Bfi-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 30, 1998
Age
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Farming Staff
WOLMELSDORF (Berks Co.)
For the first time since he
started farming, McCullough
Hook did not do the bamwork on
his birthday.
“They wouldn’t let me do it,”
the 85-year-old Hook said of the
38 family members who came to
celebrate his birthday on May 24.
Despite their protests, his child
ren couldn’t prevent Hook from
baking a ham and 12 quarts of
macaroni and cheese for the
celebration.
The industrious Hook is deter
mined that age will not idle him.
He’s out every day managing his
three farms and planting com.
Under his tutelage, two of his
grandchildren milk 80 cows. But
Hook said, “I do the managing and
pay the bills.”
Last year he put up a new silo
and a feed room with an automatic
mixer.
Some years ago, Hook built a
home on a ledge that enables him
to see for miles around and keep a
sharp lookout on his dairy farm in
the hollow.
“It’s good to get out in the fields
In his lifetime McCullough Hook has received numerous
awards for outstanding farming practices. A former Master
Farmer, Hook continues to receive press coverage. He
holds an award he received recently from Berks County Ag
Land Preservation for his long-term commitment to
agriculture.
More than 25,000 students have toured the Hook farms according to records. Here
Hook answers questions and poses with a group who just took a hay ride tour of the
farm.
Does Not
after sitting up here all winter.”
Hook said recently at the end of a
hot day.
When asked what he attributes
his unusual energy to as an
BS-year-old, Hook answered,
“Faith in God and hard work."
His father died when he was 13
years old. As the oldest child.
Hook took over farming responsi
bilities to enable his mother to
keep together the family that
included an 8-year-old sister, a
2’/j -year-old brother, and a
6-week-old baby.
He used three horses and a walk
ing plow while his mother used
three horses and a riding plow to
farm the land.
“My mother told me that hard
work won’t kill anybody.” Hook
said. It’s a saying that he is prone to
repeat as he finds much satisfac
tion in hard work.
Hook married a city girl who
learned to “outmilk me,” he said of
the time when cows were milked
by hand.
As time went on, the Hooks had
five children, acquired seven
farms, and were recognized for
progressive conservation
practices.
Idle The Industrious Hook
* i *t‘ A *
. »* *v
,* rw ’V <■» 'ZiJU'tb I
K" • -*%<! i,*}r* **>
' * A»* v ‘ *• ■'
Although he is 85 years old, McCullough Hook has no Intention of taking it easy.
He’s out In the fields plowing and planting on his Wolmelsdorf farm.
* *
“I was the first guy in the area in
1940 to lay the farm in contour
strips,” Hook said. He was named
a Master Fanner by Pennsylvania
Farmer Magazine.
Despite his age, awards keep
coming. This month Hook
received an award from Berks
County Ag Land Preservation for
his long-term commitment to
agriculture.
Although Hook became a well
lauded farmer, his life was not
without pain. He nursed both his
mother and wife through years of
Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s dis
eases. His oldest son, who farmed
with him, died of cancer in 1992.
His son’s wife Loretta Hook con
tinued to work on the dairy farm,
but in 1995, a 230-pound doe ran
through the car’s windshield and
killed her. That was the year
Hook’s wife also died.
Hook himself has had some
heart problems and a bout with
cancer.
“My knees give me a little prob
lem, and I get stiff if I don’t keep
active,” Hook said.
“I still drive the car but not in the
city,” Hook said. He added some
what abashedly, “1 can’t back
machinery like 1 used to. I’m start
ing to go back, I can tell.”
Nonetheless, Hook finds great
delight in continuing to open his
farm to the Berks County School
District. His carefully tallied
records show that more than
25,000 children have visited his
farm over the years.
His favorite question asked by a
student is “Which cow gives the
chocolate milk?”
An annual outing on the farm is
held by Hook's church.
“We have about 210 children
coining on one day. Pastor Philip
* * *
<?/ * *•'
*■ * 1 „
Smith goes along on every hay ride
to make sure the kids behave,”
Hook said of the hay rides that take
about 25 minutes each.
Never one to sleep more than
three or four hours at night. Hook
often cooks and bakes from 10
p.m. to the early hours of the
morning.
“It’s lonesome when you’re all
alone, and I do my best baking
after 10 p.m.,” Hook said.
He baked 1,200 Christmas
cookies to give to neighbors and
carolers who stopped by. He also
served chocolate milk with the
cookies.
He baked 140 shoofly pies last
year that he gives to his family
members, which includes 12
grandchildren and two great
grandchildren, and friends.
“Some of my pies went to Flori
da, Maine, and Virginia,” he said.
“They say my pies are better than
mail-order pies.”
Hook said that the secret to mak
ing great-tasting shoofly pies is to
add vanilla and lemon juice.
He also makes pies and fruit
This year on the first day of mowing his grass, Hook's
lawn mower flipped on topof him. Hook brushed himself off
and chalked the mishap up to the uneveness of the ditch
where he was mowing.
Homestead
Notes
*V«
' V
S'*.*** X
*" * V
* •/
salad for bed fast friends. The
week of this interview, he made 60
quarts of vegetable soup, which he
freezes and gives to those who
drop by to see him.
Last year he canned 300 jars of
produce, which included 84 quarts
of peaches and 68 of tomatoes.
Hook has clipped and tried hun
dreds of recipes from Lancaster
Fanning newspapers. He likes to
keep experimenting with recipes to
make them better. Here is one that
friends request him to make for
church suppers.
Baked Lima Beans For A Crowd
14 pounds dried lima beans,
soaked overnight
15 medium onions, chopped
14 tablespoons dry mustard
'A pound bacon, diced
l'/i stalks celery
60 ounces King Syrup
9 cups brown sugar
60 ounces catsup
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook beans until soft. Fry
bacon, onion, and celery. Mix
ingredients together in large bak
ing pan. Bake one hour.
*•-’* **
~ % •
•4 *•„"