SENNETT - A few bottles of Arbor Hill Raspberry Dressing were the first to stand on the lonely shelves, along with several brave bottles of Smoky Hollow Maple Syrup. In the showcase just inside the 150-year-old building on the property of Elderberry Pond, New Hope Mills Pancake Mix lay alone, waiting.
Jennifer Meyers / The Citizen
Merby Lego, co-owner of Elderberry Pond Country Foods, awaits customers. The store sells mostly locally made products and opened today for the season.
Merby Lego, co-owner of Elderberry Pond Country Foods, awaits customers. The store sells mostly locally made products and opened today for the season.
The farm's country food store, now in its 25th year, will open today to sell organically grown fruits and vegetables. Such items will share space in the silent, stone history of the small shop with a variety of pasture-grazed meats, not to mention the farm's homemade hams, jellies and jams.
“Things we don't produce we try to buy locally,” said Merby Lego, half of the husband and wife team that owns the premises. “I've been cleaning, restoring shelves and ordering. I've ordered the ham, the poultry and have been inventorying the things we grow.”
New this year, the country food store will have a limited number of hams from its own pigs that the couple raised from certified organic piglets last summer. These hams have no antibiotics or hormones and were only fed a rich pasture grass and certified organic grain. The pair will also carry other pork cuts and sausages made from their own pasture raised pigs along with the hams from Pennsylvania which the pair regularly has carried.
Outside, some of the 100-acre landscape was readying itself, along with the Hoop House, to help fill the space with organically grown fruits and vegetables, a favorite of visitors for years.
“We're a farm first. That is our focus,” Merby said. “And the method of farming is very important to us. We believe in sustainable agriculture, in a way that's friendly to the environment. That's our reason for being a farm and a restaurant.”
Sustainable agriculture, explained Lou Lego, involves purifying the soil by not adding any chemicals, and planting cover crops, which are sometimes plowed under to add nutrients.
“There were a couple of things that led us to it,” Lou Lego said. “There were a lot of health issues when we first moved here. The farmer that was farming our land died of cancer. There were a lot of neighbors that died of cancer. We didn't realize just how much spraying was going on.”
Bringing the apple orchard back to the way it was before insecticides did cause small problems with worms, Lou noted, “but there are a whole new list of things you have to deal with when you spray.”
“The insecticides kill all the insects, including the good ones,” he explained. “Then the whole thing snowballs. It's amazing what's happened. We have very few pests in the orchards. And the land is alive. There are micro organisms, single cell creatures, that add nutrients.”
Some of the farming for the spring inventory of asparagus, spinach, snow peas, beets, radishes, Japanese turnips and Kohlrabi began months ago. Rows of lettuce and herbs were snug in the solar-heated Hoop House (green house) while cold winds blew across the outside.
Also, Merby, who is officially in charge of the flowers, often used to decorate the tabletops in the Elderberry Restaurant a stone throw away, has been starting Zinnias and Forsythias indoors.
Once a practicing registered dietitian and nutritionist, she relishes the thought of feeding a new spring, summer and fall crop of customers their healthy products.
“This is more fun - instead of telling them what not to eat,” she said, “I get to tell them to eat their fruits and vegetables.”
sausages made from their own pasture raised pigs along with the hams from Pennsylvania which the pair regularly has carried.
Outside, some of the 100-acre landscape was readying itself, along with the Hoop House, to help fill the space with organically grown fruits and vegetables, a favorite of visitors for years.
“We're a farm first. That is our focus,” Merby said. “And the method of farming is very important to us. We believe in sustainable agriculture, in a way that's friendly to the environment. That's our reason for being a farm and a restaurant.”
Sustainable agriculture, explained Lou Lego, involves purifying the soil by not adding any chemicals, and planting cover crops, which are sometimes plowed under to add nutrients.
“There were a couple of things that led us to it,” Lou Lego said. “There were a lot of health issues when we first moved here. The farmer that was farming our land died of cancer. There were a lot of neighbors that died of cancer. We didn't realize just how much spraying was going on.”
Bringing the apple orchard back to the way it was before insecticides did cause small problems with worms, Lou noted, “but there are a whole new list of things you have to deal with when you spray.”
“The insecticides kill all the insects, including the good ones,” he explained. “Then the whole thing snowballs. It's amazing what's happened. We have very few pests in the orchards. And the land is alive. There are micro organisms, single cell creatures, that add nutrients.”
Some of the farming for the spring inventory of asparagus, spinach, snow peas, beets, radishes, Japanese turnips and Kohlrabi began months ago. Rows of lettuce and herbs were snug in the solar-heated Hoop House (green house) while cold winds blew across the outside.
Merby, who is officially in charge of the flowers, often used to decorate the tabletops in the Elderberry Restaurant a stone's throw away, has been starting Zinnias and Forsythias indoors.
Once a practicing registered dietitian and nutritionist, she relishes the thought of feeding a new spring, summer and fall crop of customers their healthy products.
“This is more fun - instead of telling them what not to eat,” she said, “I get to tell them to eat their fruits and vegetables.”
Elderberry Pond
Country food store hours
10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday
Restaurant hours
Lunch: 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday
Dinner: Starting at 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday
Sunday: From 4 to 7 p.m.
For more information, call the farm at 252-3977, the restaurant at 252-6025 or visit ElderberryPond.com
“Things we don't produce we try to buy locally,” said Merby Lego, half of the husband and wife team that owns the premises. “I've been cleaning, restoring shelves and ordering. I've ordered the ham, the poultry and have been inventorying the things we grow.”
New this year, the country food store will have a limited number of hams from its own pigs that the couple raised from certified organic piglets last summer. These hams have no antibiotics or hormones and were only fed a rich pasture grass and certified organic grain. The pair will also carry other pork cuts and sausages made from their own pasture raised pigs along with the hams from Pennsylvania which the pair regularly has carried.
Outside, some of the 100-acre landscape was readying itself, along with the Hoop House, to help fill the space with organically grown fruits and vegetables, a favorite of visitors for years.
“We're a farm first. That is our focus,” Merby said. “And the method of farming is very important to us. We believe in sustainable agriculture, in a way that's friendly to the environment. That's our reason for being a farm and a restaurant.”
Sustainable agriculture, explained Lou Lego, involves purifying the soil by not adding any chemicals, and planting cover crops, which are sometimes plowed under to add nutrients.
“There were a couple of things that led us to it,” Lou Lego said. “There were a lot of health issues when we first moved here. The farmer that was farming our land died of cancer. There were a lot of neighbors that died of cancer. We didn't realize just how much spraying was going on.”
Bringing the apple orchard back to the way it was before insecticides did cause small problems with worms, Lou noted, “but there are a whole new list of things you have to deal with when you spray.”
“The insecticides kill all the insects, including the good ones,” he explained. “Then the whole thing snowballs. It's amazing what's happened. We have very few pests in the orchards. And the land is alive. There are micro organisms, single cell creatures, that add nutrients.”
Some of the farming for the spring inventory of asparagus, spinach, snow peas, beets, radishes, Japanese turnips and Kohlrabi began months ago. Rows of lettuce and herbs were snug in the solar-heated Hoop House (green house) while cold winds blew across the outside.
Also, Merby, who is officially in charge of the flowers, often used to decorate the tabletops in the Elderberry Restaurant a stone throw away, has been starting Zinnias and Forsythias indoors.
Once a practicing registered dietitian and nutritionist, she relishes the thought of feeding a new spring, summer and fall crop of customers their healthy products.
“This is more fun - instead of telling them what not to eat,” she said, “I get to tell them to eat their fruits and vegetables.”
sausages made from their own pasture raised pigs along with the hams from Pennsylvania which the pair regularly has carried.
Outside, some of the 100-acre landscape was readying itself, along with the Hoop House, to help fill the space with organically grown fruits and vegetables, a favorite of visitors for years.
“We're a farm first. That is our focus,” Merby said. “And the method of farming is very important to us. We believe in sustainable agriculture, in a way that's friendly to the environment. That's our reason for being a farm and a restaurant.”
Sustainable agriculture, explained Lou Lego, involves purifying the soil by not adding any chemicals, and planting cover crops, which are sometimes plowed under to add nutrients.
“There were a couple of things that led us to it,” Lou Lego said. “There were a lot of health issues when we first moved here. The farmer that was farming our land died of cancer. There were a lot of neighbors that died of cancer. We didn't realize just how much spraying was going on.”
Bringing the apple orchard back to the way it was before insecticides did cause small problems with worms, Lou noted, “but there are a whole new list of things you have to deal with when you spray.”
“The insecticides kill all the insects, including the good ones,” he explained. “Then the whole thing snowballs. It's amazing what's happened. We have very few pests in the orchards. And the land is alive. There are micro organisms, single cell creatures, that add nutrients.”
Some of the farming for the spring inventory of asparagus, spinach, snow peas, beets, radishes, Japanese turnips and Kohlrabi began months ago. Rows of lettuce and herbs were snug in the solar-heated Hoop House (green house) while cold winds blew across the outside.
Merby, who is officially in charge of the flowers, often used to decorate the tabletops in the Elderberry Restaurant a stone's throw away, has been starting Zinnias and Forsythias indoors.
Once a practicing registered dietitian and nutritionist, she relishes the thought of feeding a new spring, summer and fall crop of customers their healthy products.
“This is more fun - instead of telling them what not to eat,” she said, “I get to tell them to eat their fruits and vegetables.”
Elderberry Pond
Country food store hours
10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday
Restaurant hours
Lunch: 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday
Dinner: Starting at 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday
Sunday: From 4 to 7 p.m.
For more information, call the farm at 252-3977, the restaurant at 252-6025 or visit ElderberryPond.com
Citizen
Hot Jobs
New! Off the Menu
The Citizens' Say
Post your comment - click hereThere are No comments posted.