Page 34 - Barbecue News Magazine

Smokin’ Times
Official newsletter of the
OUR MISSION
The mission of the California Barbecue Association is to teach, enjoy, preserve, and promote barbeque as a true American food. To help various children’s charities in California by conducting barbecue events throughout the state of California.
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4) Old Town Franklin BBQ 5) Lady Of Q
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7) Bull Market BBQ
8) 7-8-9 BBQ
9) Simply Marvelous BBQ 10) Mudville BBQ
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Craig Yeszin, Tom Gearhart, Kyle Casazza, Rick Mysse, Stephen Biggs, Dennis Daniel, Melanie Price, Matt Bergen
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PRESIDENT
Craig Yeszin,, president@cbbqa.org VICE PRESIDENT Thomas Gearhart, vp@cbbqa.org Treasurer
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BarbecueNews.com - 34
California Pioneering
BBQ in the Day of COVID
The Golden State Battle – A Double Contest
The weekend of April 16th marked the first KCBS BBQ Competition in California in over a year. Teams were thrilled to be out cooking and competing in the Golden State Battle held at Casa De Fruta in Hol- lister, CA. This location has everything and anything including an R.V. park, a hotel, a restaurant, a fruit stand, and much, much more.
Without a doubt, volunteer organizer Jim Palmer had the patience of Job and the strength of Hercules to create and ad- minister this double contest. “This is the first contest for 2021 in California and it will pave the way for future contests,” said Palmer. Santa Clara County still has strict COVID restrictions in place but with the help of Casa De Fruta Manager, Melissa Cloud, the CBBQA sponsored event went off without a hitch or even a hiccup.
“Melissa went out of her way to accom- modate us by finding solutions such as reserving 80 sites in the R.V. park for a 41 team contest so that teams had empty spaces on both sides thus maintaining the social distancing requirements.
Extra spaces compliments of Case De Fruta. Setting aside a large grassy area so we could socially distance the awards ceremony and reserving all the rooms at the hotel for our judges”, said Palmer. “We are truly grateful to Melissa and Casa De Fruta”
The indoor judging area was another ob- stacle to be overcome. Originally the
County required 6 foot spacing between judges which was unworkable. With the quick thinking and engineering of Jim Palmer and the donations of Coyle Re- productions and Felbro Display Inc. lightweight removable dividers were cre- ated to put between the judges so that only 3 feet of space would be required. After each entry, the dividers were re- moved, the plastic tablecloth was rolled up unveiling the next tablecloth and the dividers were put back in place. Presto – Change-O! the room was ready for the next round.
Saturday night teams were treated to a take-out taco affair sponsored by CBBQA President Craig Yeszin of Cynical BBQ. The Kids Q was made possible by Team Woodshed’s donation of Weber Smokey Joes and Snake River Farms donation of Kobe beef hot dogs. Competition teams were supplied with wood and charcoal compliments of Sharpe Gourmet Cooking Woods.
“Serving the BBQ community brings joy to my life”, said Palmer, “but I could not have done it without the help and sup- port of my family as well as my friends Robert Green, Clark Baker, Daniel Dod- son, the CBBQA Board of Directors and my mentor Stephen Franklin of Simply Marvelous. Other sponsors included HC Financial, and Tracy Sign.
Next year's Golden State Battle is an- other double-hitter scheduled for Janu- ary 21-23, 2020 at Lake Cachuma, CA.
JUNE 2021