The Danny Woo Community Garden was founded in 1975 by Uncle Bob Santos and is in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District at 620 South Main Street. What once was a barren hillside rife with weed and sticker bushes is now a 1.5-acre garden cultivated by elderly Asian immigrant residents of the neighborhood.

The garden is also home to a children’s garden, chicken coop, outdoor kitchen and fruit tree orchard, where children from preschool to high school learn seed-to-plate and environmental education. As the largest green space in the Chinatown/International District and Little Saigon area, the Danny Woo Community Garden is an essential place for the surrounding community to engage with nature, access safe and healthy food, and build cohesion with neighbors.

The pig roast

As the foundation of the Danny Woo Community Garden was being laid, Uncle Bob Santos concocted the brilliant idea to construct a roasting pit in the center of the garden. Prior to building the garden, Uncle Bob would host an annual pig roast for friends, family, and community members in his own backyard. With the new roasting pit now at the Danny Woo Community Garden, ICDA hosted their first Pig Roast on July 18th & 15th, 1975. 44 years later, the tradition lives on.

Hosted every second Friday of July, this event is truly community-centered. Gardeners, neighbors, staff and long-time community members of the CID gather around the pig to share stories and food. The event begins Friday evening when the pig is prepped and mounted onto the spit. For the next 12-15 hours, through the wee hours of the night and into Saturday morning, volunteers take shifts rotating the pig over the fire.

The 2019 Pig Roast begins Friday, July 12th at 6:00 PM. We will have delicious food donated by CID businesses and restaurants and drinks available for volunteers and guests. The community celebration commences the next day, Saturday, July 13th at 12:00 PM. This is a potluck lunch, so please bring a dish to share. Volunteers are needed for Friday’s event, overnight pig roasting, and Saturday’s community gathering.

Try your hand at turning a whole pig on a spit at this free annual community potluck that’s been going on since 1975—bring a tasty dish of your own to share.