In Southeastern Virginia, which is better known for its peanuts, researchers are trying to make more hay that will be used in the equine industry.
Read (Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star)
Good farmland is disappearing at a rapid pace in Virginia, but efforts continue at the state capitol to preserve some of it.
Read (NRVToday.com)
Over the last decade, coyote numbers have increased in Virginia. The number of coyotes killed by hunters in Virginia rose from 1,200 to 9,000 between 1994 and 2005, but the number of coyotes is still increasing. Rockingham county is going to help its farmers by paying for a field technician to target coyotes in the county. The program expands the the USDA program and provide coyote coverage to beef and dairy cattle, poultry, alpacas and llamas.
Read (Harrisonburg Daily News Record)
High oil prices have increased the value of ethanol, and the price of corn, from which it is made. As a result, many farmers are altering their planting decisions.
Read (New York Times)
[Matt Lohr](http://dela.state.va.us/dela/MemBios.nsf/a7b082ef6ed01eac85256c0d00515644/521eed84c0bd8588852570d2005e9e7e?OpenDocument&Click=85256823005F1997.f0a3d2c6f9f07af1852570bd00646e36/$Body/0.19E2 “Matt Lohr’s General Assembly Page”) of Broadway, VA is the only active farmer in the Virginia [General Assembly](http://legis.state.va.us/ “General Assembly’s Web Page”).
Read (Harrisonburg Daily News Record)
As many as 3 biodiesel refineries are coming to Maryland in 2006, promising benefits for farmers and the environment. All 3 plan to use soybean oil, which is produced when soybeans are crushed to make meal for livestock feed.
Read (AP via WTOP)
A Franklin County, VA tobacco farmer diversified this spring by adding two ponds to his 1,000-acre farm and stocking them with Malaysian freshwater shrimp. In October, he harvested and sold more than 1,100 pounds of shrimp to hundreds of customers.
Read (AP via the Daily Press)
Although most of the pork that graces the country’s holiday tables originates from one of the large producers in eastern Virginia and North Carolina, a select few mom-and-pop ham operations still dot the Mid-Atlantic. One such producer, Jim Kite at Kite’s Ham in Madison County, has been making ham in the same time-tested, labor-intensive manner for the past 45 years.
[Kites Hams](http://kiteshams.com/ “Kite’s Hams”)
Wolftown, VA 22748
540-948-4742
Kite’s hams aging well / Madison County company has been making delicacy for 45 years with family’s recipe
Byline: DAVID HENDRICK Media General News Service
Country ham occupies a special place in the hearts and minds of many, particularly those of a certain geographical persuasion. Likewise, perhaps no place is more associated with the Southern delicacy than the commonwealth.
“People think of Virginia ham,” said Willis Logan, president of The Virginia Company, based in Stanardsville. “That curing process . . . the traditional salt cure, began in Virginia. That association as Virginia ham is known in the whole world.”
Logan said his firm, which specializes in products made in the commonwealth, brings in a special storage truck this time of year to hold all of the hams that they ship “clear across the country,” during the holiday season.
While few go through the old-time country ritual of curing their own ham for family consumption anymore, some commercial outfits still make country hams.
And although most of the pork that graces the country’s holiday tables originates from one of the large producers in eastern Virginia and North Carolina, a select few mom-and-pop ham operations still dot the Mid-Atlantic.
One such producer, Jim Kite at Kite’s Ham in Madison County, has been making ham in the same time-tested, labor-intensive manner for the past 45 years.
“It was a recipe my dad had, and I took it from there,” said Kite, a Madison native and former professional baseball player.
Kite, 74, started his production behind his Wolftown home, making a few hundred hams a year.
The output steadily climbed to the roughly 2,000 he and his five- person staff will put out this year, all of which will sell, Kite said.
He won’t divulge much of his recipe, only saying that it’s “secret and complicated.” The gist of things, however, is this:
After the fresh ham is delivered, the meat is heavily rubbed down with a salt and sugar mixture, left for a few weeks, and then rubbed down again.
Kite and his team then transfer the meat to a warm curing house, where the meat is left to hang and cure for as long as 12 months. While it hangs, the moisture leaves the meat and the flavors concentrate, making for a stronger taste.
For those who don’t like a ham that’s cured quite so long, Kite’s makes a product it calls “happy ham,” pork that’s only seen four to six months in the curing shed.
Despite being around the product for his entire life and despite entreaties from his doctor, Kite still says he eats “more than he should.”
“It’s so good,” the ham man said. “I never see too much.”
At Anderson Carriage Food House, Ed Anderson said Kite’s is his biggest selling ham.
“People are very knowledgeable about it and will ask for Kite’s,” said Anderson, who carries a variety of hams.
Asked whether he was a fan of the food himself, Anderson didn’t hesitate.
“Oh my goodness, yes,” the grocery store owner said. “It’s cured properly. It is an excellent ham.”
Kite’s hams have inspired a country ode from musician Larry Gardner and picked up top honors at a number of events, including the “American Cured Meat Championships.”
Kite doesn’t seem much interested in winning awards anymore, nor does he bother much with advertising. He’s thought about getting a Web site going, but that too doesn’t seem important, as he already has all the business he and his crew can handle.
He doesn’t say how much money the operation brings in, only that it’s “just enough to put bread on the table.”
Kite’s career in ham almost didn’t happen.
Coming out of Fork Union Military Academy, he bounced around the minor leagues of baseball, pitching in Birmingham, Ala., Denver and Binghamton, N.Y., among other spots, before throwing his shoulder out.
Still, Kite enjoys reminiscing about baseball almost as much as he likes talking about ham, and the former pitcher has a stable of stories involving his run-ins with greats such as Satchel Paige and Mickey Mantle.
Occasionally, Kite’s two interests merge, such as in the letter he keeps from George Steinbrenner, in which the owner of the New York Yankees tells Kite how much he likes his hams.
But for someone who has used long, slow curing to achieve greatness in the ham business, Kite has no tolerance for the long, slow nature of today’s professional baseball.
“They’ve got to do something,” Kite said of the pace of modern baseball games. “It’s killing it.”
Originally from the Richmond Times Dispatch
I haven’t eaten a Kite’s ham in several years, and I’d forgotten how delicious they are until I read the article. I think I’ll pick one up the next time I’m in the Charlottesville area.
I remember my grandparents curing hams in a similar manner as Kite’s – cover it in a rub and let it hang in a warm curing shed for up to a year.
The Ivy Inn Restaurant in Charlottesville is [planning to offer](http://ivyinnkitchen.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/kuntry-ham/ “Read the Ivy Inn’s post”) Kite’s hams on its menu.
In rough numbers, Maryland had about 4,000 dairy farms in 1970. That number dropped to 3,000 in 1980; 2,000 by 1990; and about 1,000 at the turn of the century. Today, there are fewer than 650 dairy farms in the state.
There seems to be no united front within the industry to battle the economic forces that have taken such a big toll on farms and to ensure consumers of a continuing source of fresh, local milk.
Read (Baltimore Sun)
Freshly harvested local strawberries may soon be spotted on holiday tables in the mid-Atlantic region. An Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist developed a new method for propagating June-bearing strawberry varieties that allows the plants to fruit in the fall, continue fruiting until December, and then fruit again in the spring.
Read (USDA)
Raising livestock the old-fashioned way, without heavy machinery, hormones or antibiotics, makes for higher-quality meat, some Virginia farmers say.
Examples cited were a farm in Louisa County that’s raising natural “heirloom” cows, pigs, and sheep and a farm in Orange County that’s raising free-range turkeys.
Read (Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star)
It sounds like they’re using some of the same methods I remember my grandparents using.
The farm worker shortage could signal a turning point in the United States’ ability to produce its own food.
“We are trying to sound the alarm without being alarmist, but the situation has become extremely serious,” says Tim Chelling of the Western Growers Association, whose members grow, pack, and ship half America’s produce. “We are now talking of losing the production of key commodities to foreign competition. America’s produce industry is facing a crisis.”
Read (Christian Science Monitor)
Louisiana economists estimate the losses to the state’s farm economy at $1.6 billion – ranging from strawberry fields that were washed away to entire forests that had 10 to 15 years’ worth of timber destroyed. Because of salt-water flooding, agriculture experts say the damage could stretch on for years.
Read (Christian Science Monitor)
Flickr Photo originally uploaded by haikuluke.
Coyotes have spread to every county in Virginia, and they lack natural enemies here. They will eat whatever is easiest to find, including plants, sheep, cattle, dead animal carcasses, house cats, and even small dogs.
Read (Roanoke Times)
I haven’t seen any coyotes here in Salem, and I didn’t see any when we lived in rural Madison County, VA . I did have a coworker who had a photo on his desk of one he had killed while he was hunting for deer. With all of the cats in this neighborhood, a coyote could eat well here for a couple of months.
Tobacco has long been Virginia’s top crop, but production has gone down in recent years while soybean production has increased.
Read (Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star)