The Best Navy Bean Soup

Place all ingredients except the salt and pepper into a soup pot or Dutch oven and cover with 8 cups of water.

Bring beans to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 1 hour or until the beans are tender. 

Remove the ham hock, reduce the heat to low on the beans to keep them warm.  Remove the meat from the bone and chop into small pieces.

Add the ham meat to the beans, taste and add salt and pepper as desired.