Batty Sisters win rainy cookoff
It was a case of making the most of a bad situation, as Apalachicola’s annual fundraiser for its volunteer fire department was beset by water and it wasn’t from its hoses.
In anticipation of what organizers knew would be a late morning and afternoon rain Saturday, organizers made sure they had plenty of tent space, and even began an hour early, making for a busy opening to the 15-year-old event, that had begun earlier in the week with the paint-out event held at the Apalachicola Center for History, Culture and the Arts, the headquarters for the cookoff.
In the parking lot next door, five teams cooked up a total of 10 entries on their little kitchens set up beneath a tent, making the most creative dishes they could out of oysters provided by the Rattlesnake Cove Oyster Company out of Apalachicola Bay.
Bill and Anne Avery were back, with their Hot Apalachicola Oysters, flavored with Viking Blood Mead and Jalapeno Hot Honey, from the Apalachicola Bee Company. They offered a dish of fried oysters, placed atop gouda grits and collard greens in cast iron ramekins.
Valerie Covington, Ben Padgett and Earl Solomon teamed up to make oyster eggrolls, which would win them third place.
Ted Okolichany, a perennial top finisher from Georgia, together with his daughter Megan created Oyster Crawfish Sliders, made with pimento cheese jalapeno peppers, and crawfish boudin, and Oysters Popeye, the latter of which would earn him the runner-up spot.
Randy Hunt, a retired firefighter from Maryland, whipped up an Oyster Stew served in a hand-decorated mug.
In the tent outside, volunteers cooked up their own blend of oyster stew, along with fried oysters, fried shrimp, peel and eat shrimp, and baked smoked oysters, the latter created by John Solomon and Grayson Shepard. Solomon, whose Butts and Clucks event is set for this Saturday in Apalachicola’s Battery Park, which will bring in 44 pro and semipro BBQ teams, said he flavored the dish with renowned BBQ expert Myron Mixon’s butt rub. Mixon will be among this Saturday’s competitors.
As the rain began, the food booth cut prices, to clear out any food supplies that had already been opened.
The panel of three judges, restaurateur Susan Gary, foodie Paula Kendrick and primary care physician Dr. Ryan Pharr, weighed each of the entries carefully, savoring their flavor and evaluating their presentation.
And then to know one’s great surprise, the Batty Sisters won it all, their second first place trophy to add to the 10 trophies they have won since 2018.
The nine-member team – Rebecca Nelson and husband John Pade and niece Jessie Pade; Chris Verlinde and son Jake Verlinde and daughter-in-law Felicia Verlinde; Amy Balzer, Annie Birch and Katie Sal, captured the judges’ imagination with homemade oyster ravioli with vodka sauce.
More important than even winning the top prize, the team raised close to $2,000 to earn the People’s Choice award, through the playing of different games, the sale of Bloody Mary’s and raffle baskets. It was the second time they won the People’s Choice award.
“The most important thing to us is fundraising but we work hard,” said Nelson. “We’re really just a group of friends and family that get together for the event goal to raise money and to have fun.”
The brass band Lofty Pursuits came down from Tallahassee to join in, sporting their tie-dyed t-shirts to go along with the Oyster Radio ones that the Batty Sisters always wear.
“It was like a sea of tie dye,” said Nelson.
The Batty Sisters, whose team name originated because they wear bat wing head bands, won their first competition trophy with an oyster egg roll and later would win trophies for an Oyster‐Stuffed, Roasted Poblano Pepper and the Ultimate Oyster Bloody Mary.
In 2023, the team won first place for Sesame Oysters on Crisp Wontons and the next year took second for Greek Oysters and third for Oysters Thermador. In October, the Batty Sisters entered the Gumbo Cook‐Off at the Apalachicola Yacht Club and won first place, with the money going to hurricane relief.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.