What are the opening hours?

Monday 6am - 6pm Tuesday 6am - 6pm Wednesday 8am - 6pm Thursday 8am - 6pm Friday 8am - 6pm

Five Waters Farm, 9021 art Road, Cedar Grove, NC (2026)

01/19/2026

Winter is upon us. We have some small amount of snow now, but the weatherman tells us that much more is to come. We will move inside, have a cup of blueberry tea, and wait for better days. But this doesn't mean we stop.

To be successful at farming, one must be a renaissance man, or woman as the case may be. There are projects to be done no matter the weather. Many of those projects happen inside. Stitching, repairing, soldering, carpentry, cooking, experimenting, reading, the list never ends. None of these endeavors can be "farmed out" if the bottom line is to be in the black.

This fact reminds me that here are two foundational supports underpinning a successful society: They are teaching and farming. To move forward together we must eat, and we must share. Our farm reminds us that we must always be ready to learn new things. New skills, new ways of understanding the soil, new ways of understanding our neighbors, and new ways to adapt our farm to an everchanging world. We learn, and maybe we teach a little too.

If a farmer cannot remember his experiences and pass his knowledge forward, the farm is lost. Not unlike the society that depends on that farmer for food. Just like the biota in the soil, all things human are connected.

Our farm reminds us that there is nothing like good cold weather to sharpen our skills, exercise our mind, and share what we know with friends and neighbors. Thank-you farm for helping us keep things in perspective.

Come by the farm or see us at the Eno Market on Saturday and the Farrington Market on Tuesday. Give our pasture raised chicken, eggs, lamb, and turkeys, and sustainably grown chestnuts, mushrooms, strawberries, and blueberries, a try. And thank-you for your support!

10/21/2025

Every season somehow brings more work than the last. The thing that never seems bountiful is time. This being the case, things that don't scream for immediate attention like a hungry turkey, get left undone. Until winter.

We processed the last of the chickens and turkeys this week, leaving the farm feeling a bit lonely. The soap-opera of wants and needs and perceived insults and the cacophony that accompanies it all, has passed.

As we put the last turkey in the freezer, we sighed in tired relief and celebrated with a high five. But the moment didn't last too long as we looked over all the equipment that needs to be cleaned, repaired, and improved for next year.

We have entered the season of winter projects. It always seems that we will have plenty of time to get it all done. After all, there is no need to get up at the crack of dawn to feed hungry animals until spring. But in the end, we will likely come up short.

Chestnut trees to plant, a new hoop house to build, a new hen wagon to make, chestnut equipment to upgrade... The list is endless. We are thankful for the work and the opportunity to move, breath, think, and do our little part to help make the world a better place. Thank-you farm for always pointing us in the right direction.

Come by the farm or see us at the Eno Market on Saturday and the Farrington Market on Tuesday. Give our pasture raised chicken, eggs, lamb, and turkeys, and sustainably grown chestnuts, mushrooms, strawberries, and blueberries, a try. And thank-you for your support!

04/29/2025

We like to take the last week in March each year to hike a bit of trial in the mountains. We started hiking the Benton Mackaye last year, and continued to follow its path this year.

We enjoyed several days of below freezing temperatures and rain followed by several hot and dry days. That's spring in the Appalachians. We hiked about 80 miles and climbed about 15000 feet of elevation through the week.

We stopped to help clear blowdowns from the trail, saw much wildlife including pigs, bear, deer, turkey, grouse, ducks, owls, trout, and all variety of song birds. It seemed as though we were all gathered together to welcome the spring.

We take this week to celebrate our farm year. The last week in March marks the end of our winter preparations and gives us a short week-long rest before the first broiler chicks arrive on the farm.

It's been busy since! Strawberries are coming in fast. The blueberries are filling out and promise to ripen in a month or so. The hens are giving us those rich spring eggs we all crave. The last lamb dropped a day ago, and the sheep are immersed in their spring-time soap opera of socializing lambs, scolding ewes, and bewildered rams. The first broiler chicks of the year are letting us know they are done with the brooder and ready to explore our green pasture for worms, bugs, and grass. Such Joy!

Come by the farm or see us at the Eno Market on Saturday and the Farrington Market on Tuesday. Give our pasture raised chicken, eggs, lamb, and turkeys, and sustainably grown chestnuts, mushrooms, strawberries, and blueberries, a try. And thank-you for your support!

03/13/2025

They say trees are dormant in winter. To the casual observer, they sure look that way. No leaves, freezing temperatures, what could the tree possibly do in winter? As it turns out, a lot.

Their roots continue to grow, branches move toward the light as they get ready for spring and sap moves up the tree in late winter. Their buds, set last fall, act as photo sensors keeping track of the season on a daily basis. All this activity monitored, controlled, and accomplished by the complex nervous system we only recently discovered that trees have.

A farm is a bit like a tree. What possibly could be done on a farm in the dead of winter? Just as for the tree, the list is endless for the farm. Trees and farms must be ready when the weather turns sweet. When the growing season arrives we must be ready to take advantage of it and fill our larders. For trees, this means using minerals, water, and sunlight to bank carbohydrates and build wood. For the farm, it means all our systems are in place and in good repair so we can raise healthy chickens and lamb for meat, that our hens will have good pasture to make tasty eggs, and that our blueberries, strawberries, and chestnuts can produce good fruit for us.

We are there. We have worked all winter fixing and improving our farm after the lessons and wear and tear of last year. We, like our chestnut trees, worked through the cold dark winter days and are ready for the longer days and warm breezes of spring. We are ready to do our best.

Come by the farm or see us at the Eno Market on Saturday and the Farrington Market on Tuesday. Give our pasture raised chicken, eggs, lamb, and turkeys, and sustainably grown chestnuts, mushrooms, strawberries, and blueberries, a try. And thank-you for your support!

01/06/2025

New year's resolutions. Mostly we think about ourselves when we make them, maybe that's why they are so hard to keep. Maybe our resolutions would go farther if we thought of others instead.

Sometimes we are frustrated because we focus on the wrong thing as we struggle to meet our goals. This is a lesson we archers are familiar with. If we focus on hitting the mark with our arrow, we are most often frustrated. Instead, if we focus on perfecting our shooting form so that when we loose the string we do it without fault, then when we look down range, we will most often see our arrow in the bulls-eye.

We farmers have learned the same lesson. If we try to grow the most food we can, we find that eventually the land is spent. But if we change our mindset, if we embrace reciprocity, we then focus on giving the land as much as we take, and we will find that our crops are nutritious and plentiful and the land is fertile.

Some may say that respect for the land results in high food prices, which is itself unsustainable in a "free" market. I would argue that this point of view misses the mark. Consider what the Rockefeller Foundation has to say:

"In 2019, American consumers spent an
estimated $1.1 trillion on food. That price tag includes the
cost of producing, processing, retailing, and wholesaling
the food we buy and eat. It does not include the cost of
healthcare for the millions who fall ill with diet-related
diseases. Nor does $1.1 trillion include the present and
future costs of the food system’s contributions to water
and air pollution, reduced biodiversity, or greenhouse gas
emissions, which cause climate change. Take those costs
into account and it becomes clear the true cost of the U.S.
food system is at least three times as big—$3.2 trillion per
year."

In short, the "Free" Market requires us to spend as much on health care as we do on food, and to ask our children, and their children, to pay that much again so that we can eat.

We are proud of our American pioneering independent spirit. But we are not the only pioneer's. There are pioneering plants, bacteria, fungus, and animals. The one thing all these pioneers share in common is that their way of living is not sustainable. They must always give way to a more sustainable - old growth - way of living. Just as the sweet-gum tree must give way to the Oak, we must leave our pioneer ways behind and embrace a long-term point of view.

We cannot douse the earth in nitrogen salts, herbicides, and pesticides forever. We must understand that this pioneer approach got us to where we are, but its time to move on.

This year, we resolve to express gratitude to the land for the gift of our farm and to work hard every day to give as much as we receive. We will keep our eyes open for opportunities to do better and remember that there is more joy in gratitude than in greed.

Come by the farm or see us at the Eno Market on Saturday. Give our pasture raised chicken, eggs, lamb, and turkeys, and sustainably grown chestnuts, mushrooms, strawberries, and blueberries, a try. And thank-you for your support!

11/14/2024

Fall sees the end of the production phase of farm life, and the beginning of infrastructure season.

Infrastructure season begins with thoughtful reflection on the past season. This reflection is guided by the understanding that the foundation of good farming is reciprocity. Did this farmer give to the farm as much as he received? Could he give more?

Embracing reciprocity and gratitude not only makes the farm sustainable, it brings the farmer (and his customers) joy. Standing for what we stand on, accepting our responsibility, feeling gratitude for the gifts of the earth instead of entitlement to her "resources", is the path to happiness.

Accepting only what is offered instead of gouging the earth for all that we want requires the farmer to think harder and be empathetic to the land. Did the grass get over grazed in the back pasture? Were the hen wagons moved frequently enough? Is the soil biota thriving under the grass? How can we improve the wagons so the hens are more comfortable? How many meat chickens can we grow without harming the land if the drought doesn't break? The list of questions is long and the search for answers can be frustrating.

Needless to say we will be busy till spring making improvements to equipment and method so that next year we can grow our food, make the farm more vibrant, and be full of gratitude for the gifts of our mother earth. We are proud to share these gifts with you.

Come by the farm or see us at the Eno Market on Saturday. Give our pasture raised chicken, eggs, lamb, and turkeys, and sustainably grown chestnuts, mushrooms, strawberries, and blueberries, a try. And thank-you for your support!

09/24/2024

Farming never gets dull. But sometimes we are so busy we don't have time to appreciate the joy of it. We keep at it till we come out the other side of all the chores and gotta-do-it-now things that just can't wait this time of year. That's how it is in late summer.

We work all year in anticipation of harvest. But when harvest time comes, it's always a harried affair. The last of the chickens needed processing about the same time that the turkeys were looking just right for the thanksgiving table. Not to be left out, the mushrooms and chestnuts decided it was their time too.

It would be foolish to think a farmer has much say about his schedule. Mother nature and his charges dictate a farmers day. But if the farmers is quick enough, he may still notice a thing or two that bring him joy while he works to make the timetable laid out for him.

Sometimes we see things in passing and that's the best we can do. Like the lambs hanging out in their food trough's after everyone else has wondered off, or the suspicious eye of a new hen chick leery of the farmers intentions.

Or most interestingly, the alignment of the chicken tractors on the last day of the season. These tractors were dragged in formation around this field, moved 1 tractor length each day since April. Now at the end of September they are within an inch of each other. Nice and tidy, and unexpected.

Thank-you farm for patiently teaching us that we must cultivate joy like we cultivate chestnuts. And showing us that we may not be in charge of our day, but in the end joy, like chestnuts, will come if we are patient.

Come by the farm or see us at the Eno Market on Saturday. Give our pasture raised chicken, eggs, lamb, and turkeys, and sustainably grown chestnuts, mushrooms, strawberries, and blueberries, a try. And thank-you for your support!

07/25/2024

Ode to the cooper...

There is evidence that the skillful cooper was at work as far back in antiquity as the days of the Egyptians. His skill demanded high pay and he was indeed the highest paid craftsman in most communities. Neither the brewer, the tanner, nor the farmer could get through their day without the help of the cooper. While the cooper is best known for his bucket work, his job description included any container that could hold water (or wine).

But as we all know, times change. Coopers were busy for more than 20 centuries keeping our liquids contained. But by the mid 20th century, materials other than wood were found to hold liquids more cheaply. Today there are fewer than 30 coopers at work in this country it's said. The few that are left are employed making barrels for wine and whiskey, for which there is nothing better than oak to the keep these liquids contained.

Buckets mean work and lots of it. We farmers could not do our work without buckets, and lots of them. As we haul water and feed around the farm in all these plastic buckets we can't help but feel gratitude to the coopers of old who learned to hold water in one hand and move it with purpose.

While our buckets are no longer finely crafted wooden vessels made to hold water without leaking, they are still strong evidence of civilization. The Romans constructed their great concrete structures one bucket of concrete at a time. We humble farmers keep these hard working folk in our minds as we work hard, one bucket at a time, to provide better food than can be had from factory farms devoid of buckets, but endowed with automation.

Roman structures that are over 2000 years old and still going strong were made by hand using buckets. Modern structures made with automated equipment struggle to exceed 100 years before their concrete begins to rot. I wonder if there is metaphor in that for our automated factory food?

There are now combined growing and processing facilities that hatch eggs, grow chickens, kill, process, and package meat all without human labor (other than to repair the machines). Can this be good for our health? Or the earth? Is it ethical to bring a chicken into the world that will never see the light of day, touch the earth, or eat a bug before it is killed by a heartless robot?

This farmer wonders.

Come by the farm or see us at the Eno Market on Saturday and give our pasture raised chicken, eggs, chestnuts, turkey, mushrooms, strawberries, blueberries, and lamb a try. And thank-you for your support!

06/21/2024

Farming is all about transitions. A farm is proof positive of the old adage that the only certainty is change. While we can all agree that change happens, it sure seems our responses to change are as plentiful as those who experience it.

The luna moth lives a mere 7 days after it emerges from its cocoon. Yet in that time it is born, learns to fly, feed itself, find its way around, woo a lover, have babies, and die. Actually, it doesn't have to eat as it banks all the calories it will need as a caterpillar.

Even in this fast burning life, there is time to loiter. Luna moths sleep by day and fly with the stars at night. Our new broiler and turkey chicks also find plenty of time to play and sleep. Neither the moths nor the chicks seem to struggle with the pace of their lives.

The chestnut trees seem to be taking the hot dry summer in stride. Their burrs are a little bigger every day. The chestnut shed now stands ready with its various contraptions designed to pull the nuts from the burrs, size them to human standards, prepare them for sale, or separate the nut meat from the shell so that chestnut flour can be made.

Egg the farm cat has learned to sit on a post and wait for us to pass by after chores. She has discovered that a flirty attitude will get her a free ride to the house for breakfast and a well earned nap.

The strawberries are done, and the blueberries have taken their place as the thing that needs picking. So we pick. Thank-you strawberries and blueberries. And thank-you farm for patiently reminding us farmers that life is change, and change is life.

Come by the farm or see us at the Eno Market on Saturday and give our pasture raised chicken, eggs, chestnuts, turkey, mushrooms, strawberries, blueberries, and lamb a try. And thank-you for your support!

06/10/2024

It's been a busy spring! The good thing about farming is that while the farmer may get distracted by things like haybarn building, the other citizens of the farm never loose their focus. If it wasn't for their steadfast commitment to their jobs, the farm would have no hope of success.

The chestnuts have flowered in fine fashion. Many nuts have set and we have high hopes for the season. The chickens are sailing the pastures in their chicken schooners and our first processing day is coming up soon.

Our first honeybee colonies have arrived. A bit late for this years strawberry, blueberry, and chestnut flowers, but hopefully next year they will enjoy the bounty.

The shiitake mushrooms had a good flush during the wetter part of our spring. They went fast at market, but we still have a couple packs of sundried mushrooms left. Our next flush should happen in a few weeks.

The more independent citizens of the farm are busy too. A mockingbird couple raised their brood in a nectarine tree by the house and a doe left her fawns to sleep in some tall grass this farmer has neglected for a while.

Even the pawpaw's set a few flowers down by the creek this fine spring. If we can just get a little more rain this summer, there might be a few tasty fruit left over after the squirrels have their fill.

More chickens and our thanksgiving turkeys are set to arrive this week.

Come by the farm or see us at the Eno Market on Saturday and give our pasture raised chicken, eggs, chestnuts, turkey, and lamb a try. And thank-you for your support!

05/02/2024

The farm is picking up steam and the weather has taken a turn toward summer.

It is a locust year! Or rather, its a cicada year. When European settlers saw their first North American cicada brood emerge in the 1600's, they wrongly described them as locust. That mistake has stuck and been repeated in this country ever since. In fact, North America is the only continent aside from Antarctica that does not have locust.

Cicadas are emerging in the woods and along most shady paths. Take a look at the ground and you will notice their round holes everywhere. They talk to us as the day warms and we rest between chores.

The strawberries are really coming in now! We don't have enough plants for a pick-your-own enterprise yet, but hopefully that day will come. For now, our berries are available at the market or picked ahead of time on the farm. The blueberries are not far behind!

Egg the farm cat joins us some mornings for chores. If the day is just right, and her mood allows, she will ride with us in the UTV as we move around the farm. She is always eager for the next stop.

Come by the farm or see us at the Eno Market on Saturday and give our pasture raised chicken, eggs, chestnuts, turkey, and lamb a try. And thank-you for your support!

04/04/2024

The grass is growing, and the fruit trees are flowering. The nectarines somehow set fruit with their early bloom, so we may yet have a chance to taste them this year.

We are back from our week-long hike in the smokies and are nursing a few scratches, scrapes, and sore joints. The week started out cold, wet, and windy and ended up warm and sunny. The chickens and sheep did well in our absence and kept up their good work while suffering no calamities. Hopefully that is metaphor for the farm season to come.

The soil temperature is slowly rising. When it passes 50 degrees, the biota will wake up and get to work. Once this happens, we will start spreading our fermented fertilizers to help the set fruit grow plump and tasty.

Come see us at the Eno Market on Saturday and give our pasture raised chicken, eggs, chestnuts, turkey, and lamb a try. And thank-you for your support!

Five Waters Farm

01/19/2026

10/21/2025

04/29/2025

03/13/2025

01/06/2025

11/14/2024

09/24/2024

07/25/2024

06/21/2024

06/10/2024

05/02/2024

04/04/2024

Address

Opening Hours

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Monday	6am - 6pm
Tuesday	6am - 6pm
Wednesday	8am - 6pm
Thursday	8am - 6pm
Friday	8am - 6pm