Snowy January days, early morning drives to pick up green hams have become a tradition for the Lincoln County 4-H Agent. On January 20, 2025 the 4-H Country Ham Project began. We had 9 4-H youth, 5 clover buds, and 10 adults who joined us in learning how to cure a country ham. This project is planned by Dr. Rentfrow (Meat Science Professor University of KY) and a committee made up of numerous 4-H Agents from across the state, Oxbow Meats, and Clifty farms. Lincoln County put 42 hams into cure on Jan. 20th. You may ask "How does a person cure a ham?"

There are a few steps:

1.Obtain the green (raw) ham

2. Trim the hock

3. Trim the excess fat and hanging meat off, to create a nice even shaped ham

4. Obtain cure mix

5. Wet cure mix so that it packs together

6. Pack the ham hock, cover the red meat with cure fully

7. Wrap the ham in non-waxed butcher paper

8. Place ham in ham sock, hock end down

9. Hang the ham off the ground in cold, dry environment for 45-60 days

The Lincoln County Hams are curing now, we are excited to see how the turn out. Youth receive and cure 2 hams and must give a speech  their  best ham is judged at the Kentucky State Fair in August. Clover buds, and Adults can take theirs home in August and eat them or store them for the holidays, participants were also given a SNAP recipe that used country ham.