Keeping up with the joneses single by Nikki

keeping up with

THE JONESES Article by Natalie Kirbo, Photos by Mills Brock

Southern Culture feature article BROUGHT TO YOU BY SOUTHERN FORESTRY REALTY

Jones Country Meats, a south Georgia staple, is a family owned and operated old fashioned butcher shop

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GET ‘EM WHILE THEY’RE HOT

Walk in the door of Jones Country Meats in Climax, Georgia on any given day around 9:30 in the morning: you’ll be nearly knocked over by the unmistakable aroma of fresh, crunchy, piping hot, deep fried pork skins. Arrive closer to eleven and you’ll be disappointed to find only a bin full of crumbs.

Walt Pork Skin Fryer Extraordinaire

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KEEPIN THE FA Walt, pork skin fryer extraordinaire, has been frying up perfectly crisp skins for over 30 years for the Jones family. Somewhat of a rarity these days, many of the employees at Jones Country Meats have been working alongside the Jones family from the very beginning. Randall Jones and his wife, Marilyn, along with his sister, Sue, and her husband, Jerry Baggett, Sr. started Jones Country Meats. Jerry Baggett, Sr. passed away in 2011 and Randall is now partners with Jerry’s son, Jerry Wayne.

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NG IT IN AMILY Randall’s son-in-law, Jeff Windham, also works at the business. Jeff has recently added the popular jalepeño and cheese fresh link sausage and beef jerky to the selection at Jones. Jerry Wayne’s 16-year-old son, Collier, spends summers and holidays selling various items of his own making, including pecan pies and peanut brittle that are worth the trip alone. He sold over 100 pecan pies this Thanksgiving alone! Every member of the Jones family has worked in the shop at some point or another.

Randall Jones Co-Owner of Jones Country Meats Sign up here for our weekly newsletter or text “SOFOREAL” to 22828 | SOUTHERN FORESTRY REALTY | PAGE 5

LIGHTING THE FIRE A family affair from the get-go, Randall’s father began smoking meats in his own smokehouse long before Jones Country Meats as we know it now. In the late seventies, an inspector dropped by the family smokehouse to let them know that if they were going to keep this up, they’d better do it right. The fire lit, on March 2, 1980 and Jones Country Meats opened its doors for (official) business. Randall says he and Jerry started the operation on hope and a prayer. He tells the story of the first inspector who stopped by the shop.

“Boys, you’re going to need at least a million dollars to operate this place!” “Well sir, we’ve got $30,000 of borrowed money, and we’re going to have to make do with that.” Sure enough, they managed to turn a profit by the end of the first year of business, but things were tight.

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THE FAMOUS SMOKED CHOPS Thanks to all the country hams they sold around the holidays, the Jones were faced with an overwhelming cooler full of extra pork loins. “We were practically giving them away! …and eating a whole lot of pork,” Randall says with a wink. Serendipitously, another inspector tipped the scales in their favor around their second holiday season. He suggested that they smoke their pork loins, and that’s how their famous “smoked chops” were born.

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Those smoked chops have made the Jones family popular in meat-eating circles all over the Southeast, but the family business goes far beyond pork skins and smoked pork chops. Jones Meats stays busy making their own country hams, salt-cured ham hocks, smoked bacon, souse, sausage, and more recently, they’ve branched out into beef jerky.

CUT TO ORDER Always cut to order, you can get any cut of beef, pork, or lamb as fresh as it gets. They process meat, including venison, for local hunters and farmers, as well. In the front of the shop, freezers full of flash-frozen vegetables and frozen biscuits line the walls. Cured hams and sides of bacon dangle tantalizingly close to shoppers. Local jams, jellies and sauces surround the long counter where orders are weighed and customers salivate. Towards the holidays, crowds gather to purchase main dishes for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals and gift boxes for giving. After all, what better way to say, “Merry Christmas!” than with a couple pounds of bacon? The Joneses know the regulars by name and by order and by Christmas list.

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TO TOP IT ALL OFF This renaissance man, who is even an organic farmer, builds furniture. In addition to custom pieces for local furniture haven H&H Furniture in Havana, Florida and private clients, he also builds shabby chic furniture out of his collection of odds and ends and a plethora of old doors. This is a custom tobacco slat frame built for a customer that Marc happened to have on hand to show us. He also turns these tobacco slats into trays, wall art, and the occasional side table.

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Image from www.pixgood.com

IN TIMES PAST Once upon a time, butcher shops like Jones Country Meats were found in nearly all small Southern towns. Every community needed a smokehouse and every bend in the road had one. These days, many of those same smokehouses and butcher shops have shattered, along with so many other local, family-run businesses. Maybe the big box stores are to blame for running the mom-and-pop shops out of business, with their low prices and 24-hour availability. Maybe the younger generations went off to college and simply never made it back to small towns and small businesses. Whatever the reason, local butcher shops are often remnants of the past. The ones that are left are considered novelties.

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NOT JUST A PASSING TREND In fact, these days there is a resurgence of interest in these “novelties.” Called “locavores,” these trend-setters seek out the mom-and-pop shops, hold small business Saturdays, and shake their farmers’ hands at the farmers’ market. They may find themselves holding a number in line at Jones Meats, patting themselves on the back for shopping with their local butcher. While all this is commendable (and to be encouraged!), the Jones Country Meats faithful don’t shop there because they are locavores; they’ve simply been lining up for thirty years to get the freshest, finest meats in Southwest Georgia.

TAKE A NUMBER Jones Country Meats is open Monday through Friday from 8 am- 6 pm, and Saturdays from 8 am to noon. Don’t be late! You’ll miss the pork skins. You can find them at 4214 Thomasville Road Climax, GA 39834 229.246.3700

FEATURED WRITER: NATALIE KIRBO Wildlife Ecology Major turned Lawyer. Blogger. Writer. Maker. Home Cook. Gardener. Beekeeper. Native Floridian. Georgia Transplant. Handmade- and Locally-Minded. Small Southern Town Enthusiast. Co-owner of Maiden South. Visit her website at OystersandPearls.net

Southern Forestry Realty is a regional firm with extensive knowledge of the land market in North Florida, Southwest Georgia, and Southeast Alabama. Visit us online at SouthernForestryRealty.com or call 229.246.5785. Sign up here for our weekly e-newsletter or text “SOFOREAL” to 22828