Great News

The biggest challenge with an offset smoker is keeping the paint on and around the firebox looking good. The heat in the firebox is intense and it takes regular maintenance to keep the firebox from rusting. And if your firebox metal is thin, the problem will be even worse than if you have a Meadow Creek Smoker or other heavy duty smoker.

Meadow Creek’s insulation upgrade for their smoker fireboxes has been a great success. The insulation keeps more heat inside the smoker, which keeps the paint nicer on the outside and drastically reduces the amount of charcoal and wood it takes to cook.

Turns out, there is something even more—something beyond this fancy-pants double-wall insulated firebox—you can add to a Meadow Creek smoker trailer to make it even more durable and maintenance free. As is often the case, we can blame this idea (a good kind of blame) on Tom from Smoke’n Dudes.

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Do you possess an iPad and a craving for great barbecue? We are just “bursting with flavor” to spread the word about StoryQue, our monthly barbecue magazine on iPad’s Newsstand.

It’s been a lot of fun working with the pros on this project. Contributors for this magazine include Jeff Phillips, Michael Pitre from Heaven Made Products, Bill Anderson from the Chatham Artillery BBQ Team, Hot Grill on Grill Action from BBQ Revolution, the folks from National Barbecue Association, and more. We have been amazed how eager and helpful these guys are to be involved.

StoryQue is filled with recipes, tips, reviews, business stories, and other sizzle that will have you drooling in no time. Based on the response of current contributors, I expect we’ll have a few more writers on board very soon.

Last week, we published the second issue and Jeff Phillips from Smoking-Meat.com is on the cover. In this issue, he tells his story about how he got started smoking meat and cooking outdoors. (You’ve probably heard of him through his online community or delicious email newsletter.) He’s even created a recipe called “Pig Pops” especially for this issue of StoryQue.

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Before you invest lots of money in equipment, you should ask yourself, Will I be able to get replacement parts? Where will I turn if I need service? It’s good to think about future support in case you lose a cooking grate or can’t get your rig up to temperature.

Meadow Creek is an example of a thriving, advancing brand. They are constantly looking for ways to improve their equipment, and Melvin (the owner at Meadow Creek) is always there to help resolve problems, such as freight damage and other unfortunate situations.

Beyond the changes I mention in this blog post, Meadow Creek is already working on more changes, such as better paint and solid rubber tires for the small models.

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Do you cook on a Meadow Creek cooker, love photography, and run on barbecue? Here is your chance to get rewarded for your photography skills. Meadow Creek is running their first ever photo contest and the grand prize is pretty juicy. I know we have some good photographers in our customer family, and would really love to see our customers win this contest. 🙂

Deadline for submissions: June 12.

Here is a list of the prizes:

Grand Prize: Photo will be printed on the cover of the 2012 Meadow Creek catalog along with name and location. Photo may be used in other advertising or marketing efforts. Winner will receive a $500.00 gift certificate redeemable at any Meadow Creek dealer toward any Meadow Creek equipment, accessory, or supply.

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Last week Meadow Creek had their annual dealer meeting and Open House. Marlin and I always make sure we’re there for the dealer meeting and at least part of the open house.

It was absolutely great being there again. I came home with some new inspiration, as well as confirmations of things I need to be doing to sell more Meadow Creek equipment. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t promote schemes that trick people into buying our smokers and grills. I’ll leave that for the schematic tricksters who are content with forcing people to make decisions.

My goal is to educate the people in my market and help them achieve their goals. One of those goals is to grill chicken for events, such as fund-raisers, auctions, open houses, weddings, etc. Not just grill chicken, but chicken that is perfect from head to toe. Fully cooked on the bone, but not dried out on the surface. Cooked uniformly from east to west, north to south. Not just perfect chicken, but huge amounts of it.

Does this sound like your dream? Meadow Creek chicken cookers make it easy as pie to grill perfect chicken for hundreds. It was fun to see it done again last week.

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As some of you already know, my birthday was this week. We don’t all feel love and appreciation the same way, but gifts really strike a chord in my heart. My wife had a great time getting ready for my birthday. Instead of putting 28 candles on the cake (I guess I’m officially too old for candles now), she wrapped up 28 gifts. Please don’t think I got 28 smokers and grills. 🙂 A lot of the gifts were small items, such as jeans, peanut butter candy, and camera gear on my Amazon wishlist.

Marlin (my brother who works in sales) grilled chicken for us on his Meadow Creek BBQ26S Chicken Cooker. My wife made some sides and a chocolate / peanut butter cake with a chocolate glaze. (It was too good.) We had a great time with my whole family in the evening.

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