Easters Of Years Past

Here we go again, another Fairfield Ridge Story:

I remember as a youngster about this time of year, walking home from the little one room school on Fairfield Ridge, getting closer and closer to that wonderful smell of Dad, smoking the Easter Ham. The previous fall, Dad would save the corn cobs after we had eaten the sweet corn off of them and let them dry, then come a week or so before Easter, he would get out the old wooden barrel with the two holes in the bottom, string a wire through the two holes and attach it to a fresh ham and place the barrel bottom side up over some bricks to allow a little air and a smouldering corn cob fire.

I am not sure how long he let the ham smoke, but I certainly do remember how that smell of the smoking ham would go through the air for miles around. He did smoke some bacon occasionally, but for the most part, we either ate it as fresh side pork or salt pork.

I remember one year an aunt of mine had gotten a recipe to place the ham in a brine for about six weeks and that was supposed to replace the chore of smoking the ham. Dad wasn't to hep on that method and preferred his own smoked ham. In later years we stopped smoking our own hams and had them processed by The McKenzie Packing Company, who also smoked our bacon for a small fee.

Dad took great pride in his bacon also and would feed the pigs corn meal for a while then stop the corn meal for a while. He explained to me that what he was doing was putting the strips of lean and fat in the side pork/salt pork/bacon. Not sure if it worked or not, but that is what he attributed the fat and lean in those cuts of pork.

Although we never raised pigs after we moved to Fairfax, I do know that we had a couple of local people here that used to smoke meat. One was the owner of Ryan's Meat Market in Milton and the other was a local merchant, Frank Berardinelli. Frank must have done it up at his house in Fletcher. The next time I send a note to Betsy, will have to check with her and see where Frank did that and how long he did it.