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.

This is the third year that Trimble County has participated in the Country Hams project.  This year, we have three youth and 21 adults participate.  This is the third year in a row that one of the youth has participated, and the second year that another has participated in the Country Hams Project.  

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 2023, six 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.” 

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.  Even the Adults that have participated, this is the third year that one of them has participated, and several of the adults, this is the second year that they have participated in this program.  One adult participant said, "This is such a fun program to participate in.  You get to see a glimpse of what our grandparents used to do every year to preserve their hams."  Another adult said, "I love this program.  I'll keep coming back every year that you will do this."