Salt and pepper are just salt and pepper, but not after Gary Mevius, AKA the Spice Guy, gets done with them.
He’s even been known to make sugar taste something more than just sweet.
“I do smoked paprika, smoked salts and peppercorns,” Mevius said.
He markets his concoctions under the label of SmokeLicked Seasonings, and spends several weeks each year as a vendor at the Pittsburg Farmers Market, in conjunction with Ed Cook, Liberal, Mo., his longtime friend.
“I cook Ed’s vegetables, and try to show people how to cook things differently,” Mevius said. “
“Everything we grow, he can figure out something to do with it,” said Cook, who said he grows about 20 different vegetables at his Berry Function Farm. “Except turnips.”
The two men attended college together in the 1960s at Missouri Southern State College, Joplin. Mevius later left the area and traveled extensively in his work.
“I worked for the government, and retired three years ago,” he said. “I drove west until I saw mountains, snow, skiing, elk hunting and trout fishing and said, ‘I’m home’. Now I live in Montrose, Colo., but come back every year to visit my folks, who live right across the state line.”
Mevius began experimenting with herbs, grilling and smoking after a friend gave him a gift of smoked Spanish paprika and he tried to duplicate it.
“It was a hobby that grew into a business,” he said. “At first I’d give my seasonings to friends, then some of them started saying, ‘Let me pay you for that’. Now it has threatened to take over my life.”
He enjoys being at the Pittsburg Farmers Market every year.
“It has been very good,” Mevius said. “We get not only traditional cooks here, but kids from Pittsburg State University who want to experiment.”
His booth is the last at the eastern end of the market, just past Cook’s vegetables.
“This way, people have to walk all the way back to get to me, and they’ve already bought natural meats and produce,” Mevius said. “I show them what to do with it.”
He always gives away samples of his seasonings, sprinkling them over a dab of cream cheese on a cracker.
“For my smoked salts, I use a coarse sea salt, smoke it for 30 hours over a variety of hardwoods and then add a variety of seasonings,” Mevius said.
