Learning from Mom: Levern Darby

Levern Darby at Cooper's Country Store, Salters, South Carolina. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Women remain a rarity in professional barbecuedom, especially in the realm of whole-hog cookery. But Levern Darby learned from his mother, Naomi, who slaughtered hogs and sold the oak-smoked barbecue from the trunk of her car, outside of what would later be named Cooper's Country Store in Salters, SC. Darby has now worked at the Store going on 36 years. There he watches that the hogs are cooked right, the way Mom taught him.

Audio and Text by Rien Fertel
Click the play button below to listen to Levern. 

Levern Darby works in the kitchen at Cooper's Country Store, Salters, South Carolina. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Barbecue cooked by Levern Darby at Cooper's Country Store, Salters, South Carolina. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)