With the URL ilikepig.com, eaters are primed for pork this Saturday, October 2nd, when Governor’s Island will transform into a celebrated outpost called Pig Island.  From 11:30 am to 4:30 pm, more than twenty top NYC chefs will offer pig-centric dishes to an anticipated crowd of 1,500 people.  In addition to The Pig, the event will honor his buddy, The Local Farmer.  Already the chefs of Pig Island are amassing their dominions:  Yesterday, one-by-one, they came by Union Square to pick up pigs from Paul Dench-Layton, the owner/farmer of Violet Hill Farm in Sullivan County, and one of the suppliers for the event.

Sporting the Double 29!

“All of my pigs are free-range, heritage breeds.  We’ve got blacks, reds, Yorks, and others,” explained Dench-Layton.  The description of his pigs was bolstered by his t-shirt, showing the Zagat rating for his farm — including TWO 29’s — in quality and service.

What struck me most about yesterday’s pig pick-up was its transparency.  There, in the busy lunch hour of a public park on a blue-sky day, was a farmer carefully laying out whole slaughtered pigs for his customers.  The chefs carried them away over their shoulders, excitedly planning for recipes with days of attentive preparation.  The farmer’s children were in the middle of it all, handling the pigs with comfort and ease.  If part of reinventing our food system is knowing where our food comes from, I can’t think of a more public forum than this.

“You see that we need to respect them [the animals] from the beginning to the end,” said Ed Yowell of Food Systems Network NYC, as he watched people gather around the pick-up table.  Food Systems Network NYC is the charitable partner for Pig Island and they work to secure “a strong and just regional food and farm economy,” he explained.  He went on to say that they’re thrilled to be involved and declared one of the organizers, Jimmy Carbone, to be “the patron saint of not-for-profit food organizations” in New York City.

“We’re supporting local farmers — that’s number one,” Carbone said, with a pig hoisted high on his shoulders.

Jimmy Carbone of Jimmy's #43 Promotes Pig Island

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Chef Chris Rendell of Double Crown, Jimmy Carbone, Ed Yowell, Kristin Pederson, Lauren McGrath