How A 250-Year Family Farm Feeds A Community

George Washington’s name is everywhere, but it hits different when the story lives on a real front porch you can still stand on. We sit down with Mark Cook to trace the living history of Cook Farm in Washington Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and why one family is opening their home place to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary.

We talk about what people miss when they talk about food like it just “shows up” in stores: watching the forecast, racing frost nights with covers, timing the pick before tomatoes split, and the constant labor puzzle that makes or breaks a season. It’s a grounded look at modern vegetable farming and why the farmer’s work still feeds both bodies and communities.

Then we zoom out into local Revolutionary-era history, including the Cook Farm’s multi-century land story, a farmhouse finished in 1776, and the documented thread of George Washington’s 1784 travels recorded in his diary. We also touch the early tensions of the new nation, including the Whiskey Rebellion’s local impact and what it revealed about taxation, government, and rural life.

Finally, Mark lays out plans for the Cook Farm 250 Celebration on Saturday, August 8, 2026: historian reenactors, blacksmith demonstrations, period music on historical instruments, food vendors, family activities, and the real logistics of parking, shuttles, and costs like insurance and tents. If you care about American history, heritage tourism, and family farms, this one connects it all. Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves local history, and leave us a review with the one place in your hometown that deserves more attention.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Hey everybody, this is John Marietta, and I'm back in the in the podcast studio, uh radio studio, and I want to thank all of tuning in. Views are going good. I appreciate all the support I'm getting. But if you do want to support me, get a hold of me, go to jawnmarietta.com, and uh we'll make sure that uh we will make sure that we get uh up there with all the rest of them, and uh and uh you wouldn't believe how many people is gonna say, Man, I seen that. So let's get started. Every morning we pour every morning when we pour that cup of coffee, but

Welcome And How To Support

SPEAKER_02 1:32

of that toast or s or slice into a fresh tomato for holding the work of the farmer's hands. The farmer rises before dawn, faces the weather, tills the soil, and trusts that God will bring forth a harvest. He may not see them, but their faith and labor shall touch every table in America. So today, let's thank the ones who plant, hope, and reap promise, not just for themselves, but for all of us. As it says in Deuteronomy 28, 12, the Lord will open the heavens in the storehouse of his

A Prayer Of Thanks For Farmers

SPEAKER_02 2:05

bounty, to send rain on your land in season, and to bless all the work of your hands. May those hands callous and strong continue to feed both our bodies and our souls. Hey, I I I wanted to start out with something from a farmer. I I I have a I have a um sweet spot for farmers, no doubt about it. Uh my uh my uncle was uh my uncle ran uh beef cattle and any any milk cattle. He milked cows too. And uh um my wife's people uh were uh coal miners, but they f they farmed also, they truck farmed. And uh when uh they go when they tell you to go uh pick green beans and you can't and you look at the row and you can't see the end of it. Uh it's uh in the field's 20 acres long. I mean a 20-acre field of green beans. I mean, people don't realize what it took it takes to plant them. Um I can remember getting tomato plants when uh we first got married and uh they would they would buy 'em, they would buy uh 250, 300 dozen and and then and tomatoes was a big thing. Uh um most I ever planted myself was I planted uh I planted uh 25 dozen, I think it was. We we had a field of tomato, we had a portal field of tomatoes. Um but anyways, I got Mark Cook with me today. Mark uh has a farm Washington. Yep. And they're planning a big event for the 250th anniversary of our country. Uh Mark, we're gonna move this mark just a little bit closer to you. Sure. Um I wanna I want to thank you for coming in. Um we uh it's it's a big thing. I know that you do vegetables, yeah. Now uh tomatoes, cucumbers, yeah, celery, uh not celery probably, but uh lettuce. Yep. Um and dive.

Planting Realities And Feeding America

SPEAKER_02 4:07

What else we do? Uh probably green onions.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

So we we do we do uh everything fits in a salad bowl. Yeah, anything we can get. Um we we um uh adventure down that road of trying to plant a little bit of stuff, some of that stuff we gotta buy because we just know we can supply everybody with our own fields and stuff. So it's uh it's a group of farmers everywhere that we um go through those um auctions to try to pick things up. But just last weekend we planted 300 some plants and one day, and then my wife planted another 120 some the next day. Tomatoes, peppers? Uh, not tomatoes or peppers. We got them. We're not got we don't have them in the ground yet. It's a little bit early. Yeah, and we got frost coming Tuesday. So, you know, a lot of times people don't realize that we gotta get these plants in, whether it be a flowers or your vegetable plants, we gotta watch the weather. And if it says it's gonna go below freezing, we got to get down there and cover all those plants, get them all covered, and then the sun comes back out. You got to get those covers off because they'll get they'll get um with that moisture in that sun, they'll burn them, and then you lose them anyway. So um, you're right. It you know, every every almost every food that you touch with your hands is put on there by a farmer in one way or another.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

Now we we uh I if things go good for us, uh by the by sometime I I'm telling everybody, uh everybody's asking me when I'm gonna have corn this year. Uh and I told them I said it, I'm hoping if everything goes right, it'll be the last week of June. We'll see what happens. Yeah and and and then and the June corn isn't like it isn't like the July corn. But I mean it's you know it's a Seneca Valley or something like that. It's something early. And uh we'll see how this works out for us this year. I have a good friend of mine, he plants a lot of corn, and I help him out trying to move some of them. I'm I'm hoping to I'm hoping to move uh I think last year, I don't know. Just four or five weekends, he got he was in an abundance, and I helped him out. And I think I I think I moved uh 250 or 300 and weekends for him. Wow, nice. But uh he has uh he has lots of young boys that uh help him pick, and that's that was my problem with the tomatoes. I could raise them, but the problem was you couldn't get them out of the pill, yep, get them picked.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

You know, I I was told the secret is is when they're just starting to turn, you pick them. Yeah, let them get rid because if you wait, you're gonna miss them, and then they're already splitting and they're already starting to have issues with them on the plant. So not that we're perfect perfect at it. You know, my wife and I, we were growing tomatoes last year, and it was just so hard to kind of keep up with them and get down there and get them picked before it was, you know, you seem like you you lose a lot, you know. But um, we're we're uh we may be old in our farm for 250 years, but you know, when my dad grew up, he uh you know, he just said, I'm gonna get a job because the farm, you know, how's it gonna support the family? Well that's that's that's exactly what happened.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

Like my my father-in-law, he uh they truck farmed for years. His his grandfather did, and uh his dad, of course, worked in mine. And uh I never forget uh there was a fella come, he had a pretty, pretty nice cow calf operation. My father-in-law did. He had he had about 30 cows and he didn't have no trouble moving calves. But uh what happened was I never forget a fella come double it and uh double what he was doing, and he told the guy, he says, Look, he's I'm a coal miner, that's how we pay our bills. Foreman's a hobby for us. And he said, he said, and if it doesn't work out, he said, I don't, I'm not gonna lose anything. But what in the good years, he said, I he said if I make a couple bucks, it's too. Yep. But um, anyways, back to back to back to you. Um from what I understand, and um maybe you can tell the story your grandfather uh owned a farm you're on. How many acres is there?

SPEAKER_01 8:12

So right uh uh of the original farm, there was three thousand some acres back in 1700. Right now we're back to we're down to 30 acres of the original uh land deed of the the um the what we call the mansion, yeah. 402 acres. So we're we're the uh 30 acres of that between my mom and myself and my brother. We're all connected there, and um, so um that's where we're at right now with 30 some acres.

The Cook Farm Story And Washington

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Now the the original farmhouse is still there, correct.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

And uh there's uh you're gonna have to tell us how how George Washington fits into this because a lot of people don't realize Washington Township is named after George Washington, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

So the the story goes that um uh Edward Cook and Andrew Lynn, the neighboring farm down the road, farmer, were um having a militia meeting on on the on that gentleman's farm. And uh a gentleman rode up on his horse, and Martha Cook, Edward Cook's wife, kind of thought she recognized him or and come out and she asked who we'd be uh visiting. And he says, I'm George Washington, and uh I'm looking looking for Colonel Cook. And she was uh well, he's not here, but he's just down the road, and one of the she got a whole one of the servants to run over to the next farm to uh make attention that there was a gentleman here of George Washington. So uh as the story goes, the um the word got around at the militia meeting and they all took uh two steps to skip to the farm. Everyone uh broke rank and took off over there, and sure enough, when they got there, George Washington was there. And uh as the story goes, uh he stood on the um front porch stoop there, which is still there today, and he spoke to the troops to uh hooray, you know, and um so that's always been told to us as a story, and it was kind of funny. We were at a historical event, at a historical society meeting, and Andrew Lynn, or one of the Lynn boys of the regional Andrew Lynn, was at that meeting, and his family told a similar story, but the story gathers that they met around a tree at the Lynn farm. It was Edward Cook, George Washington, and Andrew Lynn. The and they met, they were talking there at the old they said there was a huge locust tree on the farm. So uh we know through George Washington's diary of his travels west in 1784, he mentions of uh Colonel Edward Colonel Cook and the property. He doesn't give much detail what they did or said, but we know in his diary that he had crossed over the property uh in 17 uh 84. So it's kind of neat to know that um you know their paths crossed. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

Well what what most people don't realize is is uh they know the declaration of independence was signed in 1736, actually August. We celebrate July 4th, yeah, because that's when it was penned. Um but uh we we think we think about there was a war that lasted five ten years after that. And and and communications that you couldn't call George Washington up on his cell phone and say, Hey, you don't have to come here, we already beat these guys. Yeah, we there had to be couriers and things like that, and that took days and time, and like you say, that's what happened.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

The people will say, Well, George Washington is slept here, George, but George had to sleep somewhere, and that's why he he uh had property out west, or in the at that time, the the southwestern Pennsylvania was considered the western frontier, and he um wanted out so 1783, they pretty well signed the the end of the war with Britain with Britain and with the British. So 1784 is when George Washington decided that I'm gonna go visit my lands that I had and go check on these properties and see what's going on because he had to go to Periopolis to uh check his what he had going on, and that meeting didn't go well for him because there were squatters on the property, the guy who was running to place wasn't paying his rent for the stuff. So, but I would hope that his visit with Colonel Cook would have made his day, and uh um he actually went on a little bit further, but they would had um they had let him know that the Indians were around were wound up a little bit and that um he better not travel anymore uh west. So he decided to come back and um that was his last trip this far.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

Well, what I a lot of people uh you would know this. Uh that and and I'm sure the house that uh that you're talking about, uh I can't almost wait. I want to get down there to check it out. Uh I'm the recorder of deeds of Fayette County, but also the grist mill at uh at Periopolis. Yep. I mean, that was that was originally Washington's property, also. Yeah, right. And that's all there in Periopolis. Yes, that's what he was visiting. Yep, yeah. So if if that that's something that a lot of people don't realize the history, they don't, they don't.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

I mean they want to go to uh the big state parks or the national parks and all that, but uh there's a lot of history right in this own on our own valley, our own back backyard. You just gotta look for it, you know. And um uh we it's funny you you mentioned that because we know where the cook mill, Rich Mill was, and um the the stone, the the grinding wheels that ground that that grain up, they still exist. And they're actually on the neighboring farm's property. And um and uh according to George or uh Edward Cook's diary or his will, he had a 25-out building. And of those we know Smoke House, which is still standing, and we we have the summer kitchen, we still have and how big is the smoke house? The smoke house is a pretty fairly big building. It's it's about 15 feet by 15, you know, stone, solid stone, 20-some inches thick. And I I didn't you know some some smoke houses, not to get into details, but some deep had the fire outside and they pushed the smoke up inside. This one's a little bit different where they actually built the fire inside and smoked it. But the other thing is is that I always wondered if it wasn't a blockade house first in case they were attacked, they were able to go there. I don't know that, but it makes me wonder.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

Um I actually I'm I'm a trained sausage maker, so a lot of people don't understand. But uh I I I got I got to train uh German from uh trained me to make sausage smoke hams and bacon and stuff like that. And uh what it what it amounts to is is the difference between smoke, the fire being outside and the fire being inside. One of them is they it's called a cold smoke, so you have to cure the meat a little bit longer. If the fire is inside, that means you're raising the temperature of the whole room. So it it's they call it they call it hot smoke. So what what happens is is uh you don't have to cure the meat before you because cure and uh because cured meat is almost it's it's like uh it'd be like uh uh corned beef brisket. I mean that's how it'd be before you smoked it off. So, but anyways, uh that that's for another day. Yeah, but but I want to get back to you. Um you're having a you're gonna have an event at the farm. It's it's on the 30 acres, and uh you got plenty of parking, I take it.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

I I we uh we hope to do that. The parking could be at the farm if the weather's good and the field's dried and the hay's cut, and then we would we're gonna try to park everybody there and get them to shuttle up to the house and the rest of the property. But if uh we got bad weather or it rains and the ground's pretty wet and we can't rut that field or the hag's not being cut yet because of the weather, then we're planning to do uh like the Bel Mar and Marion

Planning The Cook Farm 250 Event

SPEAKER_01 16:40

School, the fire company, the Washington Township, uh the Hope Church, Rehobic Church are all gonna open their places up, and then we'll have shuttle buses.

SPEAKER_02 16:49

Belvin, we'll have the buses on the so now I'm driving from Uniontown, I'm driving down 51. I go past Randall's and I turn left.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Yep, you turn left on the Rehoba Church Road, and you're gonna take that road about three miles, and it'll be a road called Cook's Road. You make a left down there, and we'll be parking right in that field, and you'll see the house up on the hill. You'll see the big barn down there, and you'll you'll be parking by the barn, and um, that's what we're hoping for. That'll be the easiest thing, you know. But um uh we we are that's the that's our biggest. Let's hope that's the hay hay bond doesn't break down. Yeah, that's it. Yep. Um, but yeah, we got uh we got a lot of things planned. Uh we got reenactors coming. We we not just reenacting the civil war, but historian reenactors. We're having Albert Gallatin gonna be there, George Washington's gonna be gonna be there, and um we got some other ones lined up, and um, they're gonna be telling their stories and and showing things. And we got um uh blacksmith people that are gonna be working. We got uh um some other um historian vendors that will be performing, they're gonna be showing how that trade was done and what they did, and and they're gonna be dressed to the time to that era. So when those people come in behind our house, I hope it could be like walking in time, walking into a little village and just seeing all those things being done. And um, we got a lot of musicians coming. That's what I was just gonna say.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

How about the music?

SPEAKER_01 18:20

What are we gonna do? So we got we got uh uh revolutionary uh music being played. We got the uh 46th Regiment, that's a Civil War band. The 46th Regiment is a band that is from all over the United States. They come together, they play on the original instruments of that time, and that's what they use. These are not modern instruments, those are original instruments. As a matter of fact, our 46th Regiment, they just got invited to DC for the Memorial Day parade. That same group is gonna be at our house at that. We got a couple individual um uh musicians that uh play uh historical music on historical instruments, homemade instruments, and again, rest to the period. And so we're gonna have a lot of that. Plus, we got like 50-something food vendors that we're gonna have up. We got a huge tent we're gonna have up put up for uh people to sit down and eat, and we'll have music playing. And not only that, we're gonna have a Franki and Indian war. We're gonna have them reenacting, they're uh planning to bring the horses. They were down last week trying to figure out where they're gonna put everything and see what they can do. They're planning it. So um it was a really exciting to have that discussion. The other thing is we're gonna have an old-fashioned um, we're gonna have a tent set up. It's gonna be like an old-fashioned revival. We got uh several local preachers that are gonna be dressing up and they're gonna be preaching like it was in the the 18th century there, late, you know. Now what now the dates on this are it's August the 8th, 2026. That's a Saturday. We're gonna be running from 10 o'clock in the morning till about 7 o'clock at night. Okay. Um, we got some event uh some guests coming. Um uh Secretary Redding is gonna be there. And um, we got um uh some of our local reps are gonna be all speaking there for a moment. Our county commissioners are gonna be stopping in, and um, we're gonna have a pretty good, neat opening ceremony. Uh, we're hoping this is a we haven't got confirmation yet, but the old guard is one of the uh the four army, the what the four bands that the army has, and it's the old guard, they're revolutionary guys, and they're gonna be there. The Mond Valley uh Academy of Arts, they are the drum and fight corps. They're gonna be there performing. We got um uh leave a high school girl's gonna be singing a national anthem. The Boy Scouts are gonna be raising the flag. It's not just about our family opening this up, it's about a community event coming together, community of Washington Township, Ross Draver Township, all them local guys just coming together, uh recognizing the birth of our nation. And we we like to kind of say it started here. We were Edward Cook was very much involved with politics. He was very much involved in his faith and the believing God, the creator. And um, you know, we he donated the property that's today Rehobit Church, and uh it's still there today. And um, you know, that was his driving, I believe truly believe that was his driving force was his faith. And um being a part of the militia and being a part of the revolutionary, and also he was kind of against the government during the whiskey rebellion. He believed that the farmers shouldn't be taxed that way, but he didn't believe in the violence.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

So Albert Gallant was a little bit against the whiskey rebellion.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Later on, he did. At first he was all for them, but later he kind of thought maybe I was wrong. But Albert Gallant would be there, so maybe he could tell you how to do it.

SPEAKER_02 21:59

Uh the I I uh and uh I appreciate the invite. But uh one of the things that uh I th I think about Albert Gaunt was was he he was a rebel, he was a renegade, and that's how he got elected. I mean uh that's I mean people he was a we the people person and I I guess maybe I made that wrong. He he was he didn't believe that uh the that uh people making whiskey should have a tax and uh uh like you say he turned a little bit uh at the end, he changed it, changed up a little bit, but uh because uh but that people don't realize that the whiskey rebellion actually started here in Fayette County.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

Yeah, um, you know, I don't think a lot of people realize how how big of an impact that that had on our new government was barely just started, and now there's an uprising by these same men who fought in the revolutionary.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

Well, and you you think uh well, we we can think about this a little bit, we can put it in modern day perspective. What do you think that these that them men would be doing right now with the amount of taxes that we're paying on our yeah? I mean, we we it would have been it would yeah, these political people they they'd be done.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

Oh, yeah, they'd be tied and feathered, yeah, literally. Yeah, you know, and uh uh you know, and and it was a test, it was a big test for our government, it was a big test for our our our country, and um again, it was the farmers, it was, you know, and um in this country does not exist if it's not the farmers.

SPEAKER_02 23:32

I always I always tell everybody, uh, I think you think about it, the first major battle that was won in the Revolutionary War was at Kings Mountain. Yeah, and and it was it, they it was the all the hillbullies and the farmers and everybody, they try they walked all night long just to get in a fight. Yeah, and and uh General Ferguson was the British uh commander. Uh actually was a uh he was British commander um and he said you'll never get me off this mountain. He was one of the first ones shot. They they made sure he didn't get off the mountain.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

Yeah, yep. Okay, so contact information. All right, so um we got we got the we call the the the cook farm 250 celebration.com. That's our website, and uh everything is on it. And again, that's the cook farm 250 t celebration uh dot com. Uh, we got all our vendors on there. And if you want to be a vendor, if you want to be a sponsor of our event, we're still kind of raising money because portage ons don't come cheap. Uh the insurance for the thing doesn't come, the tents we have. So we're still kind of raising money. And we, if anybody wants to be a sponsor, uh they can reach out to me, Mark

Sponsors Vendors And Farm Artifacts

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Cook, uh 724-415-9334. One more time. Uh 724-415-9334. And um call me and we can talk. We can meet up. Uh, we would uh we love the show the place. We want we're proud of it. Our family's proud of it. We're all we got we got cousins and relatives coming in from California, everything. So there's gonna be a little bit of a reunion, too. But we also want to celebrate America and plus our farm being there. This year we were invited out to Harrisburg in January, and the Harrisburg, um, the the Department of Agriculture recognized our farm as a bison tenual farm in Fayette County, and we were quite proud of that. And uh we'll have that sign on display. And um, you know, our farm's been here more than 250 years, but uh we uh the house was finished in 1776, and I brought this bottle here. And when we were working on the house, um, our families over the year, and found this in the uh chimney, the fireplace, and it kind of gave a little description of um uh when this house was built. And this house was built in 1772 uh by Colonel Edward Cook and finished in 1776, and in 1924, they were working on it, they were renovating it, and um they found that bottle. And in that process, when they were working on the house and found up in the Ratters a um a gun, and it was an old um, an old uh percussion type gun. It dated like 1830s, I believe. And um, so you know, not only do the walls talk, they literally have artifacts in those walls that we have found over the years. So it's it's always an adventure. You never know. Every time we dug the yard up, we found a horseshoe. You know, it's amazing what we find there.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

So I'm I'm I'm really glad you're doing this, and I am so intrigued by this. Oh, and I want to thank you for for coming in. We're gonna do something different. If you would be up to it, uh let's see what we can do. Maybe we can do a remote out at your place. Uh oh, of course. Love to plan to do a remote out there. Yeah, I really, really think this is something we ought to we need to get behind. Uh, and uh, and your phone number one more time.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

724 415 9334. Uh, I just wanted to add something that of all the events going on in America for 250 and Faye County, Pennsylvania 250, we're privately family doing this. This isn't a community event, this isn't something that um some towns got together. We're just a just a family that wants to show our love and for good for God and our country and the 250 years, and we want to open the house up for people to see it. So um, we really appreciate you coming out visiting us.

SPEAKER_02 27:51

Uh we're gonna get this out there, Mark. And we're gonna get as many people uh looking at this, and I really, really thank you so much. I mean, for what you're doing. Well, I I'm I'll help you in any way I can. Uh, we'll get this out there. I think we need to do a remote from the farm. Maybe great. Maybe some sun, maybe some evening I'll I'll let you know, and we'll step out there with some cameras and we'll get something taken care of. Yep, I like it. Uh I and um please get please help these people out. I mean, this is gonna be a big thing. We're gonna have fireworks.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

No, we were, but we got there's we have farmers around us, horses, cattle, and I just didn't want to disturb them because they they they're uh it could be a it could be a bad year for the fireworks, but everybody's gonna be doing them. But we decided not to do it. They're a lot of money too, and we wanna try to just stick with uh uh we got a we got um a petting zoo coming. We're gonna have uh uh Highland cattles there. So those are the traditional breeds that were here, and um, we're just gonna have a good time. We're gonna have uh a lot of stuff going on for people. It's just not just for adults, it's for the family. Bring the kids out. We're gonna have other vendors there who are just the arts and stuff they make and selling them and showing them. So it's just gonna be a great event, and we're just proud to be a part of it and want to share it.

SPEAKER_02 29:15

Well, thank you so much for coming in, and I want and I appreciate it so much. Uh, we're gonna have to close up the show because uh we got other things we have to get to. So, anyways, thank you again, and I appreciate all the people tuning in. Get a hold of Mark. One more time, the phone number.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

724-415-9334.

SPEAKER_02 29:36

We'll get this out there and maybe we'll get some people from other parts of the state and other parts of the country, and uh, I think it's gonna be a great day. Uh so too. Yep. A great day. Okay, Mark, thanks for coming in. Appreciate it. On this road called life, you have to take the good with the bad. Smile with the sad, love what you got, and remember what you had. Always forgive, but never

Remote Broadcast Idea And Closing Blessing

SPEAKER_02 29:57

forget. People change, things go wrong, but just remember the ride goes on. God bless each and every one of you, and God bless America. I am John Marietta, and I am the hillbelly.