Stuff, Stew, and Q

Saturday was the day for "Stuff, Stew, and Q" at Jimmy and Regina's church, Providence United Methodist, Quinton, Virginia.

06:28am: The cooking starts at O-dark:30 (don't adjust your monitor, the picture is not quite in focus)...

... actually, the schedule indicates the potatoes to go in at 6:30am.

07:10am - many hands needed for stirring the stew

The cooking area

Ingredients prepared for going into the stew...

Butterbeans, ground bacon, chopped onions and celery on the near table; stewed chicken in the metal containers and corn in the green container on the middle table; canned tomatoes on the far table.

07:30am Need to keep stirring!

There's always someone else ready to "sub-in" when anyone is tired of stirring!

07:50am - Nephew Ricky kept the fires tended.

08:15am Carl decided he had better go pay for the 4 quarts of stew that we wanted to purchase - so he headed up to the Fellowship Hall where the Stew Sales location was located...

... as well as the "stuff" for the yard sale. A good crowd was there shopping!

The "Q" was being pulled in the kitchen.

08:20am - Back at the kettle, Carl is a happy stirrer!

08:25am - Preparing cans of vegetables to go in.

08:26am

09:50am - the paddle is standing up in the stew...

10:27am - Carl stirring...

Carl demonstrating that the stew has reached the state where the paddle stands upright.

The butterbeans (lima beans) still need to cook a little more, so the stirring continues.

By 11am, it was ready!

11:07am - quart containers that have been filled so far...

... the capping process...

... the dishing out process.

That's a lot of stew!

11:34am The stew is almost all container-ized in quarts.

We had to use an alternate storage rack.

I don't have total numbers, but almost all of the stew was sold before it was finished cooking, all the BBQ was sold out, and the "stuff" sale was successful too! The fellowship with the church was great!