1KHO 799: Cook Outside and Watch Everything Change | Justin Jackson, Horse Pen Ranch

**Ginny Yurich** (0:00)
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Welcome to The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast. My name is Ginny Yurich. I'm the founder of 1000hours Outside. I have a really exciting guest today. This is like, I thought this was pretty happenstance how this happened, but I love what you're doing and I'm so glad you said yes. Justin Jackson from Horse Pen Ranch, and you do all these really cool things at Silver Dollar City, which I've been to. It's in Branson, Missouri. Welcome, Justin.

**Justin Jackson** (1:32)
Thank you. Glad to be here.

**Ginny Yurich** (1:34)
Okay. So here's how this happened. Your wife, Janissa, is like Dr. Janissa Jackson. She came on the show and she does a lot with brain health, and she had done a webinar. We're in Michigan. You're in Oklahoma. So she'd done this webinar here in Michigan, like it wasn't in Michigan. It was like through Zoom about brain health for a bunch of homeschoolers. And so then that's how we connected. And then I had this chance to talk with her about like all the things that she has to offer. And through the course of the conversation, you came up, like how you got, you know, you do this work and you do this kind of like almost cowboy cooking at Silver Dollar City. And I was like, well, I'm actually really interested in that too. And then you said, yes, you would come on. So, so once again, huge thanks for saying yes. Could you give us some of your back story? Like I was watching one of your YouTube videos and you were talking about your chuck.
Wait, what is it even called? I didn't even totally know what it was. Your chuck box.
I hadn't heard of that. I heard the phrase chuck wagon, but I hadn't heard chuck box. So where did, and then you've got your farm.

**Justin Jackson** (2:39)
Yeah.

**Ginny Yurich** (2:40)
Where did the interest start? Has it's been like from childhood or more?

**Justin Jackson** (2:44)
Oh, goodness. Yeah, that's a great question. So probably the interest started at a young age with just cooking with my grandmother. So that's kind of where it started. Both of my grandmas, but in particular, Lila, my, on my dad's side, she was really a creative cook, but trying a recipe, loved trying new recipes. And I was there quite a bit off and on.
So that was started with her. And then just the idea of cooking outside, going on camping trips with my cousins, not too far from the house, you know, outside and spending the night and cooking. And I was the oldest cousin. So just cooking, you know, a lot of stuff here, opening cans up and heating it up on the fire and on a pot, you know, simple stuff. And then from there, just getting older, doing what we call deer camp, hunting camps.
And I was always the cook. I loved the voluntary to be the cook and playing the meals out. And that happened throughout. We still do some of that today. But I just love the idea of cooking outside over the flames, over the fire, over the coals. And then from there, it kind of got in the Dutch oven cooking and, you know, smoking meat outside. Just anything outside. You can get outside and do it. I love it when it comes to cooking.