A Dying Art

People who don’t live on a farm don’t have a clue that there are many traditions of farming that are dying out. Right off the top of my head I can think of three. These are dying arts because doing these jobs well is an art.

Cooking sorghum is a dying art. Jimmy talks so much about how his uncle Fred would cook, can, and sell sorghum molasses every year. People would come from miles around to buy it from Fred Elder. In fact, years ago, when country music performers travelled from Nashville to go into Missouri they would pass right by Fred Elder’s farm. After he had made his sorghum molasses they would stop at his roadside stand and buy it. Porter Waggoner stopped every year with his tour bus. Uncle Fred always said it was his sorghum that gave Dolly Parton her figure.

I don’t know all the steps of cooking sorghum but what I know is that it grows a lot like corn. In fact a lot of farmers grow sorghum to mix with their corn to feed their cows. Once it’s ready to harvest to make molasses they cut it by hand then they feed the stalk into a huge juicer (I’m sure it has a real name, like “press” but it’s really just a big juicer). This juicer is powered by mules. They walk round and around this press until all of the juice is squeezed out of the stalks. The stalks are probably ground up for the cows but the juice is cooked.

There is a flat pan that is about 6’X4′ and it’s divided into a maze. The juice goes in one end of the maze and coms out the other end thickened and condensed. Someone paddles the juice through the maze, keeping it agitated so that it doesn’t burn. It’s an all day process with several people working. And it’s a hot job. Jimmy tells stories about how he and his brothers and sisters would end up hating sorghum molasses on everything they had so they would mix it with peanut butter. To this day Jimmy mixes his syrup on pancakes with peanut butter.

There are a few people in our area who will still cook sorghum but it is becoming fewer and fewer. Jimmy’s family hasn’t done it in in years but he appreciates those that do and always buys a couple cans whenever he sees anyone who does.

Curing country hams is also a dying art. There are those who will do it. But a lot of those have starting curing the hams with sugar rather than salt. About 15 years ago Jimmy started curing hams as a hobby more than anything. He wanted good country ham and no one did it like his family. Jimmy’s dad, John was one of the best in the county at curing hams. And he sold them. At one point the health department told him he couldn’t sell them anymore. He told his customers. They told him they didn’t want to buy them but if he gave them a gift then they would give him a gift. So he stayed in business giving gifts.

There are things you need to know about curing country hams. First, you need a yard hog. Not sure what that is? Me either, at first. But now I know that a yard hog is a hog that has been raised on dirt, not on concrete. That makes a difference. A ham is actually the hog’s hip so a hog raised on concrete might have a bruised hip. A bruised his is not good to cure a ham with because it can spoil easily. Next, a hog needs to be scalded, not skinned. That means that once a hog has been slaughtered it needs to be immersed in very hot water so that the skin is scalded off. I don’t know why that is except that I’ve never seen a skinned ham cure correctly (I’m not much of an expert). And the shank bone needs to stay with the ham. I think that has more to do with the aesthetics of the ham rather than anything else. But I know a lot of people who want that ham bone to season beans or other dishes.

Once all of that is done then the ham is put down in the salt. I don’t know how long Jimmy leaves the ham in the salt but it’s awhile. And I’m not sure if he seasons the hams before he puts them in the salt, but I think so. I won’t give away his secret recipe but I think it’s just pepper. I think this became my pepper always disappears about this time. But, and this is important, you have to use meat alt to cure the hams. Oh, and somewhere in that process you have to use saltpeter. You have to buy that from a pharmacy. I don’t know why. But anyway, once you have the meat seasoned and ready to come out of the salt then it’s time to start your fires.

I am so sorry, I forgot to tell you that it has to be really cold to put down country hams. But you don’t want it too cold or your hams will freeze. So there is perfect weather to put them down.

Alright. Now you have the hams hanging in the smokehouse. Jimmy uses baling wire to hang them. He might let them hang a day or two before he starts the fire. He actually puts a tub in there with hickory sawdust to burn. That smokes the whole smokehouse. And it depends how much smoke you have on them. You might not want a lot of smoke or maybe you want more. Just so you know, the more smoke, the more flavor.

After that then the hams are officially cured. But the longer they hang in the smokehouse the better the flavor. Jimmy recommends to let them hang until the May sweat. That’s the first hot weather that affects them and the hams will physically sweat. But anymore, it seems that hams that hang any longer will spoil. Jimmy doesn’t know why unless it has to do with the change of seasons. It’s like the hams can’t stand the heat we seem to have earlier in the year.

You may not realize this but a country ham never needs to be refrigerated. At least ours don’t. Maybe sugar cured hams do. But we are starting to realize that maybe after the May sweat it would be good to put the hams in a basement or a storm cellar or something like that. It’s becoming obvious that they really don’t like the heat. And since you only get two hams for each hog you really can’t afford to risk losing those. But then again, there’s always smoked sausage. That’s another story.

The last dying art is growing tobacco. It used to be in Kentucky that tobacco was king. Everyone grew tobacco if they could get signed up for it. And everyone that grew tobacco was proud of their crop. It was a family affair because tobacco is a labor intensive crop. So every member of the family was out there doing what they could do. The little kids reset the field while the older ones set or drove the tractor. Everyone hoe’d. I mean everyone. Everyone was in the field topping and suckering. When it came time to cut, everyone had a job. The younger ones would drop sticks. The older ones cut and spiked. Everyone loaded the crop on scaffold wagons and then when they put the crop in the barn the older kids would climb up in the barn while the younger ones passed. It was an assembly line. After the tobacco had been cured out then everyone came back to the barn to take down and then they all moved to the stripping room to grade the crop and get it ready for market.

The tobacco farmer will tell you that it’s a very proud crop. The farmer is proud when he gets the crop set. He’s proud to watch it grow. He’s proud to get it cut. He’s proud to get cured out. He’s proud when he’s finished stripping it out. And he’s very proud when he gets paid for the crop.

Jimmy is a proud tobacco farmer. He truly is. He takes great pains to make sure his crop is the best it can be. And it shows. He has won numerous awards on his crop from the company he buys from and he has won the Kentucky State Agriculture Commissioner’s Award from the Kentucky State Fair; along with numerous ribbons.

That’s why this year I decided to do videos of the tobacco process. I’m not finished yet but you can watch what we have here.

I guess there’s a lot of arts that have died out through the years. I just hate to see these die out.