"TSBJ" was founded by Francisco Garcia (Pancho), born January 29, 1908, in a rural area 60 miles SE of San Antonio, TX.  He was a descendent of Native American Apache Culture, and believed to be a descendent of Jose Garcia, born in 1836, in nearby Medina, Texas. 

 

Pancho had 2 sisters and 3 brothers.  His love for farming, agriculture and cooking began his journey of preparing dried beef, now known as beef jerky.  Steve Wofford, his grandson, would become heavily influenced by his grandfather's journey and continues this fine art of handcrafting jerky in Central Florida today.

 

In the early 1900's, Francisco met his wife, Anastasia Garcia, and together they married and raised 9 children.  In order to provide for his family, he used the process of preparing and smoking beef until it was dried that would keep and manage to feed them all through the winter.  Beef was the primary protein source; however, other food sources were experimented with when available.  Whichever protein was used, it was a very careful process that took lots of love and care.

 

Due to minimal electricity and refrigeration in the early 1900's in these rural areas, Francisco utilized native ways that were taught to him by his elders in preparing dried beef (jerky).  He converted a 200 square foot framed tool shed with tin siding into the smoke house.

 

Rosie Garcia, Francisco's daughter, still remembers some of these processes, (in the 1950's) per his instructions, to hang the beef on a "clothes line" with thin strips of wood, building a small wooden fence to allow the meat to dry. Prior to this, he and his wife would season the meat with a special seasoning that only he knew what he put into it.  Rosie and the family remembers how good it smelled and how hungry it made them all feel just from the smell of the seasoning. Rosie says that her nephew has done a fantastic job re-creating the same smoky flavor has his grandfather Francisco and said it brings back her childhood memories.

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As the beef cured and was allowed to naturally dry, Pancho caring for it, people would be asking Pancho when it would be ready.  He would smoke dry huge slices of meat, that would take almost 2 weeks to complete and be ready for consumption.  Folks would come from as far away as 8 miles to get some of this dried meat, maybe further. Back then, 8 miles was a long 8 country miles on foot. Well worth the effort however.

 

Pancho made his last batch of beef jerky when he was his seventies in the late 1980's. He would make it in smaller quantities for the love of it, which was just as good as when Rosie remembered it years ago when she was just a little girl.

 

His grandson, Steve Wofford, started helping his grandfather make jerky at around the age of nine in 1976, clearing the tools from the shed (smokehouse), preparing the dirt floor and forming a rock fire pit to fill with dried Texas mesquite wood, assisting him with hanging up large strips the size of his arm on hooks than hung from over the tool shed beams, and tending the fire until smoke started to seep from the cracks through the shed (old fashioned thermostat).  He watched his grandfather looking at the thick smoke and saying it would be ready in a coupe of weeks. Steve remembers knawing all day and wearing out his jaw muscles rying to devour thank chunk of jerky.

  

Pancho was an extraordinary man and made his journey into the universe at the age of 83, August of 1991.  He is loved and remembered to this day for the dried beef that he handcrafted with the care, dedication, passion & love. Pancho embraced  this type of lifestyle and his family's love for his  jerky.

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Since the passing of his grandfather, Steve started making the jerky for himself & family around 2007. Well soon friends & neighbors starting asking if they could buy some. Everywhere Steve would go with his jerky, people would say "Mmmm, I smell bbq or smoke or something!" Over the last 10 years, people have requested to buy some of this legendary jerky. So now, in 2017  "Texas Smokehouse Beef Jerky" has launched this website to bring the community jerky as it should be. Steve, along with his wife Kem, & son Tristan have developed new flavors to enjoy that are amazing. Please share with Steve and the Garcia family the wonderful jerky products that have made folks both in TX and FL very happy for so many years. As we continue to grow, we will continue to satisfy!  Taste the SMOKE!!!