2021 Fall Newsletter

By Billy Joe Fudge

Photo By "Somewhere Down the Road" www.somewheredowntheroad.photo

​December is the first month of meteorological winter. I like simple, and meteorological seasons are more easy to negotiate than the astronomical seasons. Meteorological winter (December, January, February) is the three coldest months in the Northern Hemisphere and meteorological summer (June, July, August) is the hottest three months. Spring of course, is the three months between winter and summer, and fall is the three months between summer and winter. I don’t have to know the angle at which the sunlight is striking the Earth, whether or not it is Leap Year, what day or what week it might be. To know the season I only need to know what month it might be at any given time.

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So, that being said, now that December 2021 (winter) has rolled around, I at long last have the opportunity to share with you a trifecta of main events that made for a great fall at Homeplace. One main event celebrated the harvest; one celebrated the wisdom of our subsistence farmer forefathers’ preparations for their cold, dark and long winters ahead and one looked forward to 2022 and beyond. A 2022 that is going to be a year of growth in our ability “to protect and promote rural American culture through the sustainability of agriculture and natural resources, utilizing education, conservation and the economic opportunities of agritourism”.

Our Fall Heritage Festival was held on September 11th. It was quite a celebration of the seed sown or planted in the spring, nurtured and cultivated through mid to late summer in anticipation of a bountiful harvest during the fall season. It was a beautiful day and in spite of Covid launching one last offensive against the good people of South Central Kentucky, we had nearly 800 people come out and enjoy the celebration. Kiddie Barrel Train rides, a hay maze in our Bank Barn built with timbers that supported the Civil War version of the Green River Bridge at Tebb’s Bend some 150 + years ago, hay rides, craft booths, demonstrations of various kinds, petting farm, food, music, antique tractor show and much more gave rise to never to be forgotten, learning, laughter, fun and joyful camaraderie.

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Then in late October as morning frosts and early nightfall put us on notice that winter was soon to arrive, we launched our inaugural version of Family Farm Day. Family Farm Day is a day to remember and preserve the traditions of our subsistence farming legacy; a legacy that is and was the coming together of families and entire neighborhoods to slaughter hogs, process and preserve the meat. We fried fresh, minutes old sausage and cornbread hoecakes using our very own, Homeplace grown, fresh ground, non-GMO heritage corn. In another tradition of the past, we picked ear corn by hand and hauled it to the storage crib in a mule drawn wagon.

Also in October we were blessed to host the Campbellsville/Taylor County Chamber of Commerce meeting in our B-I-G Red Tobacco Barn. The over 100 people who attended enjoyed a barbecue lunch and were inspired by a moving performance of My Old Kentucky Home by Miss Kentucky 2021, Haley Wheeler. Kentucky’s Mr. Agriculture, Warren Beeler, educated, informed and entertained all of us with his keynote address. The program continued down at our Livestock Barn with a ribbon cutting celebrating the official kickoff of Kentucky’s Outdoor Classroom at Homeplace on Green River.

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Kentucky’s Outdoor Classroom will be available to school systems within a day trip distance for hands-on, educational experiences. These experiences include a variety of exercises that will introduce students to the agricultural industry that puts food on their tables and in their favorite restaurants while providing the opportunity for students to develop a personal relationship with the natural earth ecosystem of which they are a part. Additionally, Mark Haney, President of Kentucky Farm Bureau was present to help us dedicate our new 4 acre Barn Lot fence that will make it possible for many farm animals to become residents at Homeplace. Kentucky Farm Bureau along with Adair, Green and Taylor County Farm Bureaus provided nearly $9,000 in funding to make this project
possible.

Winter is going to be chocked full of planning and growing the Homeplace on Green River/Kentucky’s Outdoor Classroom brand. Tune in to our webpage, social media accounts, our YouTube channel and local news releases to stay abreast of the many exciting developments for 2022.

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