Hamming It Up For 4-H

Recently, my daughter joined 4-H. I might add that this was not of my doing, I had intended on her joining just not right this second. However, her grandmother stepped in, made the phone calls, had the Extension office mail the packet, and the deed was done. The only problem is that one of the projects is the country cured ham. You see, the 4-H er's that are on top of this sort of thing start curing just after the new year, today is February 12 and we just got the ham. So, needless to say, we are about 30 days behind schedule. Not to worry, being the courageous folks that we are and unhindered by this whole time constraint thing (not to mention I had little choice in the matter since Kylee already had her heart set on showing and selling a ham at the fair) we cured that ham.

 Please forgive the pictures, I forgot my camera at home and was forced to use my phone. It doesn't take the best pics and this is as big as I can make the picture while keeping it somewhat focused.

Kylee trimmed the ham to make it pretty. She was a little scared of the knife at first and really didn't want to touch the meat but after a while she got use to it and I think she did a great job.

Here's the ham after Kylee got done trimming it. Ain't it perdy.

 Once the trimming was complete, it was time for the curing. She actually enjoyed this part because she got a chance to get messy (although she didn't want to stick here finger down the hock). She smacked, rubbed, patted, and piled the cure on gingerly.

After all was said and done, they wrapped it and bagged it and now it is sitting in preparation to be hung in a few days.

 This big boy (or girl, I didn't meet the pig) will soon be hanging from the rafters in my parent's riding shed. Now that the easy part is done it's up to Kylee (and me, of course) to keep an eye on the ham. I can't wait until she has to open it in about 30 days to clean it. I won't forget my camera for that event!

A BIG thank you goes out to Richard and Kristen, owners of 4 Quarters Processing in Perry. They were great with Kylee and she really enjoyed the process.

Stop by and try their sausage. Waylon loved it!

Thank you again Kristen and Richard!

Have you ever done a country cured ham? I love to here from you.