By Brandon Martin
The 10th annual Pig Cookin’ Competition will get underway at the Spencer-Penn Centre on April 16-17.
All the meat will be from pigs sourced locally from Stuart, according to Susan Sabin, executive director of the center.
She estimated 300 pounds of barbeque will be prepared by 14 cooks lined up for this year’s event.
“Usually, we have 10-12 cooks, so we’ve increased in number and we actually have a waiting list of cooks that wanted to compete,” she said.
Sabin said sauce from Checkered Pig will be used during the event that begins Friday night.
Cooks “will cook through the night” on Friday, with judging to take place Saturday morning.
“All of the pigs and meat will be provided there and will be packaged up for pick-up that afternoon from 1-5 p.m.,” she said.
“We are only doing tubs of barbeque this year. A tub is a pound, and a pound is $8. If people can’t pick it up that day, they can pick it up the following week. They just need to let us know. Along with that, these will be frozen. If there is some left over, people can still come up that following week,” Sabin said, and added that presales are anticipated.
“People can call the Centre or come by and place their order,” she said. “We are trying to get everyone to prepay as well, so that it is a smoother process for everyone on Saturday, so nobody has to wait on change or anything like that. If people show up and want barbeque, and if we still have some, obviously we will still handle that.”
In past years, Sabin said the competition attracted “thousands of people to the grounds,” but due to the pandemic precautions, that won’t be the case this year.
“We are hoping that some of our other entertainment ━ our vendors, fair, music, cruise-in ━ we are hoping to have a secondary event in late May or early June so that we can bring all of those attractions in and do it a little more feasibly,” she said.
Along with the competition, the Centre also will sell tickets for Pig Patty Bingo. Tickets are available for $20 and Sabin said the winner will walk away with $500.
“This year, someone has purchased 10 tickets and we are going to take nominations if one of those tickets is drawn for a family in the community who has been hit really hard over the last year,” Sabin said. “They will actually win the $500 if one of those tickets is claimed.”
Sabin said the event will include stations for arts and crafts in the building, with a painting class and butterfly-related projects.
Even with the other events, Sabin said the Centre will still be far from the 50-person capacity limit due to executive orders.
For any questions or concerns, contact the Spencer-Penn Centre at (276) 957-5757 or spc.susan@yahoo.com
