What a difference a year makes! After being confined to cooking at home for most of 2020, it feels so good to be back out on the road at events and sharing our passion for outdoor cooking.
BW Outdoors kicked off the summer at the Principal Charity Classic, partnering with J.R. SouthPork Ranch for an outdoor cooking event that was a whole lot of fun. We featured philly cheese steak sliders on the Arteflame and put a pig on the rotisserie at the 17th green. Both created great areas for guests to gather and enjoy the experience of food fused with fire.
I also participated in the 10th Annual Bacon & Bourbon Festival in Keystone, Colorado. It's always a good time working with friends at the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival. My Camp Chef flat top griddles were put to the test, cooking over a thousand pounds of bacon from Berkwood Farms and Des Moines Bacon & Meat Company for event attendees. The BWO crew prepared Tender Belly uncured smoked franks for sellout crowds on Saturday and Sunday. The Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival can host one hell of an event, and they are also awesome ambassadors for Iowa pork farmers and small businesses. Be sure to follow their Facebook page and YouTube channel to watch some fun "Let's Meat Up" episodes that we filmed together.
It's especially exciting to be cooking on the bike trail again after a hiatus in 2020. We are teaming up with the Iowa Beer Bus on the RAGBRAI route this summer and we kicked things off together a couple of weeks ago at the annual BACoon Ride. We served some delicious Berkwood Farms smoked brats at the packet pickup party in Waukee and grilled Berkwood Farms pork burgers for riders on Saturday in Redfield. The smoke was rolling, the beer was flowing and the weather was beautiful. My twin girls even got in on the fun, working as servers at my tent all weekend! (Thank you to Christopher Maharry for capturing some of the action.)
If you are headed out on RAGBRAI this summer, be sure and make plans to find the Iowa Beer Bus for some tasty BBQ & brews. I’ll be sharing more information about our route locations and what’s on the menu soon! In the meantime, have a great 4th of July weekend and remember, if you’re looking to do some cooking and entertaining this summer, BW Outdoors has the gear you need to savor the great outdoors!