porkapalooza 2008, fennville, mi.

my husband and i found ourselves in holland, mi. on saturday. when we finished we went for a late lunch to the new holland brewing company (above average bar food and pizza) when we spotted a poster for this event. since we were in no hurry to come back we decided to check it out. turns out it was a pretty cool little fest with journeyman chef matthew millar preparing providence farm and cheswick farm pigs prepared three different ways. the fest also featured new holland beer and fenn valley vineyards wine. there was live music pretty much non-stop but not much else in the way of distractions. this would be a perfect fit for some sort of a renegade craft fair type of thing. anyway, when we arrived at about 4:30 the first two pigs had already sold out and the final pig wasn't coming out of pit til around 9pm. the pork looked and smelled great but the cubbies were calling and after the sun went down it got real chilly real fast so we never got to try any. kinda pricey since they charge 40 bucks per car admission in an effort to promote carpooling. for future reference next years porkapalooza is oct. 3. the website is http://www.savegaseatpork.com. Oh I forgot, a guy who was talking to Matthew Millar looked an awful lot like the hungry hound. I would not swear to it, but my husband said it was.

abolt wrote:Oh I forgot, a guy who was talking to Matthew Millar looked an awful lot like the hungry hound. I would not swear to it, but my husband said it was.

Abolt,

I'd guess that was the Hungry Hound. I ran into him a few weeks ago and he mentioned he was going to porkapalooza. Sounds like a fun event, though I would have liked to hear how the piggy tasted.

Enjoy,
Gary

Lin Brehmer of WXRT radio was in the area that weekend and ran across a notice for this event. Sounded so good he sidetracked his whole family and had a fantastic time. Talked for a couple of days on the air about how great the food/event was. Hubby is now all up for going next year. Not knowing what the turnout was this year but think it could be a little more crowded in 2009!

What those Fennville guys are doing is pretty special.

I've long called the coast, farms and vineyards of Western Michigan a poor-man's Napa (or Hudson Valley; the Napa analogy is better geographically, though the Hudson Valley comparison is probably more apt in terms of the relationships between the exurbs and the metropolises). It's becoming less of a poor-man's version in my mind all the time. Journeyman, Rye and New Holland brewery, plus all of the organic farms out there really stand up well, in my book, to similar places in NY and CA. If a Journeyman opened up in Chicago, a la Blue Hill in NY, that'd be good. Plus, beers from (among other Western MI brewers) New Holland, the Livery, and of course, Bell's are terrific.