On Saturday, October 14, and Sunday, October 15, Bucky McOinkum’s Barbecue will be cooking the most meat we’ve ever done for one event!  The Ohio Sauerkraut Festival in Waynesville, Ohio, is this coming weekend, and it’s the largest festival in the state.

The village has estimated that up to 400,000 people will be there.  That’s a lot of people, especially considering that only about 2500 people live there.  It’s probably the best festival I’ve attended, with vendors selling above average quality merchandise, and the food vendors are all locals raising money for various groups like the Athletic Boosters and Young Life.  There are foods with sauerkraut that you’d never think should have sauerkraut like ice cream and doughnuts, but don’t knock it until you try it!  The doughnuts are GREAT!

This year, a new food vendor has started up in Waynesville called Big E Burgers.  Eric (Big E) has what was originally a popcorn wagon that he’s added griddles and steam tables to, and he sets up shop on the SE corner of Main and Franklin, right at the northern edge of the festival area.  Eric makes a great burger for $1.50, and asked us if we wanted to sell pulled pork sandwiches with him during the festival.

We tried to estimate somewhat conservatively that we might get 4% of the people, though I think it may be higher.  We got a scare last weekend when the weather was calling for SNOW, but it turns out it should be in the mid to upper 50’s and mostly sunny for the weekend… PERFECT festival weather.  If the estimates from the town are on the low end, we can expect 250,000 visitors.  If we get 4% of them, we’ll have 10,000 people at the hamburger wagon!!!!!!!

Mark and I are planning on cooking 50 Boston butts on Thursday night, another 50 during the day on Friday, and potentially 50 more on Saturday if things go well.  That brings our total up to a potentil of 3000 sandwiches!  We’re using hickory wood and charcoal to do the whole cook, and we’ll keep hickory wood smoking through the weekend to bring people in as much as possible. 

This is going to be a lot of work, but a whole lot of fun seeing strangers fall in love with our pulled pork sandwiches!