I’ve been swamped with real life yet again, but summer is certainly here. I’m working on getting several posts ready, and I’m going to put a poll up soon about eating local foods.

For our first two years competing in barbecue competitions, we started off each season with Carmel, Indiana, but that competition was canceled last year.  That was too bad, as we really liked the site and the time of the year.   Last year, our first comp was Fairbanks, Indiana, and it was Mark’s (my teammate) first this year.   I couldn’t make it, though, as my niece, Maggie, was graduating from the School of Optometry at the Ohio State University! (GO BUCKS!!!).  Mark competed using the name ‘Oinkadoodle Moo’, and he took a 4th overall!  GREAT job, and it was during a storm that brought 10″ of rain in 24 hours.

Well, as we’re now well into summer, we finally got to the first local competition, 11 miles from my house, 4 miles from Mark’s, the Ohio Vet’s BBQ Competition, put on by two local cooks, Jim Ferguson of Rollin’ Smokes and Jim Weaver of Jimmy’s Hogpen.   This was the first year it was a sanctioned competition, the 2nd year for the comp, and it had a field of 39 teams.  The setting is very parklike, with large trees all over the area where teams set up. We had a nice, shady spot, and, even though it was over 90 degrees, the shade and breeze made it really nice all weekend long.

The competition was really well run, with really just one glitch.  The biggest glitch was that ice ran out Friday night.  We were told that more ice was coming around 9 pm, and at 11 pm found out there wasn’t any more.   I had to go get some, as we really needed it and wouldn’t have made it through the night without it.  We really don’t like serving rotten chicken to judges, regardless of our scores! If ice is part of the entry fee, then someone should have gone to get some ice for us, in my opinion.  All in all, a pretty small issue.The reasons 39 teams showed up for only the 2nd year of this comp were that it was put on by cooks, so things would be done with the cooks in mind (a good thing), and the grand champion has a 50% chance of going to the Jack Daniels Invitational later this year (a big deal comp)!

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