In the quiet, decaying hollows of 1970s Cloverlick, Kentucky, debt isn't settled with money. It is settled in meat.
Hog-Killing Time
In rural Appalachia, hog killing was a communal event of late fall or early winter, timed to the first hard cold so the meat would keep. Neighbors gathered to share the work of butchering, rendering lard and curing hams, and families depended on that meat to carry them through the winter.
Feasts and Debts
Mountain communities often ran on favors, credit and shared labor as much as cash, and what a family owed its neighbors could matter as much as what it owed the store.