Wildfire Farms

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Al Pastor

Introduction

When I was a kid, my younger sister was really into horses. I’m pretty sure many elementary-to-middle school-aged girls go through a horse phase. One summer, my parents signed us both up for a horse camp at a farm nearby, Wildfire Farms. My sister was ecstatic. I didn’t have any say.

Wildfire Farms was run by an old hippie. The summer “camp” didn’t have much of an agenda. My sister and one of the other girls stayed in the barn all day petting and grooming the horses. I somehow got relegated to digging a pit in the back where the hippie lady wanted to build a teepee. The dirt was rocky, so while I was sweating and swinging a pickaxe all day, my sister was in the shade having the time of her life with the horses.

At lunchtime, the lady took us into the house and fed us cheese sandwiches. She shared the house with a few alpacas. The alpacas smelled like piss. I remember being horrified when one wandered into the living room and snorted and spit at me while I was sitting on a hair-encrusted recliner, trying to eat my cheese sandwich.

Ingredients

  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 onion
  • 2 plum tomatoes
  • Jalapeño (optional)
  • Dried chiles (look for ones that are a dark color, like ancho or guajillo)
  • 2.25 lbs pork butt
  • 2 oranges
  • 3 limes
  • 1/3 pineapple
  • 1 packet of achiote paste
  • Coriander seeds
  • Paprika
  • Cumin
  • Oregano
  • Clove
  • Salt

Instructions

  1. Smash and mince the garlic. Dice half of an white or yellow onion and 2 plum tomatoes. Add to a crockpot or dutch oven.
  2. Remove skin and core of the pineapple. Dice about 1/3rd of it. With the remainder, shave it into thin slices to use as topping. Add the diced pineapple to the crockpot, and put the shaved slices and any remaining pineapple in the fridge.
  3. Remove the stem and seeds of some of the chiles and add to the crockpot or dutch oven.
  4. Add the pork butt to the crockpot or dutch oven, fatty side down.
  5. Juice 2 oranges and 3 limes into the pot.
  6. Sprinkle coriander seeds, paprika, cumin, oregano, clove, and salt.
  7. Spread the achiote paste over the meat.
  8. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. If cooking on the stove, better to err on the side of too low.

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