The Luckiest Pig on Ravioli Mountain: The TRUE Story!

Hello everybody, it's Nancy May, the co host of

Family Tree Food and Stories.

My other co host, Sylvia, is off cooking and dishing up something

really special for you all.

But she'll be back on another episode.

This one is me cooking.

And my friend, Bobby Hedgling Taylor.

He's just pulled up a chair to our table and he says he's sitting in his

grandma's chair, which I absolutely love.

But Bobby is a trapeze artist, actor, singer, dancer, acrobat,

impressionist, author, aerial sequence choreographer, say that three times

fast, stand up comic mixologist.

I like that one especially if You're listening on a Friday or not.

Maybe Monday.

Maybe you need that on a Monday.

Teacher and coach.

And just behind the scenes, I can't mention the name of the show,

but he is going to be on a well known show that we all know about.

And we'll keep an eye and ear out for that one.

And I'll let you know what's happening later on, as soon

as we're able to release that.

But Bobby wears many hats.

And one of them is.

His ability to share the stories of his life growing up in Pennsylvania on

what he refers to as Ravioli Mountain.

So with that, Bobby, welcome to our table, and I'm so glad that you're here.

And, pick up a fork and let's dish in.

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: Yes, I'm sitting in Nona's chair.

This is her.

This is her blue velvet chair from the living room.

and, just behind me is the table that I learned how to, make pasta.

And I was saying before, too, in our preach chat, cut fabric because my grandma

taught me how to sew and make clothes.

I want to hear about that table because you and I have talked

about it, but I think kitchen tables, no matter how beautiful they are or how

beaten up they are, we had a round beaten up table that it was our family table.

Everything happened around the table, right?

There's so many stories that happened around our kitchen

tables, our dining tables.

And I guess now we're Kitchen Islands, but yours is really incredibly special.

And I want you to share the story of your grandma's kitchen

table and what you learned there.

Well, when I was growing up, the kitchen table was the center of the family.

So my grandma was the matriarch.

And so everything happened around that table, family dinners every Sunday.

and I would, I, in the seventies, I lived with grandma for part of

that time because she, she was ill.

she had colon cancer.

We didn't find out until much later, but she beat so I learned how to

make pasta on that kitchen table.

We would sit there and it was always during the holidays because when it was

the colder months, she would make buckets of buckets of pasta and, ravioli and, And

I, my job was I needed to make sure there was plenty of firewood in the living room.

She had a, she had a wood burning stove then.

She had regular heat, oil heat for the rest of the house, but the living

room was, was heated by the fireplace.

And it was my job to get firewood because when we would make the pasta and make

the noodles, she would take every chair, from the dining table and straddle a

broom handle covered with flour and drape the noodles over the chairs.

And we had drying racks of chairs and noodles all around the living room.

I can see this picture.

the maze of the noodles, like getting in and out of the

right?

and the fireplace.

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: Yep, and her Christmas tree would be up and I would

fall asleep on the couch because it was my job to keep the fire going all night long.

So she had this tiny little loveseat that faced the fireplace.

So it was warm and I would fall asleep with the Christmas tree light

on while all this pasta was drying.

And then she would just give it away.

She would make sauce.

And she would jar it mostly at the end of the summer, which is what I'm doing now.

I have a little bit of a family, garden in my backyard.

My landlord let me use a little plot.

And I've been growing tomatoes.

And this year I grew San Marzano's.

And so I've been making jars of sauce and sort of reliving that

tradition with her through my grandma is giving everybody homemade pasta,

And a jar of sauce at the holidays.

And being a mixologist also, I was a bartender for many years.

I also make my grandma's limoncello, fragolino, and blueberry limoncello.

And I make little shots of those

What's Fracolino?

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: Is a strawberry liqueur, It's the same

as, same process as limoncello, it's just made with strawberries.

And she used to make it with pistachios, she used to make it with, uh, lemons,

she used to mix different, flavors, like, depending, if there was a lot

of blueberries, she'd make one with blueberries, strawberries, lemon.

She'd always have lemon peel somewhere, there was an orange one she made.

One year she made key lime.

So it's basically an after dinner.

Um, well, Italians drink it before the, before

dinner,

Well, I am familiar with limoncello.

My mom and I were introduced to Limoncello on a trip that we took together in Rome.

And we were in Sorrento overlooking the back hills and just in a little old

hotel with some friends and the waves crashing on the, on the bottom rocks

and sipping Limoncello in the afternoon.

It was just delightful.

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: That's amazing.

that is primarily how I grew up.

grandma would make those.

For the holidays, and they, and she would also, she made prosciutto as well,

which is another, like, completely out there thing that, and she used to make

her own soap, in fact, this is a bizarre story too, but there was a giant witch's

cauldron on the front lawn, and I said, well, well, it's just for flowers, right?

She said, no, we used to make soap in that.

So when you make soap, you

have to render the

with lye and, and everything

else.

Yep.

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: So she, so that makes a horrible smell in your kitchen.

So that's why they had the cauldron on the front lawn.

They would render the fat in the front lawn

So these are the, this was the fat from the farm animals

that eventually were

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: that from the beef and beef and, and the pigs.

Yeah.

After the slaughter, we would get the fat back I wasn't born when the.

So by the time I was born, the cauldron was filled with

dirt and it had flowers in it.

She turned it into a planter.

appropriate setting for, I guess, clean soap at

some point, right?

Fresh

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: yeah, I remembered when we, you know, I

mentioned to you before the house was foreclosed, and I remember going

under the kitchen sink and finding the tiniest little ball of grandma's soap.

I wanted to keep it, but it was so nasty.

I just threw it away.

As it was, but I remembered that it smelled really bad.

It was really, I mean, she's gone 35 years.

So it had to be there that long.

It was so far back in the cabinet underneath.

and it was a ball that she had.

It was like the size of a,

basketball.

And

hello, OxyClean, you know,

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: Yeah, she would have a knife that she would shave

bar, off and give them to people.

And, you know, it was a good, it was decent soap.

it didn't smell bad, but it didn't smell

good either.

But it was soap,

it made you clean and that's, I guess why we have,

lavender smelling soap.

and maybe limoncello smelling soap.

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: You know, that would be awesome.

Yeah, so I make my own lemon shell, but grandma had a shelf in the basement

where she would put all the bottles.

And, so that whatever she was making, and then when there was a dinner, it was

a very strange house because going into the basement was a closet in the dining

room, and you had to lift up a door inside the closet and go down into the basement.

It was very old school.

And there was one light and it was very dim, but there was a bottles and

she would say, go get the fragolino, go get the lemon jello, whatever, but

it kept it nice and cool down there.

celebrate.

That was life in Pennsylvania.

I, I can hear the, squeaking open the

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: the creaky door.

to the

like, we'll be on days we should be making the glup,

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

You know, it was always terrifying going down there.

But then when I was really young, she was still making prosciutto.

So they would be hanging in the basement, covered in cheesecloth.

And, so it was very, very, you know, interesting

way to grow up.

it was a simpler time and I think, sometimes we look back at the

times that our grandparents had, if we were fortunate to be, if they were

fortunate or we were fortunate to have them around as we were growing up.

Yet, some of those simple times were not so easy over the years.

And you mentioned in, in a previous conversation, a story about your grandma's

pig farm and the story of lucky the pig.

I'd love to hear you share that because it's so important.

And, we'll tell you, listen to the end of the show because there

is a hook to the end of Lucky.

That's all I'm going to say.

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: so Lucky the pig.

Now this was a legend.

I was either just born or wasn't born yet, when all of Lucky's story came

out, but it was always a family legend.

That's why in my, my cookbook that's coming out soon, please God help me,

Just so people know that book is going to be called ravioli Mountain.

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: Escape to Ravioli Mountain, a Memoir in food.

and we'll share that information for you too, once,

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: It's just not ready yet.

Well, we have our family tree food and stories.

we'll send that to you.

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: Well, so lucky.

when my family moved to the mountains in Pennsylvania, post World War II

was the hardest time for most families because we were wiped out as far as

like finances because everybody had to contribute to the war effort.

So food was rationed.

I still have my mother's ration book from when they were

rationing food.

And it's a little book that you have stamps and one was

for sugar, one was for flour.

All the necessities were rationed and you only got a certain amount each week.

And so I still have a ration book from the war.

but That's how a family becomes successful, by taking care of

themselves, living off the land.

My grandmother had a garden, had a pig farm.

Well, then now we take care of ourselves, right?

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: I mean, I do.

I honestly wish I had more land.

I would be farming every day,

I just came from the garden, and I pulled a whole bunch of tomatoes that are still

growing in my garden right now, but, so Lucky was the stud pig of the farm.

was the only male pig that was allowed to be.

in the barnyard with the ladies, if you know what I mean, and he also was

the only, he was a trained pig, my grandmother trained him, he would,

apparently he would sit, he would roll over, he would shake, um, and he knew

how to open doors, he was very smart, and he would come into the house, And

fall asleep in front of the fireplace, the same spot where I was making pasta.

I'm presuming that Lucky was a clean pig, too.

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: you know, no pig is clean.

However, when it came to him being in the house, apparently there was

a rug that he was allowed to be on.

and it was only certain times during the day.

It wasn't like he just let himself in.

However, there's a story.

but, He was very smart and there was one time when grandma needed

to go to the store and she left the front door unlocked, but

it was very easy to get into.

It's a very, you know, it's a country house, no one locked their doors.

So Lucky let himself out of the pen, he walked to the front door, he opened

the door and left the, left both the gate and the door open, went in front

of the fireplace and passed out cold.

Now, There was an entire litter of piglets that were born.

Had to be 12, 13, maybe 15 piglets that were born.

And so, the sow and the babies.

decided to join Lucky in the living room.

it was a family affair.

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: a family affair.

He's still asleep the whole time, but the piglets got into everything.

They opened the refrigerator door.

They ate all the vegetables.

they got into the cabinets that had their baking supply.

So they're covered

with molasses.

They're covered with corn syrup.

They're covered with flour and it's

piglets, right?

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: Oh

my God, yes.

and she comes home and Lucky's still passed out, but there are

piglets scattered everywhere.

There's flour everywhere.

So, after that, Lucky wasn't allowed back in the house unless he was supervised.

Let's put it that way.

but he lived to be a very ripe old age.

He was not bacon.

He was not country ham.

he actually passed away in his trough from what I remember.

That was, he was mid, he was eating and he, very old pig, just made

it across the rainbow bridge.

Well, you know what?

That's a very appropriate story where the pig dies in his food on the

Family Tree Food and Stories podcast.

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: you know, I, here's the thing, I'm not a

vegetarian, but I understand why people choose to become vegetarian.

And I understand why we have certain, Stigmas around being meat eaters

or growing up on a farm, you were desensitized to the slaughter, even

though I would never saw the slaughter.

We always sent the animals out to be processed.

How so I never I mean, that was my mother's way of protecting us

to, it was her way of like, it was a little bit of non reality

there.

don't need to see that.

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: no, no, and also It was the way that our

family survived the winters.

You know, if we had a cow, and the cow, would disappear.

Oh, she ran away, you know, but then, but then a truck would

arrive with, all these butcher

Yeah, my sister has a farm in Oklahoma and they have cattle.

and I said, just don't let me know the name of the cow.

What I'm eating.

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: right, it's hard because that's like one of the hardest

parts of farming the reality of.

processing the animals into a viable source of meat.

but there are ways to do it humanely.

Well, and it's also a way to, you know, they say getting closer to

your food, where everything comes from.

it comes from the soil, it comes from the fields, it comes from

the animal, and I hate to sound trite on, life is a big circle.

But if you don't understand where your food is, then you're probably

going to waste a lot more of it too over time and just not appreciate

that something actually lived and died so that you could survive.

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: And I feel like that was the reality

of post World War II families.

the economy was terrible, and people came back from the war, and then they

were like, well, what do I do now?

and I found this out, there's a huge Italian, not, I don't know

what you would call it, um, like, settlement in West Virginia.

And why West Virginia?

Well, West Virginia, turn of the century, there were coal mines.

So Italian immigrants, Irish immigrants, because there's Italian and Irish

in that area, they would go to West Virginia because the coal mines there in

Pennsylvania, that was where you could make a living working in a coal mine.

And you could provide for a family, you could buy land,

and you could build a house.

so, when I was working in West Virginia, God, 2017, Um, somebody

brought me a pepperoni roll.

And I'm like, what the heck is a pepperoni roll?

I've never heard of such a thing.

Well, so it's actually pizza

dough.

oh, I've seen it up

in Connecticut and you

roll the pieces of pepperoni in it and

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: yep, You take the pepperoni and cut it into a strip.

And you roll it up, and you cut it into little rolls.

And you bake it.

And it's portable and it can be eaten hot or cold.

So they could keep it in their overalls and take their

food down into the coal mine.

And that's, that was the way that the town created something that

was easier for people to transport.

Like you couldn't, yeah, it literally was pocket food.

You wrap it in, settle in, in foil,

put it in.

And you know, you're down in a coal mine.

Most of the time you stay down.

So everybody would bring like their lunch pail, but it was

filled with pepperoni rolls.

I never had one until I was there.

And they were absolutely delicious.

And there's no sauce on it, so it's just pizza dough and pepperoni.

So, it was just a fun little nugget of, Italian culture that I didn't know about.

Um, because when I, you know, I grew up in the Poconos, in the Pennsylvania

mountains, where, it's like a melting pot

I don't think of Italians in the Poconos.

I

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: No, it's not.

the Poconos.

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: Right, exactly.

But that's where, that's where they settled, because

they were able to find work.

They were able to buy land.

My great grandfather and my grandfather bought this huge plot

of land on the top of a mountain.

And my great grandfather sold the plots of land to each one of his children.

He had 13 children.

and he sold it for 1, and I still have one of the deeds.

Because in Pennsylvania law, you can't gift land.

Um, land, you have to at least pay something.

So they, each person bought a plot of land for 1 and they

all built their homes there.

So my grandmother's house was built right across the street from her father

and those houses are still there.

But unfortunately, after the foreclosure in

2009, um, they've just been sitting there rotting, which is.

breaks

it's, heartbreaking to see old homes and the history and the

stories and what has gone on behind those closed doors that you don't know about.

we're in a small town in Florida, in Brooksville, and you see some of those

old houses that That are now being restored and loved and taken care of.

And it's so exciting to see new young families who are truly

interested in community and coming together and sitting at the table.

And.

Being families again,

as

opposed to,

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: That's what, and that's my message from my book.

My book is stories like Lucky the Pig.

There's stories about, being lost as a toddler and, then being found

under the kitchen table with a pound of butter and all the family dogs.

You know, little stories, little nuggets of my life growing up that I remembered,

and they're in between the recipes.

And I have all my grandma's recipes in here.

I just made her sauce again.

Like I said, I'm making them

for the holidays.

and I

make little

shots

for everybody.

Um, so this

neighbor because I

would probably

not leave

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: something.

I'm not

sure I'd be able to get up off of

the chair with all the

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: it's,

I'd

probably be eating

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: because I run a trapeze school, I have family dinners

with my staff here every now and then.

So, because there are a lot of dietary restrictions, so I'm learning about

how to make things gluten free, and how to still make, how to still

make a gluten free pasta

be

delicious.

Italian.

And exactly.

So I did that for, for them.

And I had like an entire gluten free baked ziti and I made up a recipe,

actually, butternut squash baked ziti.

One of the best recipes I've

ever

Well, you're going to have to come back and we're going to go over

some of these other stories because the whole gluten free, movement, is big.

And there are lots of stories on how we tweak

grandma's

recipes.

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: I, yeah.

And I learned so much by doing that, by just like check, trying different

pastas, you know, looking at the way people make bread without regular flour.

and, this is one thing and I'll leave you with, my mother always

said, if you come away from my table hungry, it's your own damn fault.

She always had something for everyone.

And that's what I, I, that is my legacy, because

anybody comes to my house, if they have a dietary restriction,

I will have something for them,

They are truly a guest in your home and a guest at your table.

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: Absolutely.

Thank

Yeah, that is, that's a beautiful story.

They're beautiful stories, Bobby.

I love

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: you.

Well, on that note, thank you so much, Bobby, for being here at, I say,

our virtual table at Family Tree Food and Stories, because family is really.

the heart of where we all started,

And like Sylvia and I like to say, every meal is a story

and every story is a feast.

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor: That's beautiful

Take care.

Bye Bye

We'll see you soon.