Lady Edison Country Ham

You may have had country ham before, but Lady Edison’s version of this American classic is truly special. Lady Edison sources their animals from the North Carolina Natural Hog Growers Association, which is made up of 19 small hog farms that eschew factory farm practices such as gestation pens and hog houses. Instead, these farmers focus on sustainability, tradition, and animal husbandry, with third-party animal welfare approval and healthy habitats for the hogs. The pigs are a heritage cross of Berkshire, Chester White, and Duroc, and are 100% pasture-raised.
The aging process of the ham mimics the natural rhythms of North Carolina’s climate – hams are salted and stacked in the Winter Room at a low temperature, then they’re moved to the Spring Room, where they hang for over 90 days at 50 degrees. Then, they move on to the Summer Room, where the warmth and humidity allow the ham to develop its characteristic “funky” notes and deep umami flavor. Finally, each ham is wrapped in butcher paper, hung in a net, and aged an additional full year in an unconditioned room, where the natural fluctuations in temperature allow the ham’s characteristic flavor to fully develop. This also means that each ham will have a slightly different experience of aging, so each leg will have its own unique subtleties of flavor.
Salty, savory, smoky and deeply flavorful, this country ham proudly sits alongside our varieties of Italian prosciutto and Spanish jamon as an example of some of the best cured pork the United States has to offer.