These beauties will fill the house with an arresting aroma. Bone-in hams should be slow-baked with a nice glaze. Save the bones for stock to get the nutrient goodness down to the marrow. We should be moving down to the marrow of it all anyway. A light smoke intensifies the flavors that are already dormant in the ham. Heritage pigs take a bit longer to grow out. We believe slow food tends to be tastier.

Gratitude is a prayer, isn't it? Ham baked, glazed, and sizzling is toward the end of a long string of slow steps toward transfiguration. Sun to pasture to muscle to ham. We knew everyone of these hams. They danced, ran and rested in the pastures of our farm. We saw them daily under clouds and sun. But what is it all transfigured to? We live in an economic system that drives a wedge of quantification between sustenance and gratitude. The exchange of money for food is complicated. But there it is. A pair of hams reduced to dollars per pound. Is the joy and personality and grace of these lovely beasts lost in the reduction? Passing through the corridors of death and the human hallways of economic reduction, can pig life transfigure into gratitude and sustenance? Our prayer is that they do. May the aroma from these smoked hams be incense of joy and morsels of sustenance for you and your community.