Category: Little House

Katie Murray’s office sits behind the loading dock of an old mill on the Eno River, in the back on the lower level. To get there, you have to bump down a steep, rough incline. You also have to make sure you don’t turn in six feet too soon or you’ll wind up in the… Continue reading Arts and Farmers

Whenever anyone familiar with this general part of North Carolina asks me where it is I live in Orange County, I have learned to reply, “Do you know where the ice cream shop is?” They always do.             The Maple View Farm Ice Cream Shop is a regional legend, a Nutter family enterprise that was… Continue reading Roger That

Those of you who have been following these columns regularly (thank you) are aware that we have many and varied animals around the farm here at Union Grove: sheep, dogs, worms, bees, chickens, etc. But to date, I have barely mentioned another exotic species that can be found prowling the fields and vineyards.             We… Continue reading Cheerio!

Guy Fricks*, the Bee Guy, grew up in the South Carolina portion of Appalachia. There was no money to send him to college, so he moved on in search of employment and landed in New Orleans where he found work as a boat builder and carpenter. He took a few courses at Tulane and met… Continue reading Plan Bee

When my father got back to Connecticut after serving in WWII, he had a good job waiting for him. But he had something else in mind. He chose to go to Maine and become a dairy farmer. Mother was willing, mainly because she had read there were no poisonous snakes in the whole state. I… Continue reading Choosing to Farm

In 1957, three hair sheep boarded a ship at the dock in Christiansted, St. Croix bound for Boston. It was the exact same route taken by young Alexander Hamilton in 1772 when he first came to America. Hamilton is considered one of the founding fathers of the U.S of A. The three sheep are considered… Continue reading Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Katahdin Sheep

Quick, what’s the definition of the word Monoculture? Is it: A.     A country with only one ethnic group? B.     A lab sample with only one pathogen, or C.     A field planted in only one crop? If you said “C” you win the prize, at least for this column. “Mono” of course, means “one,” and the… Continue reading Monoculture

The Rise and Fall of the Plow   The story is that an Illinois blacksmith named John Deere invented the plow in 1837 out of a broken sawmill blade, but in truth the plow had been around for several generations prior to that. Like maybe four hundred generations. (Allowing 20 years per generation, four hundred… Continue reading The Rise and Fall of the Plow