On Saturday, the sound of live blues music seemed to reverberate off the murky waters of the slow-churning Yazoo River and infuse with the smoky and sweet smell of barbecue being cooked low and slow on Front Street.
The ear-pleasing and mouth-watering concoction of senses propagated over every nearby block, leading passersby right to the source of the action.
Main Street Greenwood’s annual barbecue competition and festival, Que on the Yazoo, dodged rain showers on Saturday after a downpour of about three hours on Friday and rocked the banks of the Yazoo once again with an abundance of music, vendors, food trucks, a bloody mary bar, and all the barbecue you could eat.
“I think we had a really great turnout,” Main Street Greenwood Executive Director Elizabeth Liddell said. “I heard from a couple of teams they had a really good time. By the time the music started (Saturday morning), the rain was gone.”
From late Friday night to early Saturday morning, barbecuers tended to their smoked meats, hoping to get a perfect product completed and boxed on time for judging.
Tony James, one half of the professional barbecue team Shotgun House Smokers, sat outside in the good conditions as he calmly fixed his box of pulled pork about 30 minutes before submission.
“It’s pretty laid back,” James said. “I enjoy the music down there, and it’s a good time of the year to have it — right before it gets real hot and the mosquitoes start coming out.”
James and his teammate Dr. John Collier, who have been friends since kindergarten, formed the team in 2009. James said the key to good pulled pork is a good rub and a savory smoke ring that’s paired with a sauce that complements the flavors.
“I like a sweet savory rub and sweet and spicy sauce,” said James as he pulled apart some pork. “Some people like the salty rub. Every judge is different. You don’t want it dry, you don’t want it mushy. You want it tender.”
Just a couple of feet away, bustling underneath a big yellow canopy was the professional team Poker Porkers from Bartlett, Tennessee. The back-to-back Memphis Barbecue Network team of the year (2022-2023) was working on finishing up their pulled pork and their whole hog.
Lance Gehring, the team’s pitmaster, carefully placed rows of pork into a box. Each row was a different cut of pulled pork.
“We’ve got inside tubes (in the left row), inside meat and meat with bark (on the right),” Gehring said. "This right here, you’re giving the judge three things to look at.”
In the smoker behind the team as they scurried about was a whole hog being smoked.
“I think our inject on our pulled pork and hog is probably our advantage,” Gehring said.
Hog Addiction swept the professional division, claiming first in pulled pork, ribs and whole hog. For their pitmaster expertise, Hog Addiction was named Grand Champion and won $2,000 and a trophy. Poker Porkers took home second in hog and fourth in pulled pork. Shotgun Smokers finished 11th in pulled pork.
In the patio division, Smokin in the Sip placed first in pulled pork, Blazin Barrels was first in pork loin and Butt Hurt BBQ finished first in ribs.
Event-goers walked around and sipped on lemonade, bloody mary cocktails and a variety of brews. Some sat and listened to the live music and some mingled with the various competitors, eager to try some delicious barbecue.
Food trucks and other venders dotted the roads leading up to the main strip of competitors that paralleled the Yazoo River, offering a variety of foods from catfish to funnel cakes.
Presley Steed of Inverness utilized Que on the Yazoo as an opportunity to sell her homemade decorated sugar cookies.
She uses a recipe passed down from her grandmother but puts her own twist on the treats.
They are cut into shapes ranging from a baseball to a tractor and are decorated accordingly.
“I used to be kind of artsy as a kid,” said Steed, whose cookie business, Charley’s Cookie Co., is named after her 9-year-old daughter. “But as far as painting and stuff, absolutely not.
“But now, I would absolutely consider myself an artist — a cookie artist.”
Liddell said everyone enjoyed the event.
“We had a really good time Friday and Saturday,” Liddell said. “The teams were happy; the people were happy. It was a really good time.”
- Contact Jared Conerly at 662-581-7237 or jconerly@gwcommonwealth.com.
