tart-finished pig

At the end of the market day a couple of weeks ago, I tossed a pile of mangled tarts into the bin. My booth neighbor yelled (very nicely, mind you) at me for wasting them and told me that his pig would love them. He jokingly said he could finish the pig on tarts. So, now I toss my mangled and unusable tarts into a plastic bag to be carried home to a certainly happy pig. I love the idea of a pig growing fat on bits of sugary tarts, its snout covered in sweet meringue and flaky crust. It's no surprise that I'm enchanted by the notion of a tart-finished pig. The image in my head is reminiscent of one of the more singular reading experiences of my childhood.

Charlotte's Web is one of the best foodie novels I can think of. What impacted me when I read the book as a child (and still) isn't so much the emotional drama of Wilbur and Charlotte's friendship, but the unexpectedly luxurious descriptions of food. Fern picks wild raspberries and sucks nectar from clover delighting the abundance of farm-life. But even better are the descriptions of what Templeton the rat and Wilbur the lucky pig are eating.

At the fair, Templeton delights in "a real gorge": "popcorn fragments, frozen custard dribblings, candied apples abandoned by tired children, sugar fluff crystals, salted almonds, popsicles, partially gnawed ice cream cones." In his slop bucket, Wilbur finds "skim milk, crusts, middlings, bits of doughnuts, wheat cakes with drops of maple syrup sticking to them, potato skins, leftover custard pudding with raisins."

As a child, I was delighted by how my mouth would water with these descriptions of pig slop and a rat smorgasbord. As an unashamed carnivore, I don't think every pig should have Wilbur's fate, but I do try hard to ensure that my meat-eating is ethical. I don't consume much meat, and I make sure to buy that meat from small producers. I believe it is ok to raise and slaughter animals for meat, but I believe those animals should be well-cared for. And I believe that tarts, whether for human or pig consumption, make life just a little bit better.