This year, the Main Street United Methodist Church in McColl, S.C. is offering up something both tasty and tasteful.

Along with its annual Men's Barbecue, the church will hold a silent auction for handmade wooden bowls made by craftsman Jesse Adams.

The event is Saturday.

Adams donated 10 bowls to the men’s group, of which he is a member, to raise money for church projects.

Adams could not be reached for comment.

But he told the Marlboro Herald newspaper that always enjoyed working with wood, but the hobby took a back burner until he retired from the S.C. Forestry Commission in 1989.

“I’ve made many a bowl, but I’ve always given them away,” he said. “It’s just a hobby for me; I didn’t go into it to sell them.”

Adams guesses he’s made and given away several hundred bowls since he started, and he proudly says his bowls are being used as far away as Georgia, Florida, New Jersey and Colorado.

“My children, every time they come to visit, they walk out with one or two or three or four,” he told the newspaper. “But that’s what it’s all about.”

Each bowl is unique, with subtle variations in size, shape and pattern depending upon the kind of wood he uses.

Each bowl begins with a simple chunk of wood, usually “whatever they cut down around here.” Cherry is his favorite, but he also enjoys working with poplar, dogwood and tupelo, which is also known as black gum.

Once the bark is removed from the wood, he uses a lathe to shape each bowl, soaks them in distilled alcohol to force the water out and cut the curing time, and finally sands and finishes each so that it may be used for food.

While “the experts” can produce a bowl in an hour or two, he humbly said it takes him about four hours to cut and turn one to his liking.

“What I know about bowl turning is by hard knocks,” he told the newspaper, explaining that he started out with bud vases, “but they kept getting bigger and bigger.”

Mary Tatum, who is helping publicize the event, said bids for the bowls can be made prior to Saturday's barbecue.

"The opening bid for each of three larger bowls is $50," she said. "Each one is beautiful and I would imagine they would bring a lot more if sold commercially."

The plate sale will begin at 11 a.m. and run until about 6 p.m. Barbecue pork and barbecue chicken will be available. Plates are $6. Eat in or take out is available.

The church group expects to sell as many as 1,000 plates.

"It is something that we've been doing for the past 20 years," Tatum said. "It is for a good cause and the food is delicious."