Later, my life took me to the American Southeast, and there I gained a new joy – that of barbecue – another great food cooked with heat and smoke.  I enjoyed my new adventures trying all types of barbecued foods in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida.  The great tastes of ribs, pork, beans, and rice all blended together with great smokes and sauces.  These flavorful memories I brought home with me to the West. 

Over the years, I continued to cook and enjoy the outdoors, developing a love for the grill, Dutch oven cooking, hearth breads, and about anything else I could cook using fire and smoke.  Trips to Tennessee, San Antonio, and Kansas City awakened my love for barbecue foods of all types.  This time, however, I had the opportunity to begin to cook many of these great foods – trying them out on family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors.  I always looked for opportunities to cook, share and to celebrate my food discoveries. 

Eventually, I decided to share my patriotic love of America, the outdoors and food at the same time with my family and neighbors.  As a community, we began celebrating the fourth of July as a block party barbecue.  Each year I would slow smoke barbecue enough beef to feed our neighborhood of 250 hungry people.  This event soon became a tradition with a local parade and a grand meal. 

It was out of this event that Cowhand Table Sauce was born.  Developed initially as an accompaniment to the slow-cooked brisket, the sauce was smoked many hours alongside the meat in the pit smoker.  This slow, smoke cooking infused flavors into the sauce.  Soon the sauce became a favorite and – because of its unique blend of smoke and seasoning – was being used on all types of foods.

The name “Cowhand” was chosen to honor the unique Western heritage of our sauce - not Southern, not Texan, nor Californian - but a blend of all the great ingredients from all the great parts of American into one unique flavor. 

To us, a Cowhand represents the our heritage of the American West.  It was the grit and determination of the hard-working Cowhands, ranchers, and pioneers pushing into new frontiers, doing the tough jobs that built the American West.  Cowhands weren't special - just tough, and in an everyday life achieved extraordinary results that affected millions of lives years later.  Much like today, there are many hard-working Americans doing the jobs everyday to make their lives better.

We salute the cowhands before, and those of today, whose principals of industry, thrift, respect, integrity and hard work created - and continues to create - our unique American lifestyle.  Thank you, to all, for not giving up, for being real Americans. 

 We hope we can share some of our Western life with you as you add a little Cowhand zest at your next meal, and we hope you become a Cowhand too.  Come on, join the Cowhand Herd!