Pig in a box - Orcas Island

The Sisson family has a yearly tradition known to outsiders as The Sisson Family Pig Roast but to seasoned vets as "three days of debauchery". Yes. Three days.

This year I was able to experience this event first-hand.

It all started on a Friday morning. Cole and I, along with two of his friends, drove two hours north of Seattle to Anacortes, WA. We caught the ferry there to Orcas Island, Cole's hometown. Upon arrival, the gang immediately set a course straight for Lower Tavern, a bar in East Sound that honestly has the best burgers. And beer... of course! They even have bottles of the Elysian's Immortal IPA (only my most favoritest beer ever!)!!!

Stuffed and ready to rock-n-roll, we picked up supplies from the market and headed towards Doe Bay, where Cole's family house is located.
** In the background: The Sisson Household!

On arrival at the Sisson residence, we learned from Mr. Gary Sisson himself that a boat trip to Lopez Island was necessary in order to retrieve Cole's youngest sibling/brother, Herbie Tucker. He had been camping on Lopez with his mom and let me tell you the "quick" ride across the Puget Sound ended up being a bit more taxing than the boat ride I took with Monna, Sven and Claudio through the lake in Finland. Not only does a sound have more waves that a lake but Henrik's boat went half the speed that Gary's did! I am not sure whether or not that was the fault of the boat or of it's driver. :)

As we traveled between the two islands, we passed another ferry on it's way to Orcas from Anacortes. A quick call on Cole's cellphone and we discovered that his youngest sister, Sophie, and a group of her friends from Western (for you international people that is Western Washington University) were actually traveling on the very boat in front of us. Craziness!

** Sophie is the one on the left! :)

The girls arrived at the house shortly after we returned from our adventures at sea. We hung out, played Rock Band and began preparation for the day to come.

** Herbie and the ladies rockin' out.

As the night went on more people began to arrive, including Molly, Cole's other sister, and her entourage. At one o'clock in the morning, the work began.

A pig, gutted and drained, sat on a piece of plywood in the middle of Gary's workshop.


It was going to be placed in a box, covered with a sheet of metal which was then going to be covered with burning coals and cooked for almost 15 hours. There was only one problem. The pig was too big for the box.

Enter the Japanese hand saw.

Yep. You guessed it. If the shoe doesn't fit, just cut off a couple toes!

No really, bad analogy, but in order to make the pig fit into the box, we had to cut off the head and the legs. Now this may seem grotesque and vile to some of you but in my mind, it is necessary to understand so I actually participated in sawing off one of the legs. I figure whenever we eat any kind of meat, someone somewhere had to butcher the animal for us to enjoy it. So similar to Mike Rowe's philosophy on Dirty Jobs, I wanted to "gain a new understanding and appreciation for all the often-unpleasant functions someone is shouldering to make [my] everyday life easier, safer — and often cleaner."*

Here is a picture of the finished product... in the box!!!!

*** Yummy!!!!

There are two more days to this story but for now I think you have had enough... that and it is early in the morning and I need sleep. So more on this fantastic event to come! Aren't you excited?!?