Monday, August 06, 2007

Joltin' Django stuffs himself silly

On Saturday, July 28, my lady friend and I traveled to Humphreys County, Tennessee, for the Irish Picnic and Homecoming. The Irish Picnic, which has taken place for over 150 years, serves as a fundraiser for the Saint Patrick School in McEwen. Hundreds of pounds of pork and chicken are smoked for the Picnic, and not one ounce of smoked meat is left by the time it's over.

The Irish Picnic takes place each year on the last Friday and Saturday in July. Over the last dozen years, I think I've missed the Picnic one time. "Why would anyone want to drive to McEwen, of all places, year after year for some festival BBQ?" you may be asking. Well ...

First, to eat a heaping plate of juicy and perfectly-smoked BBQ, green beans, slaw, homemade pickles, tater salad, homegrown tomatoes, and white bread. This is all washed down, of course, with tea so sweet it could count as dessert. It ain't dessert, though. You can have scratch-made chocolate cake, chess and/or pecan pie, or homemade cookies.

This was my plate:



This was my travelin' companion's plate:



At this point I think I should tell you that these meals, which in actuality were four meals 'cause there was enough left over for dinner, cost the princely sum of $12, total.

My second reason for making an annual pilgrimage to the Irish Picnic is so's I can purchase a big-ass jug of the famous Irish Picnic BBQ sauce, which is only available during Picnic Weekend, if you will. (I've been told that the super-secret recipe for the sauce is kept in a lockbox in a Dickson, TN bank, though I've not been able to find a Picnic official who can confirm such.) This, my friends, is one of the finest BBQ sauces I've ever put in my mouth:



I'm already looking forward to next year's Irish Picnic. Wanna go?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

my tomato plants did not do well at all this year. it would have been worth going to the irish picnic and homecoming just to get those tomatoes!

TennZen said...

My family is the one who holds the secret recipe for the Irish Picnic hot sauce. I can confirm that the recipe is locked in a bank vault, although the bank in question is in McEwen, not Dickson, Tennessee.

Joltin' Django said...

"My family is the one who holds the secret recipe for the Irish Picnic hot sauce. I can confirm that the recipe is locked in a bank vault, although the bank in question is in McEwen, not Dickson, Tennessee."

I'm sure you'd never let me - perhaps the biggest online cheerleader for the Irish Picnic - see the recipe, or would you?!

so, how 'bout I tell you what I think is in it ... and you give me subtle yea or nays for each of my assumed ingredients?