A Boucherie in South Carolina

Boucherie (from WikiPedia): The traditional Cajun outdoor food event hosted by a farmer in the rural areas of Acadiana. Family and friends of the farmer gather to socialize, play games, dance, drink, and have a copious meal consisting of hog and other dishes. Men have the task of slaughtering a hog, cutting it into usable parts, and cooking the main pork dishes while women have the task of making boudin.

Celebrity hog farmer Tank Jackson of Holy City Hogs invited friends & family to a boucherie on Thackeray Farms deep on Wadmalaw Island where Tank raises his heritage breed hogs. Toby Rodriguez and Joseph Vidrine of Lafayette, Louisiana-based Lache Pas Boucherie were hired to lead the boucherie starting at 7a with a Cajun French prologue, the most humane slaughtering I have ever seen and a healthy pull of Crown Royal straight from the bottle.   In my opinion it was a historic event born from a unique congruence of like-minded Southerners sharing a mutual love and respect for the hog. I say historic because Toby’s passion for the boucherie was imparted upon all who attended.  Acadiana and the Lowcountry held a porcine summit where cultures were admired, traditions shared, and Cajun music played via Chef Diehl’s truck radio.  We will indeed see this again in the Lowcountry.  Several chefs, farmers, etc brought side dishes like ramp kimchi, a Peruvian corn & Argentinian shrimp salad, a curried yogurt, some mustard greens, etc.  Toby made organ stew. Joseph and Chef Diehl filled the pig’s stomach with sausage.  There were exciting food projects popping up everywhere.  I had to leave for another shoot before the food really started to get ready but text messages of the dishes sent to me were a hard sight to to not taste after smelling their slow cooking all day. All in all, it was definitely one of my favorite food experiences to date.

View 150+ images here with the password ‘tank’ :
http://jwkpec.smugmug.com/Events/Wadmamalaw-Boucherie/

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