71 Year BBQ Tradition

Just wanted to share a few pictures of our Labor Day Festival. We smoked 3,300 lbs of Boston Butts this year. Also fried a little over 300 lbs of chicken but thats another story. The carnival and dinner take place to raise money for Sacred Heart Elementary School here in Lawrenceburg, TN. I have been doing this for 27 years but this is the 71st annual festival and this year we grossed $51,000, a new record.

The pits are cleaned and prepared the Saturday before Labor Day.
Sunday morning around 5:00AM we start the fires to heat the pits.



We burn hickory slabs in the barrels which have a rebar grate at the lowest rung to allow coals to fall through. The coals are sprinkled into the pits (3 of them about 4' by 14').

Around 7:30AM we load the pits.



We maintain 190 F above the meat for at least 15 hours. It's done when it's done.



The chairman job rotates each year but the meat is turned and basted when Wilford Henkel, our most senior member, says it's time. Wilford is on the far side of 80 and I offered his name so that he would now be World Famous for his efforts. (Sorry, no picture).

Anyway, the end result looks like this:





Meat is sold with or without sauce throughout the day and the dinner starts at 4:30PM. The entire Parish works to support this event.

It's a lot of work but everyone has a good time.