Anyone produce this kind of ham?

[texican]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...546_ham20.html

Nice hams if you can afford it... 2100$ for one ham, works out to ~$160/lb. I went over to the website, thinking this was going to be some really special hog, with daily massages and yoga class... turns out, it sounds like they're just like the hogs I harvest off my place... feral hogs. The hogs I harvest are free ranging, and fatten up on acorns.

I'd love for it to be cool enough here to be able to hang hams up in the kitchen. Was watching the Extreme Foods guy on Food Network a few weeks ago, and he went into a 'ham store' in Spain, and they had hundreds of hams hanging from the rafters.

One of my uncles remembers when they were young, they'd hang their cured hams, and after it started getting warm, they'd have to deal with the 'skippers'... little maggots that would start attacking the meat. That story alone makes me want to freeze or can my excess pork.

The guy raises only about 40 hogs a year, and gets roughly 160K (two hams per hog x 40...... even sweeter in that they sell all of the other meats at a premium)... My grandpa wouldn't've believed me, if I'd'a told him some Spaniards were getting 4K plus, just for the hams off of some feral hogs.

[blue8ewe]

saw that story on yahoo this morning. Bunch of nuts! Wish we had thought to charge crazy money. Some people just buy anything if the price tag is big enough.
Like those $1000 jeans. Look a lot like the $30-40 ones in the local stores and the $3 ones I get at the thrift store. LOL

[Highland]

We still hang hams from the barn rafters here--- ya just trim off the "buggy" parts.

You sure wouldnt need many hogs to make a good living at that rate! LOL

[Missy M]

You can soak your hams in a brine solution and cure them that way. I imagine that would keep off the little fellas.

[Christiaan]

These are dried hams, like prosciutto, so you have to take into account the weight loss. :1pig:

[BillHoo]

Originally Posted by blue8ewe

saw that story on yahoo this morning. Bunch of nuts! Wish we had thought to charge crazy money. Some people just buy anything if the price tag is big enough.
Like those $1000 jeans. Look a lot like the $30-40 ones in the local stores and the $3 ones I get at the thrift store. LOL

Those are just folks who want all the natural homesteading goodness without having to raise the pigs themselves.

The average Joe, eats the supermarket hams that are cured in puddles of salty water, or in cans, or in plastic pouches. There's enough preservatives in those that your body is less likely to rot when they put you in the ground!

[fin29]

Originally Posted by BillHoo

Those are just folks who want all the natural homesteading goodness without having to raise the pigs themselves.

That's nonsense. Those are just folks who appreciate a good product and they are willing to fairly compensate the farmer for his ingenuity and hard work. Here you have a man who raises one of the humblest products on earth, pork, who's taken it to a whole other level--an artisanal level--using the best husbandry practices, local wild feed sources, and creative marketing, and all people can do is begrudge his profit margin and the income level of his connoisseurs.

Sounds like a bunch of class envy. Anyone who's tasted a ribbon of prosciutto bianco laid over a baguette or let a teaspoon of first press olive oil spray against the back of the tongue realizes that some food producers are artists and deserve to be paid accordingly.

[Scrounger]

Stupid. No pork is worth that. It's all dog food anyway.

[ceresone]

I beg to differ--Dogs are NOT supposed to be fed pork! ---- Carry On---

[Beeman]

Yeah but we've got a Starbucks and McDonalds on every corner, those Europeans are stupid! Instead we free trade for the cheapest, junkiest food, isn't that better? They actually have to wait 2 years before they can eat their ham, what fools.

I'll never taste such an expensive piece of meat, but I think this story is great.

Indeed, this is a limited-edition piece: Maldonado will produce just 80 to 100 legs.

This is a homesteader's dream. Making that sort of money off of just 40-50 pigs. This man has analyzed his market carefully and pegged it dead on.

The giant factory farms can produce pork cheaper than anyone else, but it's not the sort of thing homesteaders can do simply because of the scale. This fella has figured out "value added" to a high degree so that he can raise a relative few pigs and make a big profit.

If I could find or create a market that would pay me twenty five bucks a dozen for eggs instead of the mere $2.50 I get now you can bet I'd cater to it for all that I was worth.

.....Alan.

[minnikin1]

Putting "plant oak trees" on my list.....

[texican]

Alan, that's what I was thinking... the guy does have his marketing down pat. I've been ruminating for a while about getting a walk in cooler. I've got the same sort feeding situation he does... carefree hogs, getting lots of exercise, free choice feeding of natural products, including tons of acorns. (we call em wild hogs hereabouts )

I'm just wondering if they have some kind of oak that produces acorns year round (never heard of such), or if they have different oaks that produce at different times, or if they harvest the excess acorns to feed in the lean times of the year. Or, like here, the hogs get acorns for the month of so they're available in the fall.

[Scrounger]

Originally Posted by ceresone

I beg to differ--Dogs are NOT supposed to be fed pork! ---- Carry On---

True. It isn't any better for them then it is us, and we really shouldn't feed our animals anything God has deemed an abomination.

[NickieL]

hams from the rafters, they sell them this way at one of the farm stands down the road.

[brosil]

I haven't had his hams but I've had similar bits of ham from the Black Pig of Manchengo Province. That's where we told it came from. The pigs are run in chestnut and acorn mast much like the Razorbacks were in times past. It's the finest ham I've ever had. It looks like a piece of wood and is shaved off with a special drawknife. $2100 a ham is pretty high but I can see it being done. There aren't many people capable of producing that type of ham anymore.

[BillHoo]

Originally Posted by ceresone

I beg to differ--Dogs are NOT supposed to be fed pork! ---- Carry On---

I always thought it was odd that I've never seen pork cat food either!

I've seen:
- beef
- chicken
- liver
- trout
- flounder
- shrimp
- cod
- sardine

and a bunch of others, but no pork.

[BillHoo]

Originally Posted by A.T. Hagan

I'll never taste such an expensive piece of meat, but I think this story is great.

Indeed, this is a limited-edition piece: Maldonado will produce just 80 to 100 legs.

This is a homesteader's dream. Making that sort of money off of just 40-50 pigs. This man has analyzed his market carefully and pegged it dead on.

The giant factory farms can produce pork cheaper than anyone else, but it's not the sort of thing homesteaders can do simply because of the scale. This fella has figured out "value added" to a high degree so that he can raise a relative few pigs and make a big profit.

If I could find or create a market that would pay me twenty five bucks a dozen for eggs instead of the mere $2.50 I get now you can bet I'd cater to it for all that I was worth.

.....Alan.

Keep in mind geography also has a lot to do with the flavor.

In Parma, Italy the priscioutto has it's particular flavor due to the hams being hung to dry on racks overlooking the hills of Parma which brings warm breezes across the wildflowers up to the hams.

Wait till a land developer bulldozes the adjoining hills and makes condos, burger kings and Starbucks there!

[texican]

Originally Posted by Scrounger

True. It isn't any better for them then it is us, and we really shouldn't feed our animals anything God has deemed an abomination.

I think the abomination thing was instituted back in the days when eating pork not cooked properly would make you sick. In Judaism, isn't there religion more a 'way of life', you know rules to live by.

If you're orthodox, I'm sorry if my posting about love of ham offends you. I have feral hogs that tear up my pastures, and the only way of controlling them is by killing them. In my book, the creator would think it's abominable for me to waste an excellent source of food. Especially since the hogs take the place of animals that I would otherwise consume... can now be used by others, lessening my impact on the planet.

[moopups]

'True. It isn't any better for them then it is us, and we really shouldn't feed our animals anything God has deemed an abomination.'

Why would a Deitity produce a creature and then declare it an abomination? Another reason to not believe a human written book. Thanks for the ammo.