Big Pig in Big Jim

We've been smoking a lot of whole pigs lately for events, but this particular pig was so big, it didn't fit in our smokers at the shop. We have two Freidrich smokers that have basket carousel inside where you place the meat. It's important to keep the carousel balanced, however, or you can have a derailment. This hog from Kapowsin was definitely going to derail the smokers.

We had to bring in Big Jim, our new-to-us smoker and the larger of our two mobile smoker. Eric slept in the van at the shop in three-hour increments to get this big boy done.

One of the reasons I want to post some photos of the whole hog is because we will be doing a whole hog night for Fare Start in September.

The other reason is because some people don't realize how much the pig...looks like a pig when you smoke it. We are so removed from our food that it can be a little shocking when we see meat so close to its original form and not packaged on a tray with some plastic wrap.

The construction crew who ordered this pig were in hog heaven!

While an apple is traditional, we had a little fun with this one for our client.

Here are some more photos. Eric will claim to have not a marketing bone in his body, but he's the one who set this up and took photos for "whatever" (you know, like our facebook page or our website...).

I didn't crop out the van, his bed for the night.