The modern way to get Fat Stone Farm products involves high-speed internet connections, e-commerce transactions, and a few UPS trucks (sorry, we're not open to the public) -- but our place here in Lyme, Connecticut is founded on ancient bedrock, Native American footprints, old farm paths, and lots of heritage...

This maple season we were fortunate to have help in the sugar shack from our neighbor, and fellow sugar maker, Sam Coxe. One late night watching the sap boil into syrup, he penned the following....   A sweet treat forged from blood and sweat and tears and tree blood and...

Are you excited about dyeing Easter eggs, admiring their perfect oval shapes and heart-warming spring colors, celebrating the renewal that Easter brings, but don't want to use synthetic food coloring? Are you one of those people who actually EAT their Easter Eggs and want a healthy egg? I found a...

The Discovery of Maple Syrup Maple syrup, or more specifically, maple sugar, was originally made by multiple Native American tribes in the northern United States and Canada for sustenance and taste. The actual moment of discovery is unknown, but there are many origin stories and folktales that give us insight...

What is an Elderberry? Elderberries grow on every continent except Antarctica, and have been used and consumed for generations. They are small, dark berries which grow on tall shrubs in clusters, and range in color from red to almost black. Modern nurseries grow and sell ornamental elderberries which don't grow...

But First Let’s Be Honest About Poking Holes in Trees Someone walks up to a group of meditating maple trees and stabs one, hoping to see a watery solution trickle out.  This is a very first and necessary step on the annual journey of making maple syrup. And if you...

We use this chart as a starting point to discussing what's IN elderberries - the entire, raw berry. It's an exciting berry worth taking a look at! Check out the calcium, phosphorus, and Vitamin A -- all these and more are considered important vitamins and minerals for the human body....

Here is a photo of a few of our new Elderberry bush cuttings. We're expanding!  We are so encouraged by everyone's feedback on Elderberry Apple Shots, we are planting more. They are very small right now, but they grow quickly -- like weeds really. We had the option to BUY...

Rig as in not a large truck, but a maple syrup evaporator. Imagine your oven, 1000° or so, 3 giant pans of liquid, and a feeder tank to watch. Then, manually operate the oven, don't burn anything, and stop in time for the feeder tank to finish -- too early and...

It seems there are two, contradictory perhaps, popular sentiments swirling around post November 2016: ONE: do small things to make great changes; TWO: get angry and make a big splash. The Queen of England's annual Christmas address, for example, was about praising ordinary people doing "extraordinary" work every day. Charity...

The other month, Farmer Bill had the pleasure of meeting Joe, a former ginger taster, extractor, and world-wide quality control ginger expert for a large soft-drinks company. Joe, after figuring out how to massively scale down from large, stainless, ga-jillion dollar equipment to common kitchen items, extracted our Certified Organic...

Earlier this week the ice returned to the greenhouse glass windows. It makes some beautiful patterns, but it means the nights are below 20F. On a diversified farm like ours, this is a good thing. A cold winter means better maple sap flow. Too cold means the peach trees might...