Great Turn Out In Newburgh

Tropic-Al's: Almost Surfside Dining

I did not know what to expect Saturday Feb 22nd when I arrived in Newburgh at Adams Fairacre Farms to set up for my class on Rubs, Marinades and BBQ sauces. Of the three Adams locations crowd turn out during seminar season is hard to predict.

I average 50-60 in my audiences on gardening topics. BBQ is a big business at Adams but small in comparison to gardening revenues. However the first two seminars I did in February at Adams Newburgh set the record for attendance. In excess of fifty were in attendance for both seed starting and bird feeding!

Things did not start out well! Upon unloading my gear I discovered an entire bottle of SESAME OIL spilled onto everything in the tub! What a mess.

So I took advantage of my extra time, I always show up two hours before the scheduled start time just in case, and cleaned up the mess.

As usual five minutes before the scheduled 1PM start time only five people were seated. The clock hit 1 I started talking and the fashionably late filled every seat. Standing room only crowd again!

The I hit my stride.........systematically measuring out the spices and herbs for my signature rub "Red State Blue State". Then it was on to "Not So Crude Oil" vegetable glaze which splashed up on my blue shirt.

Finally I finished with Tropic-Al's Partial Eclipse BBQ Sauce. Ahh! I can still smell the aroma of the thick tomato based concoction that, has yet to, made me famous.

The questions went throughout the talk and the most memorable was when a gentleman asked me what the difference was between BBQ and grilling. I took about five minutes to answer his question extolling on family memories of pig roasts that lasted all night long in Jackson South Carolina. At the end of my explanation I asked him if that answered his question. He said yes. And I answered back that in the time it took me to answer his question several hot dogs and hamburgers would have come off the grill by now. I said that is grilling: BBQ is an experience.

Tropic-Al's: A Banana Republic
in The Catskills