Developing a Spanish Accent

The Harrises are also working to show customers that Smithfield isn't the only reason Virginia is for hams. La Tienda already sells pork sausages and the prosciutto-like jamon serrano. But the Harrises have also been key players in managing to get the holy grail of Spanish hams, jamon Iberico, imported to the United States. A remarkable dry-cured ham produced from black-hoofed Iberian pigs, it literally melts on the tongue.

Jamon Iberico "bellota," which La Tienda also will be importing, can be thought of as the holy grail with a halo. It comes from Iberian pigs that toward the end of their free-range lives eat up to 20 pounds of acorns (bellotas) a day. Noting the premise that calm pigs have the best meat, Harris describes how, on their last day, these pigs "have Mozart played to them and are given hot showers," then are gently euthanized ("sacrificed" is the Spaniards' term) with carbon monoxide. The result is a ham so flavorful (and with plenty of monounsaturated fat) that devotees occasionally risk hefty fines to smuggle it into the United States and even fly to Spain just to eat it.

Until now, the problem with importing either type of jamon Iberico was that because the ham is a limited-supply, pricey product that is wildly popular in its home country, Spanish producers didn't bother about USDA approval. They didn't need the U.S. market, but the U.S. market wanted jamon Iberico.

In bringing this ethereal ham legally into this country (a goal of La Tienda since its founding), Don Harris found it a plus to be a North American familiar with the way things are done in the United States and also fluent in Spanish. The result: A family company in western Spain reconfigured and expanded its facility and put in place beginning-to-end tracking procedures. It now has a USDA-inspected and -approved facility where jamon Iberico and jamon Iberico bellota have started their long curing processes.

The company's Iberico sausages and lomos (pork loins) already are available through La Tienda, and paletas (shoulder hams) should be available by Christmas. Full-size boneless and bone-in hams will be offered at some point in 2008; some will be bellota. La Tienda is taking deposits of $199 for the hams, which, as you might imagine, aren't cheap. A boneless bellota will cost $139 a pound and, on average, weigh about 8.5 pounds.

Helping tally those orders and provide other support are all three of the couple's sons (including Christopher, who was born in Spain) and two daughters-in-law.

Harris says he considers the packing staff, largely from El Salvador, to be family, too, and he gives them health coverage and English lessons. "We want to help them integrate," he says. "We want all of us to be living lives of stability and trust."

Spoken not only like a retired minister but also, perhaps, in this emphasis on food and family, like a Spaniard.