Farmers Market 2013

Hey Guys, sorry for the delay but it's been kinda nuts around here. Well, another farmers market is in the books. This past Thursday...July 4th...was the craziest market to date. Market opens at 8:30 sharp and there was a pretty long line of shoppers. In anticipation of the crowd I cooked an many racks of untrimmed spares as I could....48 racks.

I had a little help from my new friend below....home made oil tank smoker my buddy made. It has 3 large cooking surfaces inside and is WAY easier to use than dragging my drum smokers around. She was suffed with meaty goodness at 1:30AM and worked like a charm.

Anyway, at 8:30 SHARP the crowd was unleashed and instantly I had a line. People had pre-ordered a total of 12 racks so I didn't have much more to play with. Well....to my surprise...and to a lot of peoples' dismay...I was sold out one hour later. One lady bought the last 6 racks and the people behind her looked pissed :mrgreen::mrgreen:

Anyway...next market is in 2 days then it's on to Wildwood this Firday for the state championship....to drink my face off and learn even more from the pros down there. Hope to see some of you there.....

Bbq Bubba said:

Selling out at the END of the day is a good thing but and hour after opening will lose a lot of customers.
Why not have more product pre cooked and ready to reheat? You sound like your actually losing a lot of possible income?

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I know exactly what you're saying and I've thought of it. However, here in NJ the health dept is.....let's just say....."very interested" if you're precooking anything you sell. They have VERY specific rules which must be followed to the letter. These rules require a lot of time and space in a commercial kitchen to follow them properly. Since I'm lucky enough to have a commercial kitchen just to prep in, I can't push it and ask for more of their resources. The only solution I see is a bigger smoker...or 5...which hopefully I can pull off sometime...ala Aaron Franklin...just kidding :mrgreen::mrgreen:

Well....another Thursday....another morning at the market. Today was a HOT one. Got to the parking lot and started prepping 36 racks of baby backs. I usually make spares but I wanted to switch it up a bit. Got cooking about 2:30AM and by that time I was already a sweaty mess . By the time they were done it was almost opening time (market opens up at 8:30AM) and man was I glad :mrgreen:
2 hours...and 6 bottles of water later...and we sold out. It got so hot the people were walking around like zombies. I'm really surprised there was not an ambulance call considering how dehydrated some of these people looked. Anyway, anyone in the northeast that's cooking outdoors...please stay hydrated. I know it's not Arizona hot but around these parts it's pretty nasty out...

gtr said:

Loving the story! Very cool - in some ways it reminds me of Big Mista.

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Being mentioned in the same sentence....even just a little bit....as Mista....WOW. That's more humbling than winning any comp.....:mrgreen::mrgreen:

Thanks for the kind words, guys. This past Thursday was rainy and grey...not the kind of weather I like on market day. However, the customers that go to the market are really devoted. Despite the rain, there was a line at 8:30AM. Throughout the morning the crowd definitely was smaller but people were there. I cut back a little and did 33 racks hoping the rain wouldn't equate to crappy sales. Much to my surprise we sold out by 10:15 :mrgreen::mrgreen:

I definitely watch the weather channel like a crazy person now....