ACROSS AMERICA - Memorial Day Kicks-Off the Summer Barbecue Season

ROCKY MOUNT, VA May 17, 2004 -- With Memorial Day and the official kick-off of summer just around the corner, barbecue season is almost upon us. Soon everything from hotdogs and hamburgers to chicken wings, swordfish and t-bone steaks will be sizzling on backyard barbecue grills around the country as Americas once again embrace one of their favorite past-times – “cooking out.”

But, to many Americans, particularly those raised in the Southeast, ideas of barbecue and the delicious memories of all that barbecue can be are just that – memories. For until recently, transplanted Virginians, Carolinians and Georgians living in distant parts of the country had little hope of enjoying the delicacies of “real Southern barbecue” in their adopted homes. Unless lovers of the real thing are willing to build a pit and chop-down a hickory tree, it’s just not possible to recreate real Southern barbecue in the backyard.

Even with what has been called the New Barbecue Culture sweeping the nation and the Restaurant Industry, authentic Southern barbecue is no easier to find in the Northeast or on the west coast. This is due in large part to the simple fact that real Southern barbecue takes hours and hours to make. While it represents what is surely the highest form of a culinary art that is taking the Restaurant Industry by storm – true, slow-smoked hickory pork Southern style barbecue is not likely to find its way on many menus outside the Southeast. With the enormous popularity of low carbohydrate diets this is unfortunate, since unlike barbecue styles from other parts of the country, Virginia / Carolina Style Barbecue is naturally very low in carbs.

“It’s just too expensive for them to offer,” explained J. W. Gardner, of Gardner’s Barbecue – an online purveyor of Premium Southern Style Barbecue. “True hickory-smoked pork barbecue, the way we make it here in Virginia and North Carolina, takes more that a day to create. One ten pound pork shoulder will require ten to twelve hours to smoke properly and another hour or two to pull. Most restaurants simply don’t the time or the facility to really make authentic Southern barbecue.”

Gardner goes on to explain that even though more and more restaurants are adding menu items with “North Carolina, South Carolina or Virginia” barbecue names, they are by and large very poor facsimiles of the real thing. And, with many Americans of turning-off their gas grills in favor of charcoal and wood chips, it is still virtually impossible to recreate the flavor of slow smoked pork barbecue in the back yard short of building a pit.

“We have customers from all over ordering our barbecue,” explained Gardner, “because the internet is really the only way for folks who love our kind of barbecue to enjoy it. We have a lot of customers who have never tasted real Virginia or North Carolina style barbecue. I think that a lot of them thought that they had, because so many restaurants like to call what they sell real Southern barbecue, but in most cases it is very little like the true article. Oven-cooking, artificial hickory flavorings simply can’t replicate what takes time and patience and a great amount of care. In my part of the country, we take barbecue very seriously. We’ve been creating great things with pork for centuries in Virginia and North Carolina. The Lord may have given man the gift of pork, but we’ve given the world great barbecue and Virginia hams.”

GardnersBarbecue.com ships authentic Southern Barbecue anywhere in the continental United States. These regional delicacies include: Whole Smoked Shoulders, Hickory-Smoked Tenderloins and Pork Loin Roasts, Stuffed Loins and traditional chopped and pulled pork barbecue. It’s slow smoked over 100% hickory, perfectly seasoned and shipped frozen. Unlike other kinds of barbecue – authentically prepared Southern barbecue is very Atkins Friendly and an outstanding diet food. Most Gardner’s Barbecue offerings have ZERO CARBOHYDRATES. Gardner’s Pulled Pork Barbecue has virtually no fat.




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