Spring Lamb and Spring Vacation

The PMC just finished up an amazing two months of classes. Thanks to the continuous line of enthusiastic students, all our incredibly knowledgable teachers, and our gracious volunteers for making it all happen. We had a couple of firsts too: Our first terrines class with Ben Meyer of Grain & Gristle and our first pig slaughter class with Levi Cole, the kids over at The Collective in Newberg, and two very large Red Wattles.

In a pig butchery class we held last Saturday with David Padberg one of our students said to me that he had always been under the impression that the PMC was some huge organization with offices and a big staff. He was surprised that when it came right down to it, the PMC was owned and run by one person. I corrected him and said that while I was the sole owner, and did a good amount of the footwork of getting classes off the ground, keeping up relatioship with farmers, and getting the word of the PMC out to the people, I relied heavily on independent contractors (our instructors) and lots of volunteers (former students). In fact I couldn’t do it without them. That said, I am the person pulling alot of the strings both behind the scenes and on stage, so to speak. And the PMC is just one of several things I do. And I’m telling you all this, why? Because for the months of May and June I’ll be traveling in Europe to work on some food stories (one of the hats I wear is the magazine writer/editor fedora), and to research various meat curing and butchery traditions so that I can bring them back to you all in the form of more classes. Like any nervous, relatively new mother, I am afraid to leave this particular baby with a babysitter, so the PMC will be taking a break for those months. But I and the proverbial WE will be back up and running in July. I’ll be posting the July/August class schedule on the website in the next few weeks so you all will still be able to sign up now for summer courses. And I’ll be keeping in touch with you all through the website, sharing photos and flavors from my adventures.

That said, I’ve organized one last hoorah before I go: A SPRING LAMB BUTCHERY CLASS with one of my original, and favorite, instructors, Adam Sappington of Country Cat Dinnerhouse. The class will take place on May 7th. Check out the description at left or email me to sign up!

For those of you who have been eagerly awaiting our “Real Poule au Pot” class, we’re going to have to hold off on it until July, as the farms I want to get chickens from say their birds aren’t quite ready for eating yet. It will happen, I promise! Thanks for your patience.

In the meantime, if I don’t see you at the lamb class, I hope you all have a wonderful spring and I’ll see you in July! Keep up with me on the website in the meantime!

-Camas Davis