Ryan's had a passion for cooking since he was a kid. For years that passion just lived in a dream — a restaurant, a food truck, something that let him feed people and watch their faces on the first bite. That's where the joy has always been for him.
"Have you ever smoked pretzels?" Ryan hadn't. So he fired up the smoker, ran a small batch, and knew immediately there was something real here. What followed was months of experimenting with flavors, techniques, and recipes until Back 40 BBQ's first product was born: Garlic Parmesan smoked pretzels.
At the start of 2026, Ryan and his wife Holly launched Back 40 BBQ together — a family business in every sense of the word.
Handles operations, cooking, and sales. Every show, every batch, starts with him.
Runs the books, designs the vendor booth, and keeps Ryan grounded when the ambition starts outpacing the plan.
Helps with cooking and packaging — old enough now to run her own station at a show.
Holds the most important title in the company: Head Taste Tester. She does not take bribes.
The back 40 is the part of the land where the real work happens. No audience, no applause — just heads-down effort. That's the culture we wanted around this food.
But the number 40 runs a little deeper for us, too. In Scripture, 40 marks a season of preparation before something greater — forty days of rain, forty years in the wilderness, forty days before ministry began. Colossians 3:23 says to work at everything with your whole heart, as if working for the Lord. That's what this business is to us. We make pretzels. We serve food. But the real mission is building community and serving people well.
That line isn't a slogan we came up with for a website — it's the actual mission, and it's the reason a family of four spends its weekends running a smoker trailer instead of resting.
Farmers markets, church fundraisers, school events, local festivals across West Michigan — this is where we've built the business, one conversation and one sample at a time.
Real Amish butter. Legacy bourbon distilled in Hudsonville. Hand-shredded cheese, fresh jalapeños. When the ingredient can come from a neighbor instead of a distributor, that's who we call.
Pretzel platters, on-site smoking, and custom flavor blends for weddings, church events, and company parties — built around what your event actually needs.
Planning a market, fundraiser, or event in Holland? Reach out — we'd like to be part of it.
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