Nancy Newsom Mahaffey of Col. Bill Newsom'south Anile Kentucky State Hams is the only woman at the head of a major country ham operation. She'south also one of the final remaining cure masters who insists on the quondam ways in an era when climate control and industrial preservatives are perfectly acceptable alternatives. On Jan 1, she'll usher her grandfather H.C. Newsom's Princeton, Kentucky, country store into its 100th year, selling hickory-smoked country hams much similar those her ancestors made in the 1600s. We defenseless upwards with her on the eve of the anniversary.

So the store opened on New year's 24-hour interval?

I guess it did. My granddad, though, ran it equally a full general shop. He cured hams, but only for his family. At that place was no market for country ham in those days, considering everybody made their own.

How did you go into the country ham business organisation?

Dad started curing hams for the store in an quondam ham business firm on the family subcontract. Nobody had used it since the 1800s. You tin can doubtable that it was a very archaic edifice. Then in 1963, the authorities mandated that if y'all cured a certain amount of ham then you needed to become a federal facility. That'southward when dad built his starting time concrete block building in town. I doubtable he inoculated it with the 1800s molds from the old ham house. Somewhen, the groceries weren't selling but the hams were. It was the finish of the mom-and-pop grocery era, and at the aforementioned time, the new generation had lost the rabbit'southward pes on curing hams.

Nancy Newsom Mahaffey.

photo: Courtesy of Col. Nib Newsom's Anile Kentucky Country Hams

Nancy Newsom Mahaffey.

You're one of the few curemasters who yet follows the seasons, without air conditioning or heat. Why take that risk?

I never changed the process considering it doesn't need fixing. I estimate it's because I'm preserving my heritage, likewise. My family started curing hams in the 1600s in Virginia, and so kept doing it in Due north Carolina before we came to Kentucky in 1823. Old-fashioned weather-curing makes for a more circuitous ham. And it's a truthful production. In other words, when nosotros say we take an "old-fashioned ham," nosotros do. You know, I had an awakening after I took over in 1987. I can still take myself to exactly the place where information technology happened. I realized that the former-fashioned process I followed was going to be an enigma in the market place i mean solar day. I thought to myself, I don't know if that'll enhance my business concern or if we'll go on out of existence. With a product like ours, you don't know. But now chefs and writers have enlightened the public. In that location are foodies that exercise know the difference, and I don't have to tout the ham too hard. Don't get me incorrect, though. I'm not complacent. When you lot work this hard, you don't go conceited.

Country ham is more popular now than information technology has been in decades. Was there a moment when that registered for y'all?

Near ten years ago, nosotros were going through hard economic times. I actually went back to college after twenty years, because I felt like, well, if we didn't brand it then at least I had experience running a business under my chugalug. That might exist an nugget. I never got my degree, though, because business picked upwardly. I now cure about three times equally many hams every bit I did. I built a second smokehouse in 2013, which was most five years later I should've. At present, there'southward only not enough hours in the day to cure enough hams for everybody. When y'all don't utilise sodium nitrate, you have to hand-rub these hams a long time. They're labor-intensive, and it'southward non over once you get them hung and smoked. This past spring, for example, was very cold. I had just hung the hams when I realized they could freeze. I had a few years under my chugalug, though, then I knew some erstwhile tricks to go along heat in the ham house without bringing in a heater. I'm never going to add heating or ac, so if the weather changes enough this product may not exist anymore.

What do you recall the future holds for former-fashioned country ham?

The hereafter could exist vivid. It's a delicate rest, though. We need to brand sure we don't change things—that we're reiterating every year the traditional methods. The process tin be lost a little bit at a time, and pretty before long something has changed drastically. I don't know for certain whether my son will take over this business organization or not. This is a different business concern than when I took over. It's a lot more complicated. He knows how to cure our hams, and I think he could practice fine with that and all the government paperwork. He's working with me now. But I want my children to do what they want with their lives. If someone else took over, it would have to be someone who loves the process, the heritage, the history—all those things that get into information technology. Somebody that's down to globe and doesn't want the millions, but more the old-fashioned flavor.

You're using pastured pork at present, right?

We've been doing pastured pork for over ten years. Most people don't know that. We started about the same time Sam Edwards did, but not because he decided to do it. I just thought, What amend production could there be than pastured pork with my cure on it? Our hams have always been natural: nitrate-complimentary, weather-cured. At present our hogs are natural, besides.

Any plans for anniversary celebrations?

I tell you what, I've thought well-nigh different things to do. All I know is that our customers fabricated this, and I want to do some things for the people.