The 4-H Country Ham Project is very well known state-wide. It encourages over 800 youth on a yearly basis to learn the process of curing a country ham and sharpening their public speaking skills by preparing and presenting a speech at the Kentucky State Fair. Youth strive year after year to perfect their cure mixture and add those special touches to their speech to make them stand out. It is truly an amazing program that the state of Kentucky and Cooperative Extension Service can take pride in. 

Here in Robertson County, we have always offered the project, but youth had to go out of county to complete it...until 2018. In 2018, we received enough grant funding to purchase a ham house and not only bring the project back to the county, but also offer it to community members who may want to cure their own hams. It has became its very own program that the youth and adults look forward to each year. 

Like many other counties, once the state fair had come and gone, the participants took their hams home and cooked them however they saw fit. Some people even took their hams to butcher shops in other counties to be sliced. They would have to travel to other counties for this service, but most of the times, it would be impossible to get on the schedule since the meat industry hit a boom when COVID hit.

With all of this in mind, when the 2020-2021 Agriculture Mini-Grants came out, I had a conversation with our Agriculture Education Teacher about the possibility of purchasing a meat saw to slice the hams once the project was complete. We worked together to find what types of equipment was needed and the cost of it. I then applied for the grant to purchase three things: a meat band saw, a digital scale, and a vacuum sealer system. We were awarded the grant and all equipment was purchased. Our Extension Office does not have a great deal of space, so he allowed me to store the saw in his classroom and we would process all of the hams at the school so that transportation would not be an issue. 

The result is that each September, if someone completed the country ham project with Robertson County, they have the option of taking their hams whole or having them sliced. We pick one day to do the slicing and educate his classes on the process of curing country hams, the project as a whole, and how we will be slicing/packaging the ham. His classes help with the packaging so that we are able to move through each ham fairly quickly. They are packaged in a vacuum sealed package so that they are ready to be put in the freezer and cooked at a later date. 

In 2022, we were able to slice 15 hams for individuals who completed the project, and that is about half of the hams we had cured all together. For 2023, we have increased our number of hams being cured to 44, so if the trend continues, we will increase the number we slice! This was a great addition to our program because it teaches the youth an additional step to the process and also helps out those who do want them sliced by offering it in county.