The 49th annual Country Ham Festival took place in Cadiz this past weekend, honoring the western Kentucky area’s connection to the dry-cured delicacy.
One of the festival traditions is the annual making of what organizers call the world’s largest ham biscuit. The biscuit is baked for roughly two hours in a custom-built oven and is then paired with 400 pounds of cooked country ham before being cut up and sold.
The proceeds from the ham biscuit sales went to different organizations in Cadiz, including The Way, a local Christian Youth Center. Matt Shown, a board member with The Way, said putting it all together takes group effort.
“Lots of volunteers, lots of helpers, lots of people coming and spending their Saturday here at ham festival to put all this on,” Shown said.
Eleven contestants also took part in a charity contest to see who could eat the most ham biscuits in 10 minutes. Mikey Hammond was this year’s winner, eating eight and a half biscuits. With his win, Hammond secured a $2,500 donation for The Pink Ribbon Network.
The Trigg County festival also held events like a mullet and beard contest, a hog calling competition and a contest to see who could make the best country ham.
Event worker Brenda Price said community is at the heart of the gathering.
“Ham festival is just a big old get-together, basically,” Price said.
