It took 55 years for Harper’s Country Hams of Clinton, Ky. to become one of the nation’s leading producers of cured ham. Yet in only a few hours, a massive fire turned the 100,000-square-foot plant into pile of twisted steel and smoldering rubble.
America’s pig farmers produced a record-breaking number of market hogs in 2016, resulting in ample supplies of pork at the retail meat case and in restaurants.
One of the leading producers of country ham in the U.S. is Goodnight Brothers, a Boone, N.C. company that started when five brothers got into the food distribution business.