VAIL, Ariz. (KGUN) — Bringing home the bacon isn't some sort of a metaphor this morning on Good Morning Tucson.
It's the real deal. I discovered a great country store; a local small business you're going to love that at first had me doing a double take.
I'm from Willcox and I know my hometown sits right along I-10, 80 miles east of Tucson in the heart of Cochise County. I could get there with my eyes closed.
So driving along Sahuarita Road near Corona de Tucson in what is technically Vail... well, this sign made hit the brakes.
Willcox? Country? Bacon?
What's this all about?
"We went with mesquite and we made apple and now maple bourbon, jalapeño and now we've even made nitrate-free."
Kirk Harris has been in the bacon business forever
"Really we have 7 types of bacon already going and that's enough for me. It's almost a little more than I wanted because I was ready to retire," Kirk told me.
Retirement might not be an option now that the Harris' brought the best of their four generations of experience ranching in the Sulphur Springs Valley to just south of Tucson.
"We've got the jalapeño summer sausage that's been very popular lately."
Kirk's daughter Kyleigh Wallace and her husband Jeremy just came home to the desert to support this small business which has doubled it's customer base in the last three years.
"We just kind of go with what people are wanting," Kyleigh said.
What do people want? To be in hog heaven.
According to the USDA, Americans eat more than 50 lbs of pork per year.
18 lbs of those savory servings?
That would be bacon.
"Straight from the processing plant to the reach-in to their tables. Yeah it makes all the difference," Jeremy said.
"You've got the ground meats. You've got your bones. You've got your fat and then you've got all your steaks and roasts."
Kole Harris doesn't remember doing anything else. And while they work in all kinds of meats...
"Most of the stuff that comes into our reach-in from our beef in Willcox," Kole said.
From the cattle business to catering to the hunters with wild game processing.
"We've just been doing it for so long I can't imagine doing anything else," Kole said.
Bacon is the biggest boom. Kole cuts up 2,000 lbs of pork belly every single month.
And while you don't always want to see how the sausage is made, the slicing and separating is something to behold.
"It saves a lot of time. Thick, medium, thin, I can do steaks," Kole said.
"We weigh it and package it all by hand. It's one lb. It's not 3/4 like the store."
Then you slap a label on it and into the "reach-in" it goes, ready for hungry passers-by without the middle man.
"Once the word of mouth was spreading here, they tell their friends and family, yeah, business is starting to pick up," Jeremy said.
What was once just in Willcox is now for city folks, too.
Willcox Country Bacon, Feed and Supply
2052 Sahuarita Rd.
Vail, AZ
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Dan Spindle co-anchors Good Morning Tucson on KGUN 9 and is an award-winning storyteller whose work has earned him honors from the Rocky Mountain Southwest Emmys, the Associated Press and the Utah Society of Professional Journalists for both anchoring and reporting. Dan is passionate about history and loves to explore the Grand Canyon State. Share your story ideas with Dan by emailing dan.spindle@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, or X.
