By Brenda Sexton-The Courier-Herald

Greg Olson is proud of his granddaughter Kristyn and says she is exactly what exemplifies the Northwest Junior Livestock Show's goal of investing in the future of agriculture through youth - offering an educational experience in selecting, feeding and marketing the finished product.

Through the years, Kristyn has been a regular participant in the Northwest Junior Livestock Show where she's shown hogs and racked up honors including the Howard Young and Walt Bergman awards. She was also an active FFA member and officer at Enumclaw High School. A year ago, she was in Puyallup at the livestock show.

A couple of weeks ago, the 2006 EHS graduate and Oregon State University freshman earned Reserve Grand Champion in a meat curing competition for her bone-in, custom-smoked ham at the Northwest Meat Processors Association's annual convention in Redmond, Ore.

The animal science major beat some of the best in the Northwest. The competition draws students, old-fashioned meat market owners and corporate giants from the meat processing industry across Washington, Oregon and Idaho to the convention and competition.

Kristyn has been perfecting her skills for clients at the family's Enumclaw business - Olson's Meats and Smokehouse - alongside grandpa, dad Adam and the rest of the family.

&#8220Her job here was to do all the curing before she left so she had on-the-job training,” grandpa Greg said.

Kristyn attributes the years in the family business and the opportunities she was exposed to during her years in the Enumclaw High FFA meats judging program. She said it was there she gained her confidence, acquired the drive and learned to set goals.

&#8220FFA really helped me,” she said.

&#8220I'm sure her FFA experience gave her a real step up and led her in that direction at Oregon State University,” said Paddy Lewis-Irwin, a longtime Plateau agriculture education leader.

Kristyn, who was also on the judging board for the bacon competition, rated well at the NMPA competition. Reserve Grand Champion is a second-place finish. Students are not separated out to compete.

Kristyn said there are several keys, the first is to start with a quality piece of meat and then find a balance between seasonings. Curing, she noted, takes about seven days and then the ham smokes for 10 to 12 hours. She also admits she tweaked the family recipe.

&#8220It's a pretty time-consuming product,” she said.

Competitors bring in the fully-cooked piece to competition where the judges are &#8220pretty picky,” Adam said. He said judges can tell minute errors in the process by the appearance, smell and taste of the ham.

&#8220For me it's more of a learning experience to see what different products are out there, and to see how I rate against the big guys,” Kristyn said.

She plans to one day work in the meat industry and attending and competing at the convention helps. This year's event gave Kristyn the opportunity to look into the future at food safety issues coming down the pike and the industry's move to create organic nitrates and nitrites for curing.

With her award tucked neatly under her arm, Kristyn returns home now and again and brings new knowledge, not only about curing, but the industry as a whole she's been picking up at Oregon State.

She was busy the end of March getting a slew of Easter hams ready for customers.&#8220I guess they benefit from my curing skills,” she smiled.