Brunswick Stew

The church where Jimmy and Regina worship had their Fall Festival planned for Saturday, October 13. Hurricane/Tropical Storm Michael eventually caused a bit of a challenge, but one of the tasks that needed to get completed was making of Brunswick Stew.

When the pots and stoves arrived mid-week in preparation for the cooking... there were only two paddles, and one of those was rather puny, so Jimmy asked Dwayne to make new ones from an oak board. Here Dwayne is cutting the bottom of one of the new paddles with the pattern laying on top of the board.

Cutting...

All cut out and major sanding completed, now doing some hand sanding.

Prepared for putting oil on the new paddles.

Pots cleaned and ready for making stew.

There was a slight problem... Michael came through on Thursday afternoon/evening and left most of the county without power, including the church, where the plan had been to cook the chicken and de-bone it as well as prepare the vegetables on Friday. No water, no lights, etc. In addition, the grocery store that was holding the chicken quarters in their refrigerator was closed on Friday due to no power - so no access to the chicken to cook! Various church members worked together to come up with a plan, that ultimately got the chicken quarters from another source, and cooked the chicken quarters and de-boned them at the farm, where a generator provided power for lights and the water pump.

De-boning chicken

Many hands helping makes the work go more quickly and the fellowship is nice too!

Boiling pots of chicken outside the shop (and right outside Miss Doozie!)

 

Scooping the cooked chicken out of the pots

 

Checking on the doneness of the chicken.

 400 pounds of chicken... cooked and de-boned late into the evening on Friday.

Beautiful sunset as the cooking went on...

A Master-piece!

Stew cooking started before dawn at the church (the photographer was not there at the time). Power came on at the church about 8am (the photographer wasn't there then either!). Cooking continued through the morning...

Canned tomatoes readied to go into the pots....

Those paddles seem to be working well!

Important to keep it stirred continuously to prevent sticking to the bottom.

Putting the tomatoes in...

Keeping it stirred....

 

Starting to dish it up around noon...

Keep on stirring until the pot is empty!

Filling the containers to sell...

Many quarts were sold ahead of time!

We got two quarts and enjoyed Brunswick Stew for our lunch on Saturday! We're planning for the second quart to go into the freezer for enjoyment later down the road.

Note: As of Sunday morning, power is still off at the farm - Miss Doozie is fine without external power, and Jimmy and Regina have a generator that can run the essentials as needed. Dominion Energy's website is currently indicating, "We are working to have your power restored between 06:00 PM and 11:00 PM tomorrow." But... that's their status for pretty much all of the areas that do not yet have power... so... *maybe* it will be on sooner....