The annual barbecue contest during Apple Blossom weekend is sponsored by the Northwest Missouri Children’s Advocacy Center. We caught up with Event Coordinator Melissa Birdsell, going from tent to tent, and smoker to smoker, in a golf cart, making sure everything fit their recipe for the competition.
“We have 35 teams coming,” Birdsell said, “nine are from here in St Joe. I think that’s the most we’ve ever had.
“We’ve got six states represented. They come in all day, they park, they set up their smokers, we do a meat inspection, and once they’ve been inspected and they’re all good to go they can start cooking.”
Friday night’s feature gives the audience a chance to judge. The “People’s Choice” competition pits barbecue kings and queens against each other cooking the same cut of meat.
“We open the tent at six o’clock. These guys are cooking pork loins, and everyone can taste all of the different ones, and then you vote for your favorite,” Birdsell said.
The winner gets a trophy and $1,000. But the weekend is not limited to loins. Saturday from noon to 4 p.m., the events revolve around the Kansas City Barbeque Society sanctioned barbeque contest. Gregg Swardson of St. Joseph is the pit boss for the team “Crazy Bones Barbecue.”
“We’ll start tonight about 10 o’clock,” Swardson says. “Gary will put his brisket on and then probably 12:30 I’ll put my pork roast on, and we’ll get them going all night on the smoker.”
“In the morning I’ll put my chicken on my other smoker, and Sabrina will put her ribs on shortly after that. And then at noon, everything starts coming together. We have to turn in chicken at noon, ribs at 12;30, one o’clock pork and 1:30 brisket. So we’ll be really busy.”
Swardson says he met Gary and Sabrina “along the barbecue trail.”
“I started out judging barbecue for about six or seven years, and I decided to start competing at contests.”
Does he beat the guys he used to judge? Swardson smirks: “Yeah, sometimes.”