I'm going to give you all a sneak-peek into my boring, prosaic, kind of depressing life. Yesterday, I went to the store and picked up four cans of tuna for the next week or so. I used one of them that night for a quick impromptu meal, and overall I spent about £2.50 on the experience.

This is a very long-winded way of saying that I'm not really picky about my meat, and I'm not really prepared to spend a lot of money on it either. If I go out for a burger, I'll splash the cash for something a little more special, but there's no way, for example, I'll spend a lot of money at once for a big slab of meat. Especially ham.

Even if that ham was beautiful.

Like the ham, featured at the 2018 Kentucky State Fair, which has been talked up quite a lot recently. It's even sold for a massive amount of money at auction. Like, we're talking seven-figures-massive. If you're a follower of the annual state fair, you'll know that hams tend to go for ridiculous auction sums every year, but even then, this is something quite special.

"There really isn't an event like this anywhere else in the country," said B Todd Bright, spokesman for the Kentucky Farm Bureau, of the yearly event. Starting with humble beginnings in 1964, the Kentucky State Fair has become the premier ham event. "People hear about it and they know: we think highly of our country hams in Kentucky."

Last Thursday, in the Kentucky Exposition Center, several prominent Kentucky figures, including political leaders, sit down for breakfast and sample the latest Kentucky farm products, before bidding begins on the grand prize-winning ham, wheeled out by Miss Kentucky, who this year is Djuan Trent.

Then, the bids begin. The last two years were won by Central Bank in Lexington, who did so with bids of $600,000 and $325,000, and on this occasion, Ronny Drennan, owner of Broadbent B&B Foods - which produced our 2018 ham - says his prize ham is worth every penny. "A country ham, you can hang it up and leave it out in 100-degree weather," he said. "Lots of people eat it raw, slice it real thin and eat it prosciutto-style."

This year, the prize-winning ham was subject to the biggest bid it's ever seen. With the previous record being $2,000,000, this year, Central Bank and local doctor Mark Lynn both had a winning bid of $1.4 million, bringing it up to a total of $2.8 meaning that this ham sold for more than you or I will probably make in a lifetime. Yay.

Luther Deaton, CEO of Central Bank, will take home the country ham as part of the agreement, revealing that it was a tradition of his on Christmas morning to eat the country ham along with biscuits, gravy and fried potatoes. "I didn't want to miss out on that chance," Deaton explained. "That's a special time."

Of course, there's no way this ham is that good: proceeds from its sale will go toward bettering organisations such as the agriculture education group FFA. Oh well, at least it's for a good cause.

I'm going to give you all a sneak-peek into my boring, prosaic, kind of depressing life. Yesterday, I went to the store and picked up four cans of tuna for the next week or so. I used one of them that night for a quick impromptu meal, and overall I spent about £2.50 on the experience.

This is a very long-winded way of saying that I'm not really picky about my meat, and I'm not really prepared to spend a lot of money on it either. If I go out for a burger, I'll splash the cash for something a little more special, but there's no way, for example, I'll spend a lot of money at once for a big slab of meat. Especially ham.

Even if that ham was beautiful.

Like the ham, featured at the 2018 Kentucky State Fair, which has been talked up quite a lot recently. It's even sold for a massive amount of money at auction. Like, we're talking seven-figures-massive. If you're a follower of the annual state fair, you'll know that hams tend to go for ridiculous auction sums every year, but even then, this is something quite special.

"There really isn't an event like this anywhere else in the country," said B Todd Bright, spokesman for the Kentucky Farm Bureau, of the yearly event. Starting with humble beginnings in 1964, the Kentucky State Fair has become the premier ham event. "People hear about it and they know: we think highly of our country hams in Kentucky."

Last Thursday, in the Kentucky Exposition Center, several prominent Kentucky figures, including political leaders, sit down for breakfast and sample the latest Kentucky farm products, before bidding begins on the grand prize-winning ham, wheeled out by Miss Kentucky, who this year is Djuan Trent.

Then, the bids begin. The last two years were won by Central Bank in Lexington, who did so with bids of $600,000 and $325,000, and on this occasion, Ronny Drennan, owner of Broadbent B&B Foods - which produced our 2018 ham - says his prize ham is worth every penny. "A country ham, you can hang it up and leave it out in 100-degree weather," he said. "Lots of people eat it raw, slice it real thin and eat it prosciutto-style."

This year, the prize-winning ham was subject to the biggest bid it's ever seen. With the previous record being $2,000,000, this year, Central Bank and local doctor Mark Lynn both had a winning bid of $1.4 million, bringing it up to a total of $2.8 meaning that this ham sold for more than you or I will probably make in a lifetime. Yay.

Luther Deaton, CEO of Central Bank, will take home the country ham as part of the agreement, revealing that it was a tradition of his on Christmas morning to eat the country ham along with biscuits, gravy and fried potatoes. "I didn't want to miss out on that chance," Deaton explained. "That's a special time."

Of course, there's no way this ham is that good: proceeds from its sale will go toward bettering organisations such as the agriculture education group FFA. Oh well, at least it's for a good cause.