As technology continues to advance, young people’s written and verbal communication skills continue to lack, which are important life skills they need to acquire; therefore, the Trimble County 4-H program promotes the 4-H Country Ham Project where youth gain these life skills.  The 4-H Country Ham Project also teaches 4-H members about food preservation and the time-honored tradition and history of curing country hams.

Trimble County has not participated in this project before 2021.  In the first year, we have had Three 4-H members and three adults expressed interest in trying this program this year.  Last year, we have had Three 4-H youth, and Nine adults participating in the 2022 program year.  This year, we have six youth and 23 adults participate, which is an increase of participation by 141.6%.

The 4-H Country Ham project begins in January when each participant received two raw hams. The 4-H members choose their hams, trimmed them from the hock, weighed them, applied cure mix to them, wrapped them tightly in paper and placed them in socks to hang until spring in the ham house.  In May, the Trimble County 4-H Members will return and scrub their hams clean, washed them, and place them back in ham socks to hang a little longer.  In the meantime, the 4-H members are preparing for their speech/essay to present at the 4-H Country Ham Day at the Kentucky State Fair; each member will write their own speech based on their experience with the 4-H Country Hams Project this year.    For the final step in August, the Trimble County 4-H members will clean their hams once more, weighed each of their hams and selected which ham they believed to be the best to send to the Kentucky State Fair to be judged and exhibited.  

During the 4-H Country Ham Day at the Kentucky State Fair, over 600 4-H Members across the state gather to present their speeches and experience the state fair for the first time.  In 2021, three Trimble County 4-H Members participated in the project for the first time. They have thoroughly enjoyed the program and learned a lot.  Verbal comments from the participants included, “This was really fun,” and “This was not nearly as hard to do as I expected.” 

We have two 4-H members repeating this program in their third year, one participating in their second year, and we have had three new 4-H member join us this year.  The Trimble County 4-H Youth are looking forward to participating in the rest of this project this year, and all have expressed interest in repeating this again next year.