keeping up with

THE JONESES

Jones Country Meats,a south Georgia staple, is

a family owned andoperated old fashioned

butcher shop

Article by Natalie Kirbo, Photos by Mills Brock

Southern Culturefeature article

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GET ‘EM WHILETHEY’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.

WaltPork Skin FryerExtraordinaire

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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.

KEEPING IT INTHE FAMILY

Jerry Wayne BaggettCo-Owner of Jones

Country Meats

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Randall JonesCo-Owner of Jones

Country Meats

KEEPING IT INTHE FAMILY

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.

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“Boys, you’re going to need at least a million dollars to operate this place!”

Sure enough, they managed to turn a profit by the end

of the first year of business, but things were tight.

“Well sir, we’ve got $30,000 of

borrowed money, and we’re going to have to make do with that.”

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.

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THE FAMOUSSMOKED 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.

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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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IN TIMES PASTOnce 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 shuttered, 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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Image from www.wkcurrent.com

Image from www.pixgood.com

NOT JUST A PASSING TRENDIn 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.

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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.

FEATURED WRITER: NATALIE KIRBOWildlife 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

TAKE A NUMBERJones 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

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