When we relocated to The Great State of Jefferson 7 years ago I quickly discovered a local butcher shop/deli in our neighborhood. I became a regular and it became one of those "Cheers" kind of things where the staff would all greet me with "Hey Mike, the usual!"
After a bit of time, and my education here, I started to ask for some special things that weren't part of the regular meat case. This caught the attention of the owner and one day we were at the same place at the same time and he came over to introduce himself. We started talking meat, food, smoking, politics, kids, and life in general. We became fast friends with a common bond of the love of good food, cooking, and kinship.
Fast forward to this morning. We have a small freezer that is running out of meat and I thought to myself, self I thought, shoot your buddy a text and ask him if he can procure a whole hog to fill up that empty dark abyss of sub-zero freezerdom.
Ring-ring, my friend calls. We chat (not WeChat), catch up a bit, then I hear his wife holler in the background "TELL MIKE ABOUT THE PIG!" My friend then explains to me that he has a "Fair Hog" someone bought that has been sitting in his freezer for 4 months. The folks who bought it told them TODAY to just give it away! Buddy says "Do you want it?"
We go through all of the gyrations of donating or splitting it among his employees and he says don't bother, he has over saturated the donor avenues and his people get plenty and basically "If you want it, come get it"
I'm still not sure what this good fortune means other than good intentions and good feelings are often returned in kind. Or tenfold.
After a bit of time, and my education here, I started to ask for some special things that weren't part of the regular meat case. This caught the attention of the owner and one day we were at the same place at the same time and he came over to introduce himself. We started talking meat, food, smoking, politics, kids, and life in general. We became fast friends with a common bond of the love of good food, cooking, and kinship.
Fast forward to this morning. We have a small freezer that is running out of meat and I thought to myself, self I thought, shoot your buddy a text and ask him if he can procure a whole hog to fill up that empty dark abyss of sub-zero freezerdom.
Ring-ring, my friend calls. We chat (not WeChat), catch up a bit, then I hear his wife holler in the background "TELL MIKE ABOUT THE PIG!" My friend then explains to me that he has a "Fair Hog" someone bought that has been sitting in his freezer for 4 months. The folks who bought it told them TODAY to just give it away! Buddy says "Do you want it?"
We go through all of the gyrations of donating or splitting it among his employees and he says don't bother, he has over saturated the donor avenues and his people get plenty and basically "If you want it, come get it"
I'm still not sure what this good fortune means other than good intentions and good feelings are often returned in kind. Or tenfold.
Comment