The 55th Annual Wetzel County 4-H and FFA Ham, Bacon & Egg Show and Sale will be held at the Mollohan Center at the Wetzel County 4-H grounds on March 10th. The sale will begin with a Buyers’ Dinner beginning at 7:00 pm and the sale starting at 7:30 pm.

The show is an opportunity for students to exhibit and sell their country cured meat products as a part of their Supervised Agriculture Experience project (SAE). Students begin their projects by raising their project animals to market weight by a certain date. A date is chosen to send the pigs to slaughter by backdating how long the hams and bacons will need to be in cure for them to be ready by the scheduled Ham and Bacon Show. The students work hard and plan ahead all year for this. The pigs are taken to a federally inspected facility for slaughter. At that point, carcasses are brought back to the meat processing labs at MHS, VHS and HHS respectively, where carcasses are processed into wholesale and retail cuts, with the hams and bacons being retained at the school through the curing process. Curing meat products is an old tried and true method of preserving meat for future use. I am sure most folks have heard stories of grandparents or great-grandparents using this method in years past. 4-H and FFA Chapters from across the state still practice this method to this day as part of many student’s agriculture related project (SAE).

This program is a great learning opportunity for many students in the agriculture program. Grace Beito senior H&B student mentioned that “she has enjoyed learning all about the process from cutting the meat to curing and smoking the product” River Underwood Senior H&B participant also said “There are many reasons why she enjoys raising swine as part of her FFA project” she mentioned that “it is fun to observe the steps of curing the meat from the beginning all the way through to the end of the project”.

Hams and Bacons will be sold by the pound while eggs will be sold by the dozen. Students from Hundred, Valley and Magnolia High School as well as many 4-H students will be participating. There will also be many scholarships awarded throughout the night to students who have been involved in the program. If you would like to come out and support students in Wetzel County 4-H and FFA come on out to the 4-H grounds March 10th at 7pm for the buyers’ dinner with the sale following at 7:30pm.