Bacon. The third vegetable.

Vegetarians, look away now. For the last three months I’ve been on one of those health kicks toted by a popular television personality. It’s been great, and I’ll go for another twelve weeks, but one thing I’ve missed is meat from the magical animal. You know which one I’m talking about… the pig. Oh dear bacon, how I’ve missed you. Oh juicy rasher of artery narrowing goodness, let’s never separate again.


You can always find bacon at our house. There is nothing that can go wrong with bacon; it is good in any form. Our whole family agrees and it’s not just us. I hear a farmer down near Owen Parks even calls bacon the third vegetable!


How do I love thee bacon, let me count thy ways… Well first of all there’s good old bacon and eggs. What Sunday didn’t end up great after a big fry up? Then there is plain old goodness to fatness rashers wedged between two sodium laden pieces of fresh bread with sauce. Too pedestrian? Well let’s dice that swiney goodness up and fry it before sprinkling it over an oyster. Swish piggy!


I’m not done. Bacon bone soup? Yes please. A big bowl of hearty bacon soup can solve a whole head full of worry, and I have heard tales that making it brings the rain. Miss Six would make a pizza entirely from bacon if she could, and I personally can’t go past a good Caesar salad.


I know I’m not alone. The bacon fans out there are already thinking about their next taste. Apart from ethical reasons, I see no rational reason someone could be adverse to it. Maybe they haven’t had it cooked nicely; maybe their first experience was an inedible barbequed egg and rubber band rind-on piece of bacon served on stale bread? Heck, I nearly had my perfectly cooked bacon sandwich stolen by a horse recently, yet further proof that bacon is hard to resist.


We live on a farm here in Balaklava, sans swine. I suppose that’d be a little bit like letting Imelda Marcos run an online shoe emporium. None would ever leave the warehouse! Local industry can count on our family to keep purchasing (and really enjoying) product from sources close to home. Hurrah for bacon!




*This column published in The Plains Producer 06/06/12