BBQ for Jesus

Last Sunday, Trev and I got to experience something amazing, but something that also pushed us outside of our comfort zone…

Our church has a yearly Harvest Fest in October, so we decided that our tithe from our farm business should be some of our meats. We had experienced a whole hog roast in Montana and had help make pulled pork sandos for a holiday party. So we decided to try it ourselves. We watched a lot of YouTube to figure out how to take a Boston butt and transform it into pulled pork. We got a good deal on a big ole smoker off Facebook market place. Our neighbor told us that instead of having to buy or chop down trees to get hard wood for the smoker, we could just peel the bark off of hickory trees and use that. It sounded like a great eco-friendly and economical way to smoke our meat, plus we have quite a bit of hickory where we live. Trev’s idea was to make homemade coleslaw and BBQ sauce as well. So on Saturday, we did farm chores, and headed to meet a church friend at Walmart to buy all the ingredients. The funny thing was, we were using a recipe out of a cookbook that Trev’s parents had given us as a Christmas gift. We’d made the recipe before with his parents, so we were familiar with the process…but only for a family of six. We were told that we’d be cooking for two hundred people… So, we did the math and figured out how much of each ingredient we would need and it ended up like those crazy word problems from fifth grade. Lol. It was absolutely hilarious shopping for “37 cups of mayo,” “50 cups of ketchup,” “200 scallions,” and “26 heads of cabbage.” Truth be told, even though Trev and I had cooked for groups of people before, we’d never cooked for two hundred people… The other crazy part was our timeline.

Trev and I tend to be a little over optimistic about how much time things will take. We met up with our friend to shop at 11, got home around 2, Trev got the smoker going and we started cutting up our “26 heads of cabbage” for the slaw. Trev needed to get the temp on the smoker up to 250 AND score and season all 17 of the butts. We knew the butts would take the longest and expected them to take about 6-7 hours to cook through. So when Trev finally threw them all in at 5, we expected them to be done at around 11PM or 12 or maybeeee even 1AM. What we had NOT seen on YouTube was someone smoking more than ten butts at one time. Lol. More to come on how that ended up.

In the meantime, I’m trying to find something big enough to hold ALL of the coleslaw… We would’ve had to have a GINORMOUS bowl to mix all the ingredients in. But instead, I decided to throw everything into a clean black construction trash bag. It ended up working out and being more than enough room for our “26 heads of cabbage” and other ingredients. Almost all the cabbage had been cut up when our friend had to leave. At that point, it was starting to get late, and while Trev was tending the fire, he came to help me cut up our “200 scallions” and toss it into our trash bag. I had been taking all the cilantro leaves off their stems individually (there was obviously a way better way to do that, looking back now) and I started questioning how we were going to make the BBQ sauce. We had a huge stock pot that we’d used for canning and big soups, but we had no idea where it was. I tasked Trev with finding it or going out and buying another one, while I started cutting up “25 carrots” into “match stick-sized pieces”. We were cooking everything outside on a huge table and it was starting to get dark, and cold, and we hadn’t eaten dinner, and I’d been standing and chopping things up all day-I was starting to get mildly miserable. Through my pain, I realized that maybe we’d bitten off more than we could chew trying to make the coleslaw AND BBQ sauce from scratch. I told Trev that we should scratch the sauce and just go buy some options for people the next day before Harvest Fest. He agreed and I finished up the coleslaw and sat down to relax by the smoker.

At that point, Trev had set a 15 minute timer and it’d go off every time he needed to make sure the temp of the smoker wasn’t dipping below 250º. He was literally having to babysit our Boston butts. Needy little things. We had realized that while Hickory bark was indeed economically and eco friendly, the bark would burn much faster than actual wood. So instead of “just leaving it on for six hours” and coming back later to check on it, like the pit master we watched on YouTube said, Trev had to tend to it every 15 minutes. At that point, it was pitch black outside, and I was starting to feel nauseous and cold-never a great combo. And I told Trev I was giving up and heading in to bed. I was pretty miserable. After some time though, I decided to stick it out and figured that maybe I just needed to eat dinner. Haha! Trev made some of our pork chops and I made some Hot Toddy’s and we sat down to eat together. I immediately felt better and stayed up another couple of hours. It felt good to rally and stay up with Trev, even though it was uncomfortable, I felt as though he needed the moral support.

At 10:30 or so, we finally opened the smoker to check on our butts, only to find that the butts on the end where the smoke was coming in where burnt and pretty much ready to eat, but on the opposite end, they were pretty much still raw. Of course that happened, though. We’d crammed 17 butts into a smoker built for maybe 5-6 max. What did we think would happen?

Trev had to start moving the butts around every 30 mins or so, so they’d all reach the internal temp of 175º. Then, we’d spray the outside with apple cider vinegar, wrap them up in heavy duty tin foil, and place them at the end that was getting the least amount of heat. We started getting ready for bed, and watched a movie during which Trev would leave every 15 minutes to go check the temp. This went on until 3AM. Trev finally came in and said that we’d need to finish up the pork at church the next morning. Luckily, our church had a commercial grade convection oven in their kitchen. I agreed that it’d be a good call and we crashed out for three hours, before waking up and getting prepped for the day. We wrapped and put all our butts into big aluminum serving trays, and Trev headed off for church. I was tasked with prepping the slaw, putting it into the serving trays, and to go out and buy a bunch of BBQ sauce. BBQ is a pretty big deal here in Kansas City, so I made sure to grab a variety including local sauces and some general favorites. I settled on four different sauces and sped off to church.

This next bit was my absolute favorite part of the whole ordeal: Trev stayed down in the kitchen the entire time pulling the meats and tending to the butts, now in the convection oven. (When I had first arrived at church, the mouth watering aroma of hickory-smoked meat was in the air. It was glorious.) My job was to be the runner. I ran up and down the stairs carrying trays full of pulled pork and dumping into the tray from which it was being served to the congregation. I felt like a bona fide caterer. And I was having a blast. I’d have time between runs to hang out with friends at the fest or hang out with Trev down in the kitchen, but I still made sure everything was topped off. Even though we were running on fumes, we were churnin’ and burnin’ out the pulled pork. Everything was a hit and we had SO many leftovers. We were still able to gift five left over butts and THREE trays of slaw to folks afterwards. Oh boy, did it feel good to give! (It’s like God created it like that or something. Lol.) 

I remember telling Trev Saturday morning as we were planning, that this event was way out of our comfort zone, but that I knew it would allow the Holy Spirit to get involved and that everything would work out in the end. It was definitely nerve wracking at points and not fun the entire time, but I knew that doing this would humble us as well as build our confidence. And it sure did happen that way. We’re excited to see where God takes us with this (maybe a farm to table catering business??) and stay tuned for the story of our next adventure as we cater our first wedding next weekend! 😆 

Love your farmers and now caterers, apparently, 

Trev & Viv

Shipped From Our Farm to Your Porch

We’re ecstatic to announce that this winter we’ll start shipping to the lower 48 states! Yes, you heard that right… From sea to shining sea (except you Alaska and Hawaii, sorry)

The best thing about Home Delivery is you can get our farm's pasture raised goodness anywhere in the country! We have a special box that keeps everything super cold and we even have a super special box for delivering eggs! Free delivery on orders of $150 or more!

Join the wait list here

How in the heck can you ship frozen meats across the country?!

Check out this video from our friend and farming compatriot, David. He’ll explain how your order shows up on your porch still cold.

How will ordering work?

It’s easy as 1, 2, 3!

1. Check out our “What’s in Stock” section of the newsletter below for what we’re currently offering and pricing.

2. Until our website is up and running order by calling or texting Trevor at (816) 310-9631 or by emailing him at [email protected]. During this step Trevor will coordinate payment with you.

3. Your order is on the way! As long as you’ve placed your order by Sunday night, your order will ship on Monday. Check out the map below to see how quick you’ll get your order!

What’s in Stock

• Eggs - Our hens are pasture raised, rotationally grazed, and non-gmo - $5/dozen

• Chicken - Like our hens, our chicken is pasture raised, rotationally grazed, and non-gmo - click here for price sheet. We’ve just gotten 70 more broilers butchered and have added them to our inventory. Price sheet for those to come soon (perhaps during this winter when farm projects and chores have simmered down a bit).

• Pork - Pigs were butchered on 7/18 - Our pigs are forest raised, rotationally grazed, non-gmo, and heritage breed (Red Wattle). More pork will be added to our inventory soon, as we are butchering 3 more hogs tomorrow. These new pigs are Berkshire crosses.

  • Whole hogs (120 lbs of meat), half hogs (60 lbs of meat), and custom cuts (bacon, pork chops, ribs, sausage) available.

How It Works

• How do I order? Text Trevor @ (816) 310-9631 your order by Tuesday night

• When do I get it? Delivery day is every Wednesday - home delivery available or pickup in parking lot at 8:15 pm @ Zion KC (1800 W 69 Hwy Excelsior Springs, MO 64024)

• How do I pay? Payment is collected upon delivery. Usually folks pay with cash, Venmo, CashApp, Zelle, check, Grateful Dead vinyl record, or spicy ranch dressing.

-Blessings

Your Farmers,

Trevor & Vivian Gritton

Thank you for supporting regenerative agriculture and transforming the land future generations will inherit - one bite at a time!

How You Can Help In The World of Tech - Please Don't Skip This

#1 Add [email protected] to your email contacts. - This prevents our emails from going to spam and makes sure you get important information.

#2 Open Every Email - Even If You Don't Read Them :)
So this may seem small but it really really matters. Why?

Basically Google and other email providers track how often an email is opened to guess if it is important or not. If you don't open an email often enough than your inbox may stop showing it altogether. But it has a cumulative effect so if enough other people don't open theirs you might not see it too. 

We are trying to walk back this trend and we could really use your help. Even if you don't have time to read the email ( I totally get it - no hurt feelings) would you please open it first and then delete it?  Thank you for keeping our small farm from being erased by big tech email filters!

#3 Share about our farm with your friends!
It really really makes a huge difference when you share with others about where you get your pasture raised bounty from! Plus it can make a huge difference in their life as well.

#4 Like us on Facebook + Instagram and share kitchen creations, unboxing pics, and all things Simple Living Farms
When you share about our farm we try to repost if too our page. It's really pretty cool to see!

Thank you for going the extra mile to support our family farm and regenerative agriculture! It is an honor to be your farmers!