By Rupert Howell
Celebrating another year while anticipating final approval from the United States Department of Agriculture for their new slaughter and processing plant—which will make it the only USDA approved in Mississippi, Home Place Pastures is having a party next Saturday, August 20 at their location east of Como.
“Come out to the Home Place on August 20 and help us celebrate another year of hard work,” Home Place’s President Marshall Bartlett says. The farm, in Bartlett’s family since 1871, has in recent years been transitioned into a sustainable pastured pork operation.
This Saturday “we’ll be stepping from six to midnight with our favorite Hill Country bands and eating barbecue prepared by the one and only Oxford Smoke Shop,” Bartlett said.
Tickets are $5 and BYOB.
“If Saturday’s festivities aren’t enough for you, come back Sunday for top-notch chefs cooking everything from hearts to the feet,” Bartlett states, adding that those interested should act fast as few of the $75 tickets remain available.
One-half of the proceeds go to the Southern Foodways Alliance,  a member-supported organization based at the University of Mississippis Center for the Study of Southern Culture, which documents, studies, and explores the diverse food cultures of the changing American South.
A lineup of chefs from Memphis to New Orleans will make up chef teams who will prepare small plates highlighting unique cuts from Home Place Pastures’ beef, pork and lamb.
“We don’t believe in wasting any parts of our animals, and neither do the chefs we work with,” Bartlett stated.
Join them on the farm Sunday at 5 p.m. for the Hill Country Boucherie as they prepare a dinner centered on whole-animal utilization while taking advantage of an opportunity to engage with the chefs from the front lines of the local food movement. Cocktails and beer of choice is included with the meal.
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