Corn Camping

U.S.A.

Jul 302009

During our weekend of Swinefest extravaganza, we decided to spend Saturday night in Pine Plains, New York, rather than drive home at 4 in the morning having consumed large quantities of pork and beer. Luckily, the good folks at The Farm were thinking along the same lines, and offered us a spot on their giant green field.

So there were were, pitching a tent at the edge of a cornfield with the soft green mountains of the Catskills all around us. I loved this! (Sorry, I didn’t get enough of this sleeping-on-the-ground business having spent most of my life in Hollywood and Brooklyn). Continue reading »

Swinefest

Food, U.S.A.

Jul 222009

Last weekend, I went to my first-ever pig roast, dubbed “Swinefest 2009″ in Pine Plains, New York. The affair included four roasted pigs, 40 kegs of beer, and fireworks so close I tasted ash on my beer. It was all miraculous!

Apparently, these huge gatherings centered around a barbecue and hillbilly music — we camped at the edge of a cornfield and woke up to the lyrics, “she was rocking the beer gut” blasting from a pickup truck — are fairly common in the Midwest, and Kelly had been to more than her share of them. Yet, as a newbie and a creature of city-life, I enjoyed it. I even took part in the dance party under a white tent filled with hay to the Jock Jam beats of Sublime and Blink 182.

Nothing says, “we’re no longer in New York City” than standing on top a picturesque hill overlooking the beautiful Catskill mountains and all of Hudson Valley in full greenery with the smell of burnt flesh in the air and a bottomless plastic cup in your hand.

Jake watching fireworks.