Situation

Pendleton County, Kentucky is primarily an agricultural community that evolves with today’s innovative sustainable agriculture. It is important to keep history alive by educating youth on past historical farming methods such as the simple technique of curing a country ham. 

Educational Response

The 4-H Country Ham project teaches youth the steps to curing two country hams and further encourages youth development by requiring a 3 to 5 minute speech to be delivered upon completion of the project. While the speech may send some youth out of their comfort zone, they are engaging in research for the speech content as well as public speaking which are both life skills and workforce preparation skills they will utilize throughout their entire lives. 

Target Audience

This project draws a broad representative of youth from Pendleton County with youth from elementary through high school, homeschool students, and those with and without agriculture experiences. 

Outcomes

During 2018, 11 youth cured hams and delivered their speech at the state competition. One hundred percent of the youth shared the common goal of advancing their public speaking skills. One Pendleton County 4-H member won their category in the country ham speech competition at the Kentucky State Fair and further won the age division with combined scores for their country ham and speech. 

Pendleton County offers a ham auction to conclude the Country Ham project which allows youth participants to sell one ham. Country ham participants utilize marketing skills and life skill by talking to potential buyers (individuals and businesses) throughout the community to attend the ham auction to purchase a ham and/or make donations towards the 4-Her’s project. The Pendleton County ham auction had record sales of $5325.