\r\nThe annual Ham & Eggs Show returns for its 66th year in Lowndes\r\nCounty this month and it marks the 100th year of Ham and Eggs Shows\r\nin Georgia.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nThe first Ham and Egg Show was coordinated by Otis Samuel O’Neal at\r\nFort Valley in 1916.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nBorn in Upson County on Nov. 20, 1884, O’Neal was the fifth of 17\r\nchildren.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nWhile growing up on the family farm, O’Neal decided on education at\r\nan early age.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nHe graduated from Fort Valley High and Industrial School in 1908 and\r\nreturned to teach agriculture for a year in 1910-1911. He left\r\nteaching to return to school, attending the Tuskegee Institute in\r\nAlabama and graduating in 1913.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nThe next year, he was appointed as county agent with the Georgia\r\nAgriculture Extension Service for Houston County.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nHis work as a county agent introduced him to many of the local black\r\nfarmers and their families.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nCorn had grown in popularity and it wasn’t uncommon for black\r\nfamilies to raise a few hogs throughout the year and butcher them\r\nfor meat.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nAt the same time, hen houses were being built more by people in\r\ntheir back yards.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nO’Neal set up the first Ham and Eggs Show on Feb. 1, 1916, with the\r\ngoal of having farmers educate other farmers on meat raising, curing\r\nand preserving methods.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n(Note: There are couple of sources that diverge on the year of the\r\nfirst Ham and Egg show. A 1943 article in Life Magazine cites it as\r\n1917; the book “Dispossession: Discrimination against African\r\nAmerican Farmers in the Age of Civil Rights” lists the start\r\ndate at 1914. The National 4-H Hall of Fame lists it as 1916 in its\r\nbiography of O’Neal, and that’s what we’ve decided to go with here.)\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\n\r\nIn 1950, John Saunders and the Black Farm Bureau established the\r\nfirst Ham and Egg Show and Sale in Lowndes County.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nSaunders was the first African-American county extension agent\r\nappointed in Lowndes County.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nWhile the shows kept their educational component, they’ve evolved\r\nthrough the years to promote the produce of black farmers, giving\r\nthem a chance to show the quality of their produce and for local\r\nbusinesses to support their efforts.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nToday, Lowndes County is the last county still holding an annual Ham\r\nand Eggs show.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nYears ago, the show almost shut down, but a surge in young farmers\r\nkept the show going.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nThis month’s show marks 66 years that Lowndes County has held a Ham\r\nand Eggs show and a full century that the shows have been held in\r\nGeorgia.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nThe show has changed in some ways; in others it hasn’t. It’s still\r\nabout the farmer, those farmers — young and old, new and\r\nexperienced — who are working the land, raising animals,\r\nproviding food for their families and neighbors, their state and\r\ncountry.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last of a century-old tradition: local ham and eggs, right here in Lowndes County. When: 10 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017 Where: Lowndes County Extension Office 2102 E. Hill Ave., Valdosta, GA Photo: Michael Rivera, Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons share, remix, attribution, share alike. Daniel DeMersseman, VDT, 2017-02-10, […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7,41,10,6],"tags":[2761,3032,24,445,3029,2775,3035,3,23,2891,3033,2764,5,3031,2,2760,3034,3030,25],"class_list":["post-6140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","category-food","category-history","category-okra-paradise-farms","tag-agriculture","tag-black-farm-bureau","tag-brown-dog","tag-eggs","tag-extension","tag-food","tag-fort-valley-state","tag-georgia","tag-gretchen-quarterman","tag-ham","tag-ham-and-egg-show","tag-history","tag-john-s-quarterman","tag-john-saunders","tag-lowndes-county","tag-okra-paradise-farms","tag-otis-samuel-oneal","tag-velma-miles","tag-yellow-dog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Gj0O-1B2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6140"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6144,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6140\/revisions\/6144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:John_W._Saunders_Memorial_Park_5.JPG\")
<\/a>\r\n