Our farm was selected to be showcased in the 2015 Cochon Heritage BBQ being held in Chicago, Il

Two of our pastured roaster pigs, 85-100lbs hanging weight, were paired with two celebrity chefs that worked their magic using La Caja China roaster boxes to provide an outstanding whole hog experience.

It was definitely an experience that every farmer should do if given the opportunity and funds allow.  We were paired up with Phil Wingo from Porkmafia and Steve Dolinsky.  They each had their own method of approaching and cooking their Northern Marsh Farms roaster pig, and they made them shine!

Phil went with a more traditional BBQ flavor and used some of his signature Porkmafia rubs (Sweet Pink pre-rub and Texas Gold) while Steve used Chinese 5 Spice and paired it up with pickled daikon radish.

When there are 9 pigs from different farms being cooked by 9 different chefs and you hear people saying "This is the best pork I've ever had!" while eating one of your pigs, it is a night you'll never forget.

Our scald and scrape processor of choice, Lake Geneva Country Meats, in southern Wisconsin.  Great place to do business with.  Excellent work and very friendly people.

 

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a picture of Phil's pig being seasoned, but, I was able to get the roasted pig.

 

Phil Wingo's Northern Marsh Farms Large Black Roaster

 

Unleash the beast!  Northern Marsh's Head Hog Wrangler freeing Phil's pig from the la Caja China roasting rack.  I'm frankly amazed that as tired as I was, someone still allowed me to help and actually trusted me around sharp objects...

 

Phil and I shredding and chopping his pig.

 

Phil adding some more of that amazing Porkmafia Texas Gold rub to the meat as he's chopping.

 

Unfortunately, by the time we got done chopping Phil's pig and I got out from behind the stage and in line to get some...it was already gone! So no picture of his "bite" of prepared food.  From the comments I heard from people who did get to enjoy it, it was spectacular!

Steve Dolinsky's Northern Marsh Farms Large Black Roaster after seasoning with that distinctive Chinese 5 Spice.

 

Steve's pig after roasting.

 

 Steve and his assistant chopping his pig.

 

Steve's "bite", absolutely excellent! 5 Spice seasoned Large Black paired with pickled Daikon radish on a roll.

 

A little advertising at the two stations that were serving our pigs.

 

You saw me at my worst in the picture with Phil, 48 hours with no sleep, having made three trips driving between our farm in Northern Wisconsin to Chicago and back...I had mistakenly thought there would be time for us to run to the hotel, grab a shower and change...wrong! Ended up spending the entire day and night (8AM to Midnight) in my running around/cooking clothes. We finally got to our hotel in Kenosha, WI a little after 1AM, and then back down to Chicago by 10AM.

This is me after getting some sleep after the Saturday event and actually dressed to be in public for the Sunday Cochon555 Main Event.

 

A spectacular weekend, we got to meet some absolutely amazing people and learned a lot about the culinary side of pig roasting.

 

Cochon 555

La Caja China