How to BBQ 500 Chicken Halves-Western Weekend Style

It's BBQ time.  Only 500 chicken halves at once!  Sunday was final day of Western Weekend in Pt. Reyes Station and Marin County Farm Bureau , of which Dominic is the current President, puts on it's largest fund raiser of the year.  A chicken BBQ. 

Remember the BBQ pit burning party at deer camp we had last week?  Well Sunday, Dominic and crew put all of those pits to use.  The deep pits were lit at 6 a.m. with mesquite briquettes and by 7 a.m. the chicken halves were put on. 

The kids and I drove over to Pomi's deer camp, Red Hill Gun Club (where the BBQing takes place) at around 10 a.m. to check on the progress and snap some photos and maybe score a little sampling :)

When we arrived, one pot was completely done.  At this point, some of the 'special sauce' is poured into the pot and it is left to simmer over very low heat creating steam in the pot which produces a very moist and tender chicken half.

The combined process of the 'special sauce', barbecuing technique and steaming is a long time family recipe between some of the ranch families in the area and has been used for decades.  The chicken is not marinated in the sauce, but used during the cooking process as a baste and in the steaming portion of the process as well.

The kids and I did score a sample.......finger licken' good!

Ron Pomi (right) and Matt Field (left) are flipping 24 (or so) chicken halves at once with two grates.

Matt, Ron and Petie Ielmorini are placing some chickens in one of the huge pots to simmer and steam.

Dominic is finishing up the last batch by basting some of the chicken halves with the special sauce using a homemade basting brush made out of bay leaf branches.

The chicken is then driven out to Pt. Reyes Station where the event takes place.

We arrive in Pt. Reyes Station just in time to put the finishing touches on the 4-H "Three Little Pigs" float.

The three little pigs are SO cute!

Camilla Taylor as the Big Bad Wolf.

The chicken BBQ  is set up in theToby's Feed Barn parking lot.

The parade begins at noon.

The Nave group has been around for at least a decade and performs quite the comical routine.

The teddy bear line.

Palace Market float.

Every parade needs an antique tractor.

Bonnie and Clyde made an appearance.

Bryce was so excited to ride on the float and throw out 4-H stickers to the spectators.

Our float driver, John Taylor with his son, Billy Joe.

This is where we watched the parade from.  Perfect seat!

Cowgirls. 

Horse and Carriage #1.

And #2.

Native American dancers.

Even a fire shooting snail.

Top of the snail.

This was my favorite float.

It's a rolling saloon.  Complete with band on one side,

and kitchen on the other side and dancers all around.  It just made you want to join in!

After the parade, we walked over to the BBQ and along the way, I had to check out the home baked goods. 

Tomales FFA volunteers serving up the chicken.

Regina Pozzi serving salad.

The dining area.

Clover Stornetta donates all the milk, ice cream and butter to Marin County Farm Bureau for this event.

Mike Griffen, from Clover, along with his crew also donate their time cooking beans as well.

Happy diners.

Raspberry pie was calling my name.  SO GOOD!

Bryce wanted a bite.  I think it was a bit too tart for his taste, but perfect for mine.

Happy Monday!

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An Afternoon Spent with Temple Grandin

Yesterday, I had the honor and pleasure of meeting and spending part of the afternoon with Temple Grandin. This was definitely the highlight of 2010 for me, so far. If you haven’t heard of Temple Grandin, she is, in my eyes one of the most remarkable people I have met in my life.


Yesterday she was scheduled to give a speech in Pt. Reyes Station, CA to a group of 500 people. I was one of the lucky ones to get a ticket (thanks Hope). Prior to the speech, we were invited by our friends, John and Karen Taylor of Bivalve Organic Dairy in Pt. Reyes Station to come over for lunch to meet Temple Grandin! You see, the Taylors had invited Temple to come over to their home to relax, eat and have some ‘down time’ before her presentation and she graciously accepted the invitation.

Her flight landed in Sacramento at 10:30 a.m. and was picked up and driven over to the Taylor’s home right after, where she was greeted by our small group of 12.  Temple's diet normally consists of beef, dairy and vegetables.  The Taylors barbecued tri-tip, their Grandma's recipe of baked chicken, their other Grandma's recipe of delicious beans, salad, fruit and venison sausage.  Everything was SO good.

Thank you John & Karen!!

A little background on Temple:

Temple has a PhD in animal science and teaches at Colorado State University. Temple, 62, is also autistic and is one of the biggest advocates for the humane treatment of animals. She lectures at conferences across the country telling her life story and advocating early therapies for the disorder.  Her design of curved chute and race system livestock handling facilities are used all over the world and she is responsible for designing half of livestock handling facilities in the North America.

In an interview with Jill Owens – Powells.com , Temple says:

“The biggest problem is that more and more students are coming out of urban environments, and they haven't done hands-on work. Right now, a lot of people who are interested in improving life for animals are becoming lawyers. So you can sue for everything, but it's easy that way to end up making a bigger mess. You have to have people who can apply policy. We're having a big problem in this country, not just on animal issues but on every issue, with policy makers getting further and further removed from what's happening on the ground.”

Temple definitely tells it like she sees it. Being a visual person in how she thinks, it’s amazing to me how clearly she perceives a situation or environment and elaborates on it with complete details, details that a person without the disorder does not see. I believe she sees her autism as a gift.

During our lunch, Temple spoke about many things. She told us all in all, the HBO movie about her life was very accurate. Though she did refer to one line in the movie where Claire Danes (who plays Temple) says “Nature is cruel” saying it should have been changed to “Nature is harsh” instead because "cruelty requires intent", but she hadn’t caught it soon enough to have it changed.

Temple also talked about the very real possibility of schools having to remove hands on classes such as art, music, p.e. and agriculture classes in the near future and how this would be such a travesty since art class is what “saved” her while she was in school.

The presentation was scheduled for 3p.m. so at about 2:50 p.m., off we drove to West Marin School, where the event took place.....

If you haven’t seen the HBO movie ‘Temple Grandin’, it’s a MUST SEE for your list. The many books she has authored are difficult to put down. Right now I am reading my first one titled ‘Animals in Translation’ and it is a must have if you have any pets or raise animals at all.



I had such a fabulous afternoon spending time with great company, great food, and a beautiful sunny day. If you are ever in Pt. Reyes Station, Karen's mother, Sharon and her husband have a winery on the ranch with wine tasting, open to the public...stop by and have a taste or three :)

Happy Monday!

P.S.  For our 'Eat Meat Monday' we are having Sirloin steaks tonight Pin It

A Fun Spring Social Dairy Event

Last night we attended the Redwood Empire Holstein Association Spring Event & Live Auction. This is a small fundraiser for Redwood Empire Holstein Association that benefits the club and it's Junior Members. The event took place at the Sonoma/Marin Fairgrounds in one of the show arenas. Shavings covered the ground, picnic tables set up and eight or so outdoor propane heaters lined the area (I was particularly happy about the heaters). A very cozy setting. We started out the evening with the Social/Cocktail hour (1 1/2 hrs. to be precise) provided by Hunt & Behrens Feed. This gives everyone a chance to visit and catch up while enjoying an array of cheeses and cocktails, milk or soda. Oysters on the half shell were served up by Bob Clark and friends during cocktail time..... Time to mingle......... A delicious dinner of salmon, risotto and salad was prepared by Jerry Corda, Hank Corda and their families and friends. So good! And very fitting as it happened to be Good Friday. The cooking crew........... Enjoying the food........ Our friends, the Silaccis Bryce was digging into that salmon........... The live auction was about to begin Plenty of bull semen for sale................... A high bidder is being announced for Lot #5 - 10 units of M Leader Semen. There were also supplies such as feed, vet supplies and even a Point Reyes vacation getaway stay for two nights on the block to be auctioned off. Dessert, an ice cream fountain bar was donated by Mike Griffen from Clover Stornetta Farms and was being served up by the reining 2009 Dairy Princess 1st runner up Mandy Brazil and Mike Griffen....... Paige was all over the ice cream............ Another fun filled night has ended............ Happy Saturday! Pin It