Event (PICTURES ADDED) 11th Annual South Florida Gathering - December 2-4, 2022

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Hey Everyone!
We've decided to host the 11th annual gathering the weekend of December 2-4, 2022 this year! The normal weekend in November that we usually booked has filled up.

The gathering will be at Highland Hammock State Park in Sebring, FL. Feel free to come, go and camp as much as you want. Our main day is Saturday the 3rd where we generally cook, eat, drink and play games all day! No planned meals on this day as we normally just cook and eat all day. Some people come the entire weekend and some just come for saturday. There are hotels that can be booked nearby as well.

We'll discuss having a friendly rib competition and other competitions that we've done in the past shortly. As always, check back to this post on Page 1 for updates, i'll be updating this post as details and campsites are booked.

If you book a site, please let us know where and i'll add that to here. If you look at the map on the booking site we generally around Site 80-83 and we'll have a gathering site where we set up tents for meals, games and much more

Attendees and Site
78 fxsales1959 fxsales1959
79 Discus39 Discus39
80 floridasteve floridasteve
81 dougmays dougmays
82 orlandosmoking orlandosmoking
83 orlandosmoking orlandosmoking
86 orlandosmoking orlandosmoking
87 orlandosmoking orlandosmoking
88 (Main Gathering Site) JckDanls 07 JckDanls 07
89 JckDanls 07 JckDanls 07

Activities
Snack Stick Making?
Cold Smoking Cheese?

Competition(s)
Friendly Rib Cook Off
  • No KCBS or FBA judging, no categories...just "favorite rib".
  • Judges might be internal (friends and family) or neighboring campers
  • Any Pork or Beef Rib will do
  • We'll set a turn-in time but we can be flexible
Cocktail Comp? We did this once in the past, just throwing the idea out there

Supplies needed
  • Paper Plates
  • Plasticware ( dougmays dougmays )
  • Napkins and/or paper towels
  • Vacuum sealers
  • Vac seal bags
  • ziplocks
  • Firewood (for nightly bonfire)
  • Extra Ice
 

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fxsales1959 fxsales1959 - Ditto what Keith ( JckDanls 07 JckDanls 07 ) said, we mostly keep a loose schedule and with Saturday being our "main day" we usually do a potluck type dinner after the judging of our fun rib competition. We cook, eat and snack and share throughout the days that people are around.

Keith - i'm down to bring a butt or 2 for snack sticks again. We could do some kind of Poultry lunch comp as well if people want to. I'm open for ideas/suggestions.

Lastly, for the new people, feel free to also bring games. We've had cornhole (bean bag toss), washer toss, horseshoes and other games that people bring. It's fun to bring some friendly sport competition to the event :)
 
Only 30 days to go... Its in our sites...




Doug... I have done that.. I talked to their son Brian (who has attended before) to see If he'd be interested and bring Phylis... He is to busy and wouldn't be able to...


Fx... The only thing scheduled (so to speak) is Ribs for Sat. night's friendly competition ...

I will be doing a Maple Bourbon Ham towards Fri. nights dinner...

Side dishes seems to be where we lack for the evening greasing's...

So nobody has mentioned anything about any extracurricular activities

Did we wanna do the less than $20 gift item (doesn't have to be smoking related) towards door prizes ??

A round of snack sticks/sausage .. ??

Add chicken competition ??

Do a round of beef jerky... I have the big Cabelas 8,10,12 tray (whatever it is) Dehydrator... ??

Any other ideas ??
Cool,
I'm bringing bout 6 small slabs ofBBacks. I can knock those out saturday morning/afternoon..Burnt ends take a little longer. might do those on friday to share a container on SAt night. i won't have any chicken with me. I just didn't want to be the one tht showed up short on stock.
 
Hoping to meet up with everyone on early Saturday morning to share my breakfast brats.
I've got 10# of pork to season tomorrow, then mix, stuff and smoke on Thursday.
That should give me about 80 links less what I share with my local obligations
 
Hoping to meet up with everyone on early Saturday morning to share my breakfast brats.
I've got 10# of pork to season tomorrow, then mix, stuff and smoke on Thursday.
That should give me about 80 links less what I share with my local obligations

That sounds awesome... Ive been debating to bring the flat top or not.. What says majority ??
 
That sounds awesome... Ive been debating to bring the flat top or not.. What says majority ??
My wife, bless her heart, bought me a blackstone griddle for Christmas. Since Amazon sent it in its original box I know already, and she's pissed, but I'm the winner. We'll have it to help if necessary. I will season it. :-)

I'll also have a pound or so of my applewood/maple bacon.
 
I think we will need to do some cold smoked cheese. I have a dual propane side burner on trailer along with cast iron flattop anyone is welcome to use. We will bring corn hole boards as well.
 
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Hey all, sorry the past couple weeks have been insane and haven't been on here much!

Jeff is still trying to give me permissions to edit the #1 post where i usually put all important information but so far i cannot.

I'm loving all the new faces, ideas and offers to bring THE MEATS :) fxsales1959 fxsales1959 don't feel pressured to bring "everything", we've always said anything big or small is fine...its also ok not to bring anything especially for people new to smoking and/or unsure how this event goes. Just my 2 cents :)

For the Rib Comp.....we normally set a turn-in time for 4:30, 5 or 5:30 so we can get that judged and have some daylight for the potluck dinner Saturday night.

Keith JckDanls 07 JckDanls 07 if you're debating bringing the flattop for space/packing purposes it looks like fxsales1959 fxsales1959 will have one also, so we may not need 2?

Fueling Around Fueling Around - are you local? Sebring? Will be awesome to have you!

Discus39 Discus39 - i'm always down for cold smoking cheese. I believe between all of us we have enough A-Maze-N or other brand cold smokers to accomplish this. If anyone is unaware what this is or how to do it, just bring some blocks of cheese and we can show you.

Just a note on supplies....If we do any or all of the suggested activities: Cold smoking, sausage making, jerky, etc....we'll need the following:
- Cold smoker mazes or tubes
- Vacuum sealers and bags
- ziplock
- extra coolers for "leftover" storage
- extra ice, we normally go on a ice run after a day or 2 from when people arrive
- and i'm probably forgetting other items.

I can bring 1 or 2 vac sealers and some bags (probably not enough for everything but some if others can bring as well)

I think i've touched on all points mentioned over the last week or so. Once again its great seeing all the response, this almost feels like our very first one many many years ago!

more to come....
 
A couple more things....

I finally got access to edit the first post and i've added a bunch of stuff there just now. Use this first post for any important details for the gathering. This way you dont have to scroll through pages and pages of posts.

I just found out that i have to head down south, to fort lauderdale, after the gathering for work...so i will not be bringing my trailer smoker, only a vertical drum. It looks like we'll have plenty of smoker space for anyone that needs it, doesn't have one or cannot bring one.

One that note....please do not feel like you have to have or bring a smoker, especially if you're new to smoking and/or new to the gathering. We all love to teach and learn at these events. There are various members with a wide variety of experience and skill.
 
I believe I'm going to be short one 8' table this year so I only have 2... If anybody has extra tables and maybe an E Z UP for the gathering site...

Just a few things that have run through my mind (whats left of it)...

I'll have my usual haul of firewood (4x4's)...

At the moment, floridasteve floridasteve says he'll pull my Tractor Smoker over as he also needs a smoker to use ... So I'll be able to carry a few more items ...
 
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Hey Everyone!
We've decided to host the 11th annual gathering the weekend of December 2-4, 2022 this year! The normal weekend in November that we usually booked has filled up.

The gathering will be at Highland Hammock State Park in Sebring, FL. Feel free to come, go and camp as much as you want. Our main day is Saturday the 3rd where we generally cook, eat, drink and play games all day! No planned meals on this day as we normally just cook and eat all day. Some people come the entire weekend and some just come for saturday. There are hotels that can be booked nearby as well.

We'll discuss having a friendly rib competition and other competitions that we've done in the past shortly. As always, check back to this post on Page 1 for updates, i'll be updating this post as details and campsites are booked.

If you book a site, please let us know where and i'll add that to here. If you look at the map on the booking site we generally around Site 80-83 and we'll have a gathering site where we set up tents for meals, games and much more

Attendees and Site
78 fxsales1959 fxsales1959
79 Discus39 Discus39
80 floridasteve floridasteve
81 dougmays dougmays
82 orlandosmoking orlandosmoking
83 orlandosmoking orlandosmoking
86 orlandosmoking orlandosmoking
87 orlandosmoking orlandosmoking
88 (Main Gathering Site) JckDanls 07 JckDanls 07
89 JckDanls 07 JckDanls 07

Activities
Snack Stick Making?
Cold Smoking Cheese?

Competition(s)
Friendly Rib Cook Off
  • No KCBS or FBA judging, no categories...just "favorite rib".
  • Judges might be internal (friends and family) or neighboring campers
  • Any Pork or Beef Rib will do
  • We'll set a turn-in time but we can be flexible
Cocktail Comp? We did this once in the past, just throwing the idea out there

Supplies needed
  • Paper Plates
  • Plasticware ( dougmays dougmays )
  • Napkins and/or paper towels
  • Vacuum sealers
  • Vac seal bags
  • ziplocks
  • Firewood (for nightly bonfire)
  • Extra Ice
Thank you Doug,
Jus to note, my new griddle is only a 17” job. But we will bring. As far as cooking supplies I see there is a lowes and Wally World up the road a piece
 
Thank you Doug,
Jus to note, my new griddle is only a 17” job. But we will bring. As far as cooking supplies I see there is a lowes and Wally World up the road a piece
Yep, there's been many a lowes and walmart trip in the past. There should also be a ice machine to the south of us. We used to have a member on the forum that gave us free tickets for them
 
I'm happy to see everyone picking up on bringing cooking equipment.
I forgot to add that I will bring breakfast brats but no method to cook for mass quantities. All I have is a Weber Jumbo Joe.

...

Fueling Around Fueling Around - are you local? Sebring? Will be awesome to have you!
...
Local?
I'm in NW Minnesota.
I won't be local for another 3 weeks.
We have a place in Clermont (4 corners) for the winter.
 
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Well the time is getting close and we are all making lists of things. My smoker trailer has alot of options. There is a large warming box can be temperature controlled from smoker heat. Cold smoke cheese, sausages or anything. Also have the 2 propane burners with a large cast iron flat top. I have a vacuum sealer . Bags always appreciated. Normally pack heavy with alot of extras. Its going to be a good time. Look forward to seeing old faces and meeting new ones.
 

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Well the time is getting close and we are all making lists of things. My smoker trailer has alot of options. There is a large warming box can be temperature controlled from smoker heat. Cold smoke cheese, sausages or anything. Also have the 2 propane burners with a large cast iron flat top. I have a vacuum sealer . Bags always appreciated. Normally pack heavy with alot of extras. Its going to be a good time. Look forward to seeing old faces and meeting new ones.
sorry if redundant (may be old-timers disease)
). I have a fold in half table that about 6' that is ttypically my prep/cook line extension. it can be used. I also buy suck bags by the 100's. I'll throw a pile of them (8x12 quart) in the supply bin. luckily wally world had a sale on plastic containers for my spices/cook tools.I gotta get mama to start a running list.
 
Sorry for the delays in reply from me. In the last 3 months i've had to replace my AC/Furnace system, Roof, change insurance companies and a slew of other things....it's been a year...a very expensive year!

fxsales1959 fxsales1959 - the more tables the merrier as we usually need space for the saturday potlock and other prep. In the past, some people will bring a prep table for themselves and if they have extras donate them to the gathering area.

On that note i need to buy another table or 2, i'm down to 1 and its in poor condition.

I'll try and get another post up soon tying up lose ends on events, supplies etc..The time is getting close! Busy and excited!
 
MAN.. That's awesome Jeff... Thanks a bunch ...

Is this not the best/only Forums anybody could ask for ?

So I just spoke to Drew (last years rib winner).. He and his family will be there to defend his ''Championship'' ... Also his parents are coming as well...

We need to hear from Don (as usual) ...
 
I'll shoot Don ( orlandosmoking orlandosmoking ) a text to get on his computer machine haha.

So throughout the year we've thrown out alot of idea and i wanted to button down what we want to do and not
- Rib Comp - Yes (Saturday ~5pm)
- Chicken Comp?
- Cocktail Comp?
- Sausage Making?
- Jerky Making?
- Cheese Cold Smoking?
- Gift Exchange ($20 or less)?

...did i miss anything? I'm down for as much or as little as people want to do. I would say that in the past when we have too much going on, it feels more like work then fun, in my opinion.

If everyone can chime in and let the group know what you want to do about the above items so we can make a plan
 
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