Two of my favorite summer events are the barbecue rib competitions at the Swift County Fair in Appleton and Dragonfest in Madison. Of course it has to do with food, imagine that! I usually don’t order ribs when we go out to eat, but at a ribfest event for me it’s like someone let a fox loose in a chicken coop. I am blessed to have a good friend who loves to barbecue ribs and is very good at it. He’s actually made it into a small part time business and it’s called “Big Tuck’s BBQ.” Dan Tuckett was the runaway Fan Favorite again at Madison’s Dragonfest Ribs and Wings competition Saturday for the fifth year in a row.

Dan has a secret barbecue sauce and he won’t even tell me what is in it. He always informs me that if he told me what he puts in his secret sauce that he would have to kill me! It’s all fun, but Dan is very serious when it comes to his barbecue. I know he loves to eat at Famous Dave’s and his barbecue sauce is very close to that of Famous Dave’s! Dan not only makes great ribs, but you should try his fried chicken! Dan and I go to the same church and a few years ago, Calvary Baptist would have Sunday night services and Dan would make his famous fried chicken for the church before the service. You had to get there early.

The Happy Hour Sports Bar in Madison has hosted the Rib and Wing event over the last five years and Chad and his crew do a great job. The Madison Chamber of Commerce does this for a fundraiser. A good number of Madison businesses get 38 racks of ribs each and barbecue them and then the people come in at 5pm and get one rib from each business. You can go back as many times as you wish. My wife Roxie and I were eating next to Madison Jr. Ambassador McKegn Giles, McKegn is small in stature and I think maybe going into 3rd grade. McKegn destroyed the ribs! He was having so much fun taste testing all the ribs. He would come back and back again with a plate full. I don’t know how he ate what he did! It was fun to watch him.

Dan’s dream is to have a food truck with his ribs, chicken and other food items that he loves to cook. It would go over big, but you almost need to be in a metro area to run a food truck. I pray that someday his dream will come true. He would be great at it. His son Isaiah has a cupcake business that recently was featured on television stations around the country and Isaiah’s story went viral on social media. It has been a great couple of months for the Tuckett family getting the recognition they so much deserve. Barbecuing and baking is their thing for sure!

Next Ribfest is the Swift County Fair in Appleton. You can count on me being there!