Is that grocery store ham really ham, or something weird?

Lots of us will be dining on the traditional Easter ham this weekend, so let’s dive right in today and talk ham. Not about cooking it, but about what’s available in the grocery store.

To start, have you ever noticed the labels on grocery store hams? They often say strange things like:

• Ham & Water Product
• 35% of weight is added ingredients
• A portion of ground ham added
• Cured with sugar, sodium phosphates, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite, flavor

Hmm… That sounds like a lot of weird stuff. Let’s take a closer look at these statements.

“Ham & water product” tells us it’s not “a ham,” which is a cut of meat from the back leg of the animal.

A “ham & water product” is like American cheese, which the FDA ruled cannot legally be called cheese because less than half the product is made from pressed curds of milk. Instead, American cheese is classified as “pasteurized processed cheese food.”

And if you keep reading those labels you might also find “cheese-like product”. 🤔 So if it’s not “cheese” what is it?!

Or, as food writer Michael Pollen would call it, “an edible food-like substance.” But it’s definitely NOT “real” food as our grandparents would recognize it.

Next: 35% of the product is water?! With ground ham added?! This is clearly some kind of manufactured “ham” loaf and NOT a proper ham.

Now, let’s look at the additives: Sodium phosphate can cause serious kidney damage and possibly death. Nitrates and nitrites are chemicals that have been linked to cancer, among other things.

And “flavor” is a nice term for a mixture of chemicals in processed food. The same mixture of chemicals would be called “fragrance” if it were found in cleaning products, perfumes, or cosmetics. 🤢

PLUS, there’s the awful information that’s NOT included on the label: The animals used to make these edible food-like substances spent their lives in tiny, barren crates unable to move freely, and fed an unbalanced diet of only corn and soy.

Yikes! You and your family deserve better than that. You deserve real ham, smoked the old-fashioned way, from animals who lived well.

Our Together Farms ham is the actual cut of ham from pasture raised pigs who had access to fresh air, a diverse diet, and companionship.

Our pigs are Heritage breeds, raised in wooded pastures on our Wisconsin farm, moved as often as conditions allow.

They lived as a pig should live: GMO-free, no hormones, no antibiotics, no crates, no MSG, no cut tails or teeth…

No weird stuff, just good stuff!

We do NOT cure our hams because we don’t need to preserve them for months or years. And vacuum-sealing and freezing the ham keeps it fresh indefinitely (as long as the seal remains unbroken).

Plus, our butcher hangs the ham in a smokehouse with gently burning maple hardwood to get that beautiful smoky flavor. NO shortcuts with “flavor” or liquid smoke...

Just a few natural ingredients like sea salt, honey, cane sugar, and spices to enhance the natural flavors of good pork and smoke. NO nitrates or nitrites added. So, you can rest assured that your food is actually nourishing you.

You CAN go ham on the ham!

If this sounds like something you’d like to feed yourself and your loved ones, then you’re in luck! We have a variety of hams in stock online and in the Farm Store.

I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the Together Farms difference!