Returning to Normalcy for BBQ Fundraisers

The plate of barbecue comes with beans, cole slaw, and more.

What a difference a year makes, particularly when the coronavirus pandemic is involved. The pandemic required some barbecue fundraisers to suspend events and others to modify theirs. Now most have returned to their regular schedules, such as the annual harvest festival held by Culdee Presbyterian Church. 

A dedicated kitchen crew keeps the serving line moving.

Annual Fall Festival of Culdee Presbyterian Church 

In the Eastwood community of Moore County, NC, the church has cooked barbecue every November on the first weekend as a fundraiser for its projects and ministries as part of a harvest festival. The festival begins early at 10 a.m. when a “country store” opens and continues until the last ticket is bought for a raffle that starts at 6:30 p.m. Other activities occur throughout the day, but for me the priority is to arrive in time for supper before the barbecue sells out. A plate with pulled pork, slaw, baked beans, and a roll sells for $10. It also includes a homemade dessert and a beverage. 

The dessert table is loaded with homemade sweets.

Schedule for Preparing Barbecue 

The 2022 event was the 35th festival that the church had held. With that much experience, the church has perfected its schedule. Boston butts are taken to the church on the Saturday before the festival and are kept refrigerated until the next Wednesday when they are prepared by washing, rubbing with spices, and wrapping for cooking. At 4 o’clock on the next morning, a volunteer team begins cooking. On the next day (Friday), the butts are unwrapped, and the meat is pulled from the bones. And then all we have to do is wait for Saturday, the day of the fall festival. 

After barbecue has been cooked for many harvest festivals, the schedule has been perfected.

Selling Barbecue Also on January 1 

The folks at Culdee really know how to celebrate with food. On January 1 this year, the church celebrated the start of the new year with a Southern meal of pork barbecue, collards, black-eyed peas, and cornbread. Because the pandemic was still a concern, all meals were to-go. The barbecue then was as good as it was today. Maybe the Boston butts were prepared by the same volunteers on the same schedule. 

Several activities of the fall festival are held outdoors.

Celebrating the fall is a hallmark tradition for many communities, especially if they are more rural than urban. Because they include pork barbecue in their celebration, the festival is very enjoyable.

Charity BBQ Cookoff in Raleigh, NC

Impressive trophies are ready for the winning Brew-B-Q teams to receive.

What is the best way to raise money for charities? Brasfield & Gorrie, a general contracting company, may have the best idea: Recruit companies that do business with them to compete in a barbecue cookoff and have them donate an entry fee for the right to participate.

Cooking teams were set up in the parking lot next to the Woman's Club of Raleigh.

Brasfield & Gorrie Recruits Brew-B-Q Teams

For four consecutive years, Brasfield & Gorrie has raised a lot of money for charities in the Raleigh, NC, area. Even during the coronavirus pandemic, its Brew-B-Q was not suspended. It continues to be very successful and now recruits 40 teams to participate. The charity BBQ cooking contest is its largest outreach program.

Several cooking teams brought large smokers to the contest.

Charity Event for Brasfield & Gorrie

In the Raleigh area for 30 years and with offices in 13 cities in eight states, Brasfield & Gorrie has a revenue of $4 billion annually and 3,000 employees. The cooking teams it recruited were sponsored by subcontractors, business contacts, and other companies and friends in the professional network of Brasfield & Gorrie. The event last year raised $74,000 for charities, which include The Salvation Army of Wake County and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

L.L. Vann Electric, a subcontractor to Brasfield & Gorrie, proudly displays its trophy for winning the Piglet division last year.

Cookoff Divisions

This year a new division — Boss Hog — was added to the contest. The other two divisions were Hog and Piglet. The Boss Hog section was reserved for teams that had placed among the top five teams in the other two divisions last year. It was limited to 10 teams, and each team donated at least $5,000 to enter. The Hog division had 15 teams; each donated at least $4,000. The Piglet division also had 15 teams; each donated at least $2,000.

Winners of each division also received a grand prize.

Judging Activities

Judging activities, coordinated by lead judge Lubin Prevatt who recruited the other 10 judges, were held in the Raleigh office of Brasfield & Gorrie. I judged in the Piglet division with Tim Croom and Owen Jackson, whom I know from previous whole hog barbecue contests. Each judge received a single sample box from each team in the division. Each box contained a Boston butt pork sample and a pork rib sample, and a separate scoresheet was used for each sample. 

Judging activities were held in the conference rooms of Brasfield & Gorrie.

The entries were quite competitive. An unusual surprise in a box was a pickle slice to “cleanse” the palate between sampling pork barbecue first and a rib next. Some boxes came with a green garnish; the most unusual one was a large collard leaf that covered the meat samples. It was intended to be on the bottom of the box. Because the box had been labeled upside down, it was on the top instead when I opened it.

Where's the meat? (Under the leaf.)

Blind Judging

Unlike whole hog contests sanctioned by N.C. Pork Council in its Whole Hog Barbecue Series where judges visit each site to evaluate a cooking team’s results, the judging for this event was “blind.”

Makela, the event coordinator, keeps a watchful eye over everything from team setup to judging activities.

The judges complied with the council’s requirements for blind judging (although the event wasn’t sanctioned by the Pork Council), and they used its blind judging rules and scoresheets. As a result, the judges didn’t know which teams had cooked the samples that they were evaluating. Boxes were randomly numbered to mask the identities of the teams.

Official scoresheets of N.C. Pork Council were used.

The cooking teams were obviously having a great time during the competition. They arrived early and stayed late, and the sounds of laughter and joking continued to echo throughout the cooking sites. The afternoon was a great one for the charities, Brasfield & Gorrie and its business partners, and the judges.

Cooking teams mingle as they wait to learn their scores.