Mountain Blogging Day 1: Ham & Cheese

WEST JEFFERSON - Everyone seems to be talking about "slow food" these days. Well, it doesn't get any slower than at the AB Vannoy Ham House in Ashe County, which has been in operation since the 1920s.

Here, the hams arrive in the dead of winter, and are coated in a mixture of salt and brown sugar for 36 days. Then, just as the weather begins to warm up, they're rinsed, wrapped in brown paper, and put in loosely woven stockings to hang from the rafters for at least seven months to allow mountain air to cure the meat to its full flavor. It's the way country hams used to be made.

Not many people still make them this way. There's a lot of government regulation to wrestle with, and the length of curing time has a way of cutting into profits. But country ham aficionados will tell you this is the only way to do it, and owners Byron and Nancy Jordan have no plans to change the process anytime soon.

"You really can taste the difference", says Nancy. "There's no shortcut to get this kind of flavor from a ham."

People seem to agree. With a movement toward more natural and authentic food underway, AB Vannoy has seen an uptick in the business. Sometimes, the slow way really is the best way.

Meanwhile, just a mile or two down the road, a favorite compliment to a country ham sandwich is slowly taking shape.

The Ashe County Cheese store has become one of the prime visitor attractions in West Jefferson, as a steady stream of customers stop by to pick up a block of sharp cheddar or perhaps a bag of cheese curds for the road. Across the street at the cheese plant, they can actually watch that cheese being made.

Cheese has been produced in this plant for 80 years, since the Kraft Corporation consolidated several small community cheese plants in order to make and distribute cheese nationwide. The plant has changed hands a few times since then, but the mission is still the same: to take locally produced milk and turn it into natural cheese and butter. The status as a must-visit stop in West Jefferson is just the icing on the cake. Or, in this case, the cheese on the burger.

For those who like their food made naturally, the way it used to be made, these two Ashe County companies are remnants of long-held traditions in these mountains... that seem to be finding favor in the brave new world of old-fashioned tastes.