By Libbie Summers
Assisted by David Dempsey
Photography by Teresa Earnest
Shot on location at Smith Brother’s Butcher Shop

I’ve had a concrete pig head sitting in my office for over a year. If I’m honest, it’s one of 5 pig heads in my office at the moment. When you write a book titled The Whole Hog Cookbook things like this just seem to show up. I’ve been wanting to adorn it in some way for the entirety of it’s time in my possession, but wasn’t inspired to do so until this week as I celebrate the tomato.

During the summers of my youth, I would be sent to “slop the pigs” at my grandmother’s hog farm in rural Missouri. “Slopping” consisted of taking a metal bucket (the slop bucket) filled with garden and kitchen scraps to the pigs and emptying it on the ground –an organic trash buffet if you will. I vividly remember the pigs losing all table manners if there happened to be a ripe red tomato in the bucket. After the first time nearly being trampled to death I learned to search the bucket for any red tomatoes and use my best centerfield to home throwing arm –throwing the tomato far away from me as I dumped the rest of the scraps to the ground.

This cheeky mount, covered in tomato soup can labels with a humble craft paper mounting board and tomato necklace is everything! My grandmother would have loved it.

Here’s what I did:

I removed the labels from 3 soup cans and photo copied them. Then cut them up (along with a few key pieces of red gingham -my grandmother’s favorite) and used matte Modge Podge to affix them to the concrete pig head. This very special mount needed a simple mounting board. Craft paper did the trick! I placed the pig head in the middle of a piece of craft paper and free handed a fun scalloped oval around it. Then, it needed a little definition, so a black sharpie run along the edge, twice, brought it home!

Finally, this girl needed some accessories, so I made her a couple of tomato pearl strands using a needle and red embroidery thread. 

I love her.