In this episode of The Farmer and The Foodie -- You take what God gave you and you go forward with it.

That's how a business is built.

A good product with a good name and excellent service.

I'm Maggie Keith, and I'm the Farmer.

And I'm Lindsey McClave, and I'm the Foodie.

And this is -- The Farmer -- -- and the Foodie.

Funding for this program is made possible in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions.

█ █ █ █ Country Ham is made from the centuries-old process of dry curing pork.

This produces a product that will last for several months Newsom's age Country Ham has been a staple in West Kentucky for over 100 years.

Nancy Mahaffey, the Ham Lady, and her son, John, are preserving their family legacy, One Ham at a Time, using the same traditional methods.

█ █ █ █ John, thank you so much for welcoming us to Newsom's.

We're in the washroom.

What are we doing?

Put us to work.

What we're going to do is we're going to pull the hams of the salt room and wash the hams in the sink and scrub the excess salt and kind of some funk off the hams.

[Laughs].

So, you determined today is the day.

[Laughs] Today is the day.

Damn right here.

Today is the day.

[Laughs].

So, we got to get to work.

Good.

█ █ █ █ All right.

Yeah, I don't know.

[Laughs] Yeah, that sounds good.

[Crosstalk] Woo.

[Laughs] So, much ham there.

[Laughs].

You know that.

Is there any other way?

Yeah.

Take it down.

[Laughs] Good job.

[Laughs] Okay.

We get a truck of hams in January and then we take the, our cure, which is salt and brown sugar and we massage that salt into the hams, and we'll stack the hams up on our oak shelves and they will set there for a certain amount of days until they're ready to come out of the salt room and into the washroom, and then over to the hanging house.

Well, I like working with our hands.

[Crosstalk] Once they've had enough time in here to kind of get accustomed to the temperature when it's kind of muggy outside and the humidity is up and the skin will soften up on the hams.

And so, then I'll take the hickory wood, put it in my cast iron kettle after I have a good fire going and the woods about halfway burned, then I'll take hickory sawdust and sprinkle over the fire and then it will start puffing smoke and I'll take a box fan and set up on low behind the kettle and just kind of blow the air across the top of the kettle and it pushes the smoke around the whole entire aging house and from top to bottom.

And then, you do that for about, 12 or 13 times until you get the right color and they'll hang there until, around September, October.

And we have about 600, I think 639 hams on this side of the room and 642 on that side.

So, this is a lot one here and lot two over here, we like to at least wait about nine months before we start to sell them and they're really best about 18 months.

How do you know when, I mean, you have the time frames?

But do you all do a little bit of tasting?

Is it by feel, by feel?

Mom will say -- she'll say in, in September coming in September, October, so she'll say get a ham out of the ham house and we're going to cut it and we're going to try it out and if we cut into it and she likes the color of it and then she'll fry it in a frying panner herself and if she likes the color and likes the taste, she'll say, okay, let's sell them.

That's when you can get the, the best flavor profile from it.

I mean, this is a lot of ham and do you have other spaces.

Is it?

How did you get to this number?

This is our new facility; it was built in 2008.

Our other facility was built in, I want to say '63 my grandpa had it built and so we fill that ham house up just like we fill this ham house up and we also have our free range.

We have our 200 free range up there.

And so, all together, we have 2,600 hams this year.

Wow.

And this is all like in the basement of downtown.

Right.

[Laughs] Yeah, Princeton's used to us.

Yeah, I can say.

And I haven't seen us do this for a long time and we have a great community in there.

So, I'm interested to know more about the family legacy piece.

So, I'm imagining you were like a four year old kid in this room just like -- The most fun times I had was when mom and I would get to go on road trips together.

So, that's what I really like.

What's it like being the son of the Ham Lady?

It's pretty cool.

I think I really understood how like popular mom was when we were out to eat at a restaurant.

And there were two ladies that came up and we're looking at mom and, and they came up and asked her if she was a Ham Lady, and she said, "Yeah, I'm a Ham Lady," and they said, "Can we have your autograph?"

I said, "Oh man, that's so neat."

[Laughs].

She was always busy.

And so, she would come and pick me up from school and she'd have dirt on her or ham juice or ham grease or something And our vehicle always smell like ham.

I admire my mom.

She's an awesome woman and she's been in a field where it's mainly men that produce hams and she's a woman in this field and, she took over after my grandpa and just expanded our business quite a bit.

She's a big deal.

Now humbling of a son to, like, l honor your mother like that.

I don't know.

Yeah, way to go.

I hope my son's listening.

Thank you.

[Laughs].

You've been around for over 100 years now.

Newsom has -- do you see that continuing on?

What do you see the future of the business?

I mean, we're just going to keep chugging along every year as long as you know, we have hands secure.

[Laughs] We're just going to keep doing it.

I'm a very rare breed of people, that's a ham cure.

So, you know, it's pretty neat.

█ █ █ █ So John, this feels like ham heaven to me.

What, what hanging room are we in now?

This is our holding room and this is where we had to get the hams out of the two aging houses to make room for our new hams that were going in.

So, these hams are about 14 months old right now and we got the regular country hams right here and then here are your free range hams.

So, once they're in the aging house, they start developing a mold.

And then, whenever you look at the ham right here, you can see this blueish green mold right here.

And this is a mold that my grandpa had when he started curing hams.

It's, it's 1800 mold that he introduced on the farm.. he first started curing hams on our family's farm.

And so, then he brought the mold from the farm to that ham house.

And then, in 2008, when we had our new ham house built, I took about 10 hams that were good and moldy, had all this good blue mold on them and stuck them in the middle of the hams that we had just put in there.

And so, then we developed that mold in that aging house as well.

So, yeah.

That's really, really -- [crosstalk] Generation mold.

And it took a while.

It is.

Yeah.

Well, and I think it's like your specific like your (devoir), your mold, your flavors?

Right, yeah.

That's really, that's, that's -- Yeah, it's unique to Newsom's country hams.

That's really special.

And I love from where we just, where, we were helping to hang the hams.

Like, you can see visibly the difference.

I mean, these hams are smaller, they're darker.

They obviously have this mold.

I mean, it's wild to see the way they -- [crosstalk] Yeah, they have drawn up quite a bit.

And right now these hams are probably at about 35% shrinkage from its original, the original weight.

We were at about 25 pounds and then we're down to this about a 15-pound ham right here.

Wow.

█ █ █ █ Newsom's also has an Old Mill Store full of private label and handmade foods.

The community loves to stop in for lunch.

We sat down with the Ham Lady herself to learn about how she got her start in this industry.

Well, Nancy, this is the most wonderful place.

We're so grateful to be here.

Tell us a little bit more about the history of Newsom's Country Ham or HC Newsom.

Yeah, that was my grandfather and he started the business in January of 1917.

He was not a ham business at that time because everybody cured their own hams.

So, there was no need for him to cure hams.

So, he sold grocery items.

He sold knives, he sold mails.

My father took over the business when he was 18.

His father was 49, when he passed.

There was very little money in the drawer.

It was a very, very hard time.

Then became the day when the people that cured hams on their farms lost the rabbit's foot and they began to get where they couldn't cure the hams.

And so, they kept seeking us out.

In 1963, my father built an aging house upon the mandate of the federal government.

And in 1975 James Beard wrote about us in a syndicated column of American airline magazine.

[Laughs].

And thus, our mail order was born in 1975.

Oh, my goodness.

We had a bad, bad fire in 1987, which is where I came into play more than ever because my father said we're not going to cure hams anymore.

And I came over here to this building which is our second retail store.

And so, I came over here that fall to sell the hams out.

And then, in January I decided I'd like to stay because I couldn't stand for Newsom's not to be on Maine.

So, I ran the store and raised my children and, and I carried hands with the old crew that my father had.

All I knew is that I had a job to do and I did it.

[Laughs].

You talked so much about what you took from your father and what you learned over the years and some of it, he just to listen the first time and go with it, were those things like the salt sugar ratio he used how long the hams hang?

I mean, are those just sort of those?

They're the little secrets.

I would not change that process and I have never changed it because it was the, it was the right thing.

If it's not broke, don't fix it.

[Laughs].

And that was the way that, that was.

Now the smoking of the hams.

I kind of learned on my own.

You have to stay true to the process and this process can get away from you in a hurry.

If you're not paying enough attention to your proportions, you're not paying enough attention to how much you rub the ham where you're rubbing the ham, the process can be lost in a heartbeat.

Now, Spain still does old world methods and that's where I was at the 5th World Congress meeting of dry cured hams and they taught on the American ham, they taught on my hams.

Was it comforting meeting other generational ham producers?

That's a fine line on that because think about your middle aged producers and a young woman like me curing hams.

Your middle aged producers are the ones that it probably felt like I was stepping on their turf, but I might not have been.

They were not ugly to me.

They were kind to me, but I sensed a certain wall between us.

So, when you sense that wall, because I'm imagining you've sense that other times being in a male dominant industry.

Oh, very much, so.

Where do you hold yourself and how do you get through that?

Kill them with kindness.

[Laughs].

I love it.

You take what God gave you, which is your looks and your ability and your ability with people and you go forward with it.

That's how a business is built.

A good product with a good name and excellent service.

Well, that's the kindness.

Yeah.

What's it like to see this legacy, you know, be spread internationally?

I'm very proud of it, but it's not a prideful thing, but it is a great honor.

Like I said, it has been a real ride, I'm telling you.

I never expected this to lead where it's led to, but I just kept working and kept doing and kept my nose to the grindstone.

█ █ █ █ What a treat to meet the Ham Lady.

I mean, my gosh, it was like just her presence was so special and she shared so many interesting stories with us and tip.

It's not just from, like running a business and taking over a family tradition, but what it means to continue to create the ham in exactly the same way her dad did and her grandfather did and now she's teaching her son.

Yeah.

What an incredible piece of history to be a part of.

And Princeton was a charming town.

They're right in the middle.

They've been there for 107 years and what an adventure to be able to explore Kentucky and see these little towns.

And my goodness.

Look at the ham, we got to bring home.

So, these are three of the different hams that we tried with Nancy.

And we're going to put in our recipes today.

We have the prosciutto, which I love that.

You can see the difference here.

I mean, the prosciutto, it like melts in your mouth.

It's so, it's just fantastic.

That was my, that's my favorite.

And then, we have their sort of go to traditional country ham.

And then, the Preacher Ham, that was your favorite, right Yeah, Preacher Ham was my favorite.

I've been snacking on that ever since I adventure.

[Laughs].

Well, in coming into the kitchen, I couldn't help but think I just really want to preserve and celebrate these hams, this ingredient.

I really particularly like to make a Croque Monsieur.

So, that's sort of like a fancy ham and cheese Frenchy style.

And with that we're going to use, I think we should use a little bit of each of the hams.

Like, really make it an ultimate ham and cheese sandwich.

Going all in.

Yeah.

All in.

Exactly.

[Laughs].

We have some really yummy whole grain mustard here, which I love to add into this.

And it's going to go into both on the sandwich as well as into our bechamel sauce, which is part of what makes this a particularly unique ham and cheese.

So, first I need to make our bechamel sauce, which is basically thickened milk.

We make a roux with flour and butter and then add milk.

Then we're going to jazz it up here and we also, it's not ham and cheese without a whole bunch of cheddar.

So, we've got some delicious Kentucky cheddar cheese here.

If you don't mind to get shredding that, I'll head over to the stove to whip up the bechamel real quick.

And then, we're going to build our sandwiches.

Let's do it.

All right.

█ █ █ █ So, when I put the flour in, I just like to whisk it really well to make sure there aren't any clumps.

And then, I just give it a minute or two to cook up a little bit with the butter softly so that raw flour flavor can cook out.

And then, it's just about time to add in the milk and then we're just going to cook very gently whisking as we go and over about five to eight minutes, the bechamel will form, it will start to thicken and you'll know it's ready when you can.

It coats the back of a spoon and you can run your finger down and you can see a straight line on the back of the spoon.

█ █ █ █ Okay.

So, we have our bechamel and you can see how thick it is and that's just flour, butter and milk, which I think is so fun.

So.

Exactly, exactly.

So, at the Old Mill Store we picked up some of this German style mustard and I really like that for this because it has like the stone grounds in it.

And yeah, it's just got a nice punch.

So, we're going to actually put about a tablespoon right in the sauce and we're also going to spread some across the sandwich and we're just to do a pinch of nutmeg.

It's very traditional in a bechamel, just kind of brings it out and then we want to have just a little warmth.

So, we have our go to red pepper flakes.

There we go.

And yeah, then we want just a little bit of salt.

So, normally I would maybe do like a teaspoon of salt.

I'm going to go with a pinch, maybe just like a pinch and a half of salt here because we do have, you know, a nice salty flavor in the ham.

So, we don't want to over salt anything.

Special sauce.

What's fun about Croque Monsieur is the top of the sandwich also is going to have bechamel and cheese on top.

So, it's just like really decadent, which I love and I really want to bring sort of that mustard flavor home.

I'm just going to add a little bit to eat one slice and we'll just spread that out and then I'm going to come behind and add the bechamel to each slice of bread.

This is starting to feel very French to me.

Yes.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

The bechamel sauce -- Yes.

Oh, my God.

Yes.

-- on those slices is a toast.

Yes.

It's part of what makes this sandwich so extra fantastic.

Yeah.

Take me on a picnic.

So, yes.

All right.

We want to go all the way to the edge.

Okay.

So, we are ready for the ham and I like the idea of doing just a little bit of each on these sandwiches.

So, Maggie, if you want to take a slice or two of each and just put them on this.

Yeah, so this is the traditional country ham, right?

Yep.

Exactly.

And then, we have our Preacher's Ham.

So good.

My favorite.

Nice light smoke.

I mean, the smoke is there, but it's like so well-padded.

Yeah.

Well, it smoked and I found the Preacher Ham wasn't as salty as well.

And this like truly like melts in your mouth.

It's so good.

Perfect.

█ █ █ █ And now each sandwich is going to get some cheese on top, but we're not going to use it all just yet because there's going to be cheese on top of the top piece of bread as well.

Yes.

Save a little.

Yes.

Exactly.

Now we're going to close out the sandwich.

So, actually put it, you want the bechamel side up?

Okay.

It feels a little unusual, but it's part of what makes it extra delicious.

Yeah.

Don't squish it down.

Fantastic.

And now we're just going to move these over to our sheep pin.

Well done.

All right.

And finally -- Yeah, we got to get that croque.

Cheese [Laughs] Like crunchy croque.

And we're going to pop these in a 425 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes.

You really want the cheese and the bechamel, it'll all start kind of melting down, getting beautiful and just ooey gooey.

And then, we're going to finish them right off at the very end under the broiler because that really makes the top bubble and brown and get a little bit crunchy.

And which is what croque means in French, actually.

Then they're going to be ready to eat.

And since they are so rich and dense, I thought a really nice light salad on the side of some mosh and some Frisee greens.

But while those are in the oven, we mentioned that, you know, Nancy loves to make ham fried rice.

And so, I was super inspired by that and I think while those in the oven we should put that together, it comes together so fast.

It's a great week night meal that also can use those late winter vegetables or whatever seasons then.

And the ham just adds that extra little salty delicious punch.

So, we'll put these in the oven and get to making some fried rice.

Great.

All right.

█ █ █ █ Time for fried rice.

So, I went to the farmer's market this past weekend and got a few fantastic seasonal vegetables including this, which I was not so familiar with.

It's called Rapini.

Yes.

So, this is in the kale family and basically, if you can imagine a kale going to flower, it's going to shoot off this Rapini, which is also a little like broccoli rabe as well.

So, they're all in the same brassica family, but these little shoots are super tender and sweet.

They're not bitter.

Like sometimes when your kale is gone to seed that can get a little bitter.

But this is meant to flower like this.

What a wonderful treat to find at the farmer's market.

I love it.

And so, I felt like it would fry up really nicely with rice along with some carrots and definitely some green onion in there.

Then watermelon radish.

I have a bunch of these right now and they're so pretty and delicious and definitely wanted to include one of those.

And the sauce is really simple here.

We just have two tablespoons of soy sauce.

A tablespoon of hot water.

We're going to add a tablespoon of honey that we picked up at Newsom's Old Mill Store and then we're going to grate some ginger and garlic in it with that together.

And that is what's going to kind of bring everything together, season our two day old rice, leftover rice is what makes fried rice so good.

You want the grains just a little bit dried out and then of course our ham.

The ham.

Yup.

Without further ado.

So, if you want to work on chopping up the vegetables, I'll get our sauce going.

And the key with fried rice is once you have everything ready, it comes together super-fast.

So, we're going to have everything prepped on the board.

I'm going to head over to the stove and then it all goes in one pan fries up.

Be dinner time.

Let's get chopping.

█ █ █ █ [Laughs] █ █ █ █ To begin your fried rice, warm your fat in the pan.. then add your vegetables sauteing over medium heat until soften three to four minutes.

Next, add your ham, cook for about one minute until warmed through.

Then add the rice.

Toss well, add your sauce, toss until fully incorporated within the rest of the rice and vegetables and use a spatula to flatten the rice covering it fully.

Resist the urge to turn and allow to sit undisturbed for two minutes.

Toss your rice flatten again and repeat.

Allowing to sit undisturbed for two additional minutes.

Repeat it again if needed until the rice is well browned and crispy.

Push the rice to the edges of the pan, creating a hole in the center.

Add a little bit more fat, crack an egg, whisk it up in the middle and then once the egg is scrambled, toss it throughout your fried rice.

Transfer your fried rice to a serving bowl and garnish with green onion and sesame seeds.

Our fried rice is all done.

It got nice and crispy.

And I think the ham you can see in there it's still, it's nice and hot but like it's just the little bites of goodness all throughout with this yummy late winter vegetables.

I love it.

You want to hand us over that, well just.

Yeah, all the veggies throughout looks so delicious.

Oh, my gosh.

I know.

And I love that you can just use this any season play what you have.

Yup, yup.

Finished with the fried rice.

Every gardener wants to hear that.

[Laughs] Exactly.

No, it is.

It is one of the most versatile meals that you can possibly have.

So, if you want to garnish those, that would be great.

I'm going to get this out of the way and our Croque Monsieur are under the broiler and they should be bubbly and ready for us to enjoy as well.

So, I'm going to pop those out.

Can't wait.

All right.

█ █ █ █ My gosh, they look so good.

I'm so excited.

All right.

So, I hope you came hungry.

Wow, that's a beauty.

Because clearly, but that is what's fun.

I mean, this is easy to make for a crowd.

When I was at the market, I also found these really fun, crisp, late winter greens that I am not as familiar with.

Yeah.

So, this is a Mache, and it was a weed that grew in the middle of like the corn fields and everything.

So, we didn't even eat this for a long time.

Europeans did.

And they actually call it lamb's lettuce because it looks like a little lamb here.

It does.

It does.

And then this is Frisee.

It's just like a very, it reminds me like a French lettuce.

Like it has that like bitterness.

It's light and fresh.

But the good thing about both of these is it can be grown in colder weathers.

Fantastic.

Well, we're going to keep it super simple because i want it to be just that.

So, I'm literally just going to give it a really nice spritz of lemon juice, a nice drizzle.

This is the time to break out any like fancy olive oil you picked up, you know, on a trip or at a specialty food store.

And then, if you want to do a nice sprinkle of Maldon Sea Salt, we'll get pops of salt in there and I'm going to give a few cracks of black pepper.

Just toss that together and that is our simple salad to go alongside these fantastic sandwiches.

Oh, my goodness.

Look at that yumminess.

Oh, wow.

So, you can like see all the three different types of ham in here too.

I love it.

I'm so excited and traditionally Croque Monsieur is served with Cornish on.

So, Nancy gave us some of those delicious dill pickles.

So, I thought those would be fun we brought those back from the store and we're just going to platter up these sandwiches.

Beautiful.

Gorgeous.

Don't we just want to have a luncheon or something?

Look at this juxtaposition.

I love it.

This is a feast; this is a feast as is our fried rice.

So, -- Yes.

I don't know.

Do you want to grab a bite of that?

Yeah.

Bona petite.

So the umami flavor of this fried rice is enhanced by the ham, which I wasn't sure how the soy and the ham are really going to mix together, but it works really well.

And the crunch of the veggies, I can taste the egg as well.

I can tell it's a fresh egg.

[Laughs].

Thanks for that addition.

Absolutely.

This is very, just so decked and delicious.

It's warm, but you still can't taste a little bit of the smokiness from the Preacher Ham.

The delicate prosciutto.

You see it in there.

It does not get lost and the cheese is just right.

Well done you and yeah, the, the bechamel is like gooey as it is.

It just makes everything creamy.

It doesn't weigh it down too much.

Yeah, I think we're doing, okay.

Yeah.

[Laughs] █ █ █ █ Funding for this program is made possible in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions.

█ █ █ █