Cumberland Falls Farm

It’s amazing how much can get done with the right machines and people.  We’ve been able to take advantage of the mostly nice weather to get a lot of work done around the pond, and it is about done.  You can now drive all the way around the pond, and park and fish if you…

So, I know a lot of you are trying to make your own bread at home this week.  I know because I always buy 25 pounds of flour when I shop and where is the flour now? Gone, gone, gone.  No flour in the store.  So now that you have a 25 pound sack of…

We cheated really, it’s not quite first greens of spring season, but it is our first harvest from the new high tunnel!  Our flattest piece of land was already a natural yellow dock bed.  Under the warm and sunny high tunnel that dock has taken off and was ready for harvest early this year.  I…

It’s finally Spring again!  Spring starts our “busy season” on the farm.  The truth is we’re still pretty busy in the winter, especially because every job we do from caring for animals, to moving dirt, or just dressing children, takes 400 times longer in the cold mud.  Every winter I wonder why we don’t live…

Now that the canning is done, we can turn our minds to the dry, yellowed beans we sorted out of the pile in the beginning.  They won’t go to waste.  If you were planning to grow beans to use for soup beans you would leave them on the plant until they, and the plant were…

Now it’s time to can!  You’ve already done your preparation so you know how to use your canner, have your jars ready, and know how long to process them.  You can hot or cold process green bean, but I like to hot process them personally.  More beans fit in a jar with hot process because…

We unfortunately did not get enough garden in for green beans this year.  Our focus was on tomatoes, hot peppers, and winter squash, so we were very grateful to be blessed with these beans from our neighbors.  These are goose beans, which are said to have got their name from early settlers who found the…

The first, and most essential step to enjoyable and effective canning, is planning and preparation.  I did not grow up canning, I grew up being told that home canned food would kill you, quickly, violently, and mysteriously.  This is absolutely true, poorly canned food can kill you.  Thankfully, canning isn’t an art, it’s a science. …

There has been a huge resurgence in canning lately.  Perhaps it is a desire to get closer to the land again, or to embrace our old fashioned values and culture, or maybe it is simply a greater desire for healthy, homegrown food.  Whatever the reason, more and more people want to learn how to can…

Poke, it’s the sure sign that winter is over and hope is beginning again.  It’s usually the first harvestable green of spring, which makes it especially appreciated at our house.  Phytolacca americana, (poke, poke sallet, poke salad, poke berry, poke root, or pokeweed) has been an American staple as long as people who wrote things…