Before the Vice President strolled out onstage at Jeff Duncan’s 9th Annual Faith and Freedom BBQ in Anderson, and before any of the other politicians arrived, before the crowds spilled in through the doors, before the Secret Service agents set up perimeters and mouthed directions into invisible microphones, and before even the cleaning crews had showed up at the Anderson Sports and Entertainment Center to sweep the floors and set up the chairs – before all that, Kurt Wickiser lit a match.
“One hundred percent wood,” Wickiser explained, describing the method he uses for his BBQ. “I do it like my grandfather did it. That’s what it’s about: carrying on the tradition.”
A native Andersonian, Wickiser is the pit-master man behind the massive vats of pulled pork, beans, cole slaw and BBQ sauce that was laid out, ready for the hungry crowds, at the yearly political rally/faith gathering/pump-up fest.
While all the media coverage since Monday’s event has been centered on the politicians, it’s the BBQ that truly gets the most stage time each year.
Wickiser takes pride in that.
But it sure does take a whole lot of work.
“We usually start about Wednesday,” he said, which gives the team at Creekside Barbecue a full five days of solid work in the lead up to the doors opening.
(Supplies for it, he explained, usually arrive even earlier)
First, the slaw: grinding it all up, mixing it together, getting it dumped in the proper containers.
The pulled pork comes next, starting the following day on Thursday, because you need a good amount of time to prepare more than 3,000 pounds of meat.
“You know we’ve had some really good years, fed up to about 2,500 people, but this year I think we’re definitely going to break the record,” Wickiser said.
Pots of beans get to bubbling a couple days later, and the sauce is tubbed up about the same time. Then there’s the challenge of transporting all that food to the venue, which requires a hearty amount of manpower and trucks.
But Wickiser says this event isn’t even the biggest one of the year.
“Not the biggest,” he clarified, “but we think it’s the most fun.”
Wickiser has been a supporter of the event’s host Rep. Jeff Duncan – whom he has dubbed “a downright great guy” – for years, and the dedication Wickiser brings to the event is evident in the quality of the food.
“You know one year we had Jim DeMint here, and he stopped a whole Congressional delegation and said the planes weren’t leaving until he got another plate of BBQ,” Wickiser recalled.
For him, though, it’s not even about politics. BBQ, unlike seemingly everything else in America these days, isn’t divided down party lines. Sure, there’s the never-ending debate about mustard-based vs vinegar-based, but as of yet there has been no blood shed over that distinction (we think).
So in Wickiser’s view of things, BBQ should be – and is –the great unifier.
“It’s about bringing people together,” Wickiser said. “That’s what it should be: something that unites us all.”