3rd Annual Southern York County BBQ Cookoff - Glen Rock, PA

Here we go again, I feel like a broken record... rain, rain, and more rain. After surviving hurricane Irene a few weeks earlier, I was hoping for a nice DRY competition in southern York, PA. That wasn't going to happen thanks to Tropical Storm Lee flooding out the Northeast. The 3rd Annual Southern York County BBQ Cookoff was held in Glen Rock, PA September 9th - 10th.

Lee's remnants helped cause torrential downpours over the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, which led to massive, record river flooding on September 8 and 9.  This included the Susquehanna River at Binghamton, N.Y., Wilkes-Barre, Pa. and Meshoppen, Pa. The Swatara Creek in Hershey, Pa. beat the previous record level by 10 feet! - weather.com.

The days leading up to the event did not look good with all the flood reports for the area surrounding the competition site. Alicia, the event coordinator, assured every one that the competition was a go! So Friday September 9th I packed up and headed to Glen Rock. The competition was held on the grounds at The Markets at Shrewsbury. The Amish market hosts some great food and crafts. I always look forward to getting the oyster pie... OH,  and the house made ice cream! I'm glad this event wasn't canceled.

When I pulled into Shrewsbury, around noon, most teams were already setup. The dirt / gravel lot we were in was swampy and wet but workable. The sky looked threatening but held off for the most part, but I do think it kept some of the spectators away.

The band played Friday night as we settled into our site and began to cook some competition BBQ!

We had no problem with the weather at this competition... but encountered a big problem with the bees, there were every where, like we setup on their hive. During turn-ins they were buzzing around and landing on everything. I had to be very careful not to close one up in a turn-in box. Quite a few of them lost their lives in my sweet sauce... sorry guys!

                                                                                                                                                  

Chicken has given me lots of trouble this season. I've gone from top 3 to last using same cooking methods. I switched up slightly for this contest and pulled a 3rd place!






Ribs have been my best category and they finished in 9th place.

19th place pulled pork.

I loved this brisket and was happy with an 11th place finish out of 28 teams.

We ended up finishing 6th place overall out of 28 teams. The soggy ground and bees couldn't sabotage this event, always a good time... and I did get my oyster pie at the market, top notch! Full results can be seen here - KCBS.

Cheers!