Georgia Flavor: Five Southwest Georgians are finalists in state food competition

ATHENS — Five south Georgia businesses will have a place at the table later this month when the 10th annual Flavor of Georgia Food Product Contest.

Organizers said this year’s contest attracted a record 135 entries in 11 categories. Three finalists were named last week in each category, and those 33 contestants will be in the final round of judging set for March 14-15 at the Georgia Railroad Freight Depot in Atlanta. Category and grand prize winners will receive trophies, and the grand prize winner will get complimentary exhibit space at the Georgia Food Industry Association’s annual conference, along with consultation services from the University of Georgia Food Product Innovation and Commercialization Center.

From Southwest Georgia, finalists are Joe Kem’s Bar-B-Que by Joe Kem’s Bar-B-Q of Moultrie in the barbecue sauce category; Paulk’s Pride White Muscadine Juice by Paulk’s Pride in Wray in beverages; Wisham Jellies Wild Mayhaw Pepper Jelly by Wisham Jellies of Tifton, and two of the three finalists in the meat and seafood category — Chorizo Sausage by White Oak Pastures of Bluffton and Medium Cooked Link Sausage from Carroll’s Sausage and Meats of Ashburn.

“It’s definitely an honor when you get that close,” Johnny Walker, manager of business development for Carroll’s, said of placing in the top three for meats and seafood. “We’re definitely looking forward to going to Atlanta and competing on the 14th and 15th.”

He said it’s a good opportunity to get Carroll’s brand out in front of more people. The company has stores in Albany, Sylvester and Thomasville in addition to Ashburn.

“It’s a good way to let people become more aware of how good our product is,” Walker said. “We have a super good product.”

He said Carroll’s doesn’t use any filler in its sausage. “You’re eating good sausage when you eat ours,” he said.

Carroll’s category competitor near the Alabama line, White Oak Pastures, has had some success in the statewide contest before. Executive Chef Reid Harrison said this was the farm’s fourth or fifth time entering, and his third with the company. It’s also his second time as a finalist with White Oak.

“We were thrilled to find out we made it as a finalist, especially with such fierce competition from all across the state,” he said. “We always consider it an honor to be named a finalist.”

Like Carroll’s, White Oak doesn’t use any filler in its sausage. Harrison described his chorizo as a milder, raw, un-smoked sausage with “a great south of the border flavor.”

“In my opinion,” he said, “Georgia raises some of the best meat and produce in the country, so I consider it an even bigger honor to have made it as one of the three finalists in the meat category.”

The competition has a positive effect on business, he said, saying there is definitely “an increase of web traffic and overall interest in our products when we highlight the Flavor of Georgia event with the added marketing material.”

While the competition is good for the contestants’ businesses, it also benefits Georgia, said Chris Paulk, CEO of Paulk’s Pride. “We’re very excited about the publicity and exposure,” he said. “And it really is a great tool from the state’s perspective.”

Last year, the Irwin County company won the beverage category with its purple muscadine juice and hopes to make it two in a row with the white juice that it has been producing for about a decade and a half. “We’re just very honored about this,” he said.

Paulk said the company sells part of its grapes to stores. “You can find it seasonally in all the supermarkets,” he said, adding the remaining part of the grapes are used in juices and other healthy products. He’s third-generation with the family company.

“My grandfather planted the first muscadines 45 years ago,” Paulk said. “He really pioneered the fresh muscadine industry.”

Paulk said the family began exploring all the possible products for the grapes after discovering “how healthy muscadines are for you.”

The contest provides a unique chance to network with companies that a firm might be able to do business with. “We’ve been able to meet some people that otherwise we might not have had the opportunity to meet,” he said.

That’s something that Joe Kem Lacey of Moultrie is hoping to do. Lacey’s been making his barbecue sauce since the 1990s, and in the last several years he and his son, Jay, have been working to get their product into more supermarkets and stores. Currently, they have a regular and hot sauce and a barbecue rub that they’re marketing.

“I’ve been messing with it about 25 years,” he said. “Mostly we’ve just had it in the little mom-and-pop stores, just real limited in places.”

Lacey said he was happy to have placed in the top three in the sauce category, especially since he almost missed entering it.

“We’d seen it (the contest) for years, but we never entered it,” he said. “We had some people tell us we needed to enter our product. Jay just went ahead and did it. I think he sent it in on the last day.”

Lacey almost missed out altogether on the recipe that made him a finalist in his first try at the Flavor of Georgia. The sauce originated with an older man whom Lacey’s father allowed to place a mobile home on their property following the man’s divorce.

“Old Mr. J.V. lived sort of next door,” Lacey said. “He put his trailer down there and we got to be good buddies.”

J.V. had a great barbecue sauce and an equally great fondness for Black Velvet liquor. As Lacey explored barbecuing, he arrived at an agreement with J.V. He’d give J.V. a bottle of Black Velvet, and when it was gone the old man would clean out the bottle, mix up his sauce and exchange it with Lacey for another bottle of the liquor.

“We’d swap sauce for sauce,” Lacey said.

When J.V. died, Lacey said, he thought the recipe had died with him. “I thought I’d never know what all was in it,” he said.

But shortly after J.V.’s death, a friend of his handed Lacey a piece of paper, saying his old friend had wanted him to have it. On the paper was J.V.’s barbecue sauce recipe.

“It was a little hot,” Lacey said. “I toned it down a little bit and came up with Joe Kem’s.” The original recipe, he said, is more along the lines of his hot version.

Lacey and the other finalists will bring their products to the final round of judging as part of Gov. Nathan Deal’s Ag Day at the Capitol. Sharon P. Kane, contest coordinator and an economist with the UGA Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, said selecting winners is no easy task.

“Each year it becomes more difficult to select finalists because each year the field of products submitted to the Flavor of Georgia contest is better, more diverse and more innovative than the year before,” said Kane, a food business development specialist who, along with her colleagues, has organized the annual contest since 2007.

UGA officials said that judges for the final round will include food brokers, grocery buyers, chefs and other food industry experts. They will judge each entry based on commercial appeal, Georgia theme, taste, innovation and market potential in each category, officials said.

Each finalist will receive a one-year silver-level Georgia Grown membership from the Georgia Department of Agriculture and a customized Flavor of Georgia logo for their label and promotional materials. They’ll also have the opportunity to acquaint grocery buyers and food industry professionals who judge the final round with their products.

The Flavor of Georgia Food Product Contest is organized by the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development with support from Georgia Center of Innovation for Agribusiness, the Office of the Governor, Walton EMC, the Georgia Department of Agriculture and the Georgia Agribusiness Council.

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