste of meat is greatly affected by the way the animal is slaughtered. Terror creates adrenalin and adrenalin causes the muscles to tighten up. Smaller farms show more compassion in the way that they treat the animal, according to protectors of the traditions of proper animal husbandry.
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At the Austin Brothers Valley Farm in Belchertown, the boys are selling beef and pork. Now the 130-acre establishment, which was previously a dairy farm, sells its meats to stores and at farmers' markets as well as online. Our first foray into the world of local pork was with the purchase of a picnic shoulder because it was the cheapest they had. (Austin sells a variety of pork cuts, including hams, pork chops, pork roasts and pork sausage, and other stuff such as fat back, soup bones and bacon.)
My sister-in-law sent her husband out to the Austin farm to pick up enough meat to fit into their crock pot. Cuts of meat and how to prepare them is an interesting territory and it's helpful to know what the parts look like. Old school butchers will point to the parts of their own bodies when describing cuts of meat. The picnic shoulder (lower part of the pig's shoulder) doesn't have the cachet of ham (side) or spare ribs (leg), but it makes a wonderful pulled pork dinner when cooked over time.
This recipe, provided by Trish Nelen, is wicked easy. It is slow-cooked in a crock pot or on the stove for eight hours with only 1/2 cup water. Just pull the meat off the bone and savor slowly with your barbecue sauce of choice.
Recipe: Wicked Easy Pulled Pork
Servings: 10 small plates for appetizers
Ingredients
1 pork shoulder, around 6 lbs. or whatever will fit in your crock pot
1/2 cup water
1 bottle sauce (recommended: Appalachian Mountain Applewood "Indulge Then Recycle" Smoked Barbecue Sauce)
Directions
Cook pork shoulder in stock pot or crock pot for 8 hours in 1/2 cup water with lid on. Remove from pan and use fork to release meat from bone. Place in decorative mound on a platter that does not have the motif of another animal such as a lobster or turkey. Cover with sauce and serve with crusty bread.
