Florida – RV BBQ Trail

January 25, 2020

RVBBQTrail kicked off the 2020 BBQ season in grand fashion by attending the 24th Annual Lake Pigfest in Lakeland, Florida! BBQ’ing in the Sunshine State is bright and sunny, with over 102 Professional and Backyard teams competing for bragging rights and a share of $25,000 prize money.

Pigfest is held at the Sun & Fun Expo Center adjacent to the Lakeland airport. Included is an impressive museum of flight, including military and experimental planes that you can get up close to and touch… very impressive! This is a massive community event with all proceeds going to local Lakeland charities. Hats off to the organizers for pulling off a terrifically executed event. Judges were in hangers with cook teams and entertainment nearby.

Congrats to Grand Champion Smoke Central BBQ with a 700.5 score earning a coveted 700 pin!
Reserve Grand Champion went to Old Virginia Smoke with a 695.4 score.
Special recognition to Bushmaster BBQ with a perfect 180 on Beef Brisket.

Sunshine, warm weather, world-class BBQ, excellent entertainment, and a museum of flight make attending Lakeland Pigfest worth putting on your BBQ bucket list for next year’s 25 Silver Anniversary event!

Unfortunately, we were not able to stay for the Award Ceremony to take pictures. It was later in the day and we needed to get back to our campsite (40 minutes away) to take care of our dogs. Apologies to Grand Champion Smoke Central BBQ for not having pictures of them.

http://lakelandpigfest.org

Reserve Grand Champion Old Virginia Smoke

Jacksonville, FL

January 22, 2020

We found “The Good Place”. With so much turmoil in the news, we found an oasis that serves and supports food deserts in Northern Florida and beyond.

Welcome to Eden Gardens, an eco-sustainable farm located outside Jacksonville, FL.

…a self-sustaining eco-farm that will help train and feed thousands. We have built two aquaponics greenhouses and planted the first citrus orchard. We are working to change the face of hunger and poverty around the world and right here at home!
We are building a 120-acre Community-Based Eco-Farm that will feed hundreds of hungry children per day. We want to provide fresh responsibly grown food to those who need it most at a low cost or free through our work-4-food program…
https://www.edengardensjax.org/about

RVBBQTrail is a member of Harvest Hosts, where RV’ers can boondock at participating host locations that include farms, wineries, breweries, and other points of interest. That’s how Marcia found Eden Gardens.

The farm is a vision come-true for Tim Lovelace. His background was as a network engineer where he traveled the world and found that he could help folks with education wherever he went. Just the one night we spent at Eden Gardens was moving. We also met Trevor, a retired physician on the board of directors, and Bill, an electrical engineer (who happens to be a KCBS BBQ pitmaster too!). They, and several other volunteers, had sleeves rolled up, getting dirty, bringing the farm to life.

Eden Gardens is a beautiful property. We parked our RV between a pond with ducks and a large tree bearing Spanish Moss. Our dogs were allowed to run free around the place, chasing the ducks and swimming in the pond. Well, at least Eli swam. He swam after the ducks, and they led him around in circles, never getting close enough to touch one.