When Liz and Bill Farrell of Fat Stone Farm in Lyme first began farming their property, they wanted to grow their own food because they felt it was a healthier choice and made them feel better physically.

“There’s nothing like walking down in your basement in winter — and there’s your grocery store that you grew and preserved yourself,” Liz said during a recent interview on the farm dotted with stone walls, trees and rows of baby ginger.

The couple, who always relished a challenge, next set the goal of supporting themselves by farming.

Their efforts have grown into a line of local, shelf-stable products — including maple syrup, elderberry apple “shots,” and apple ginger syrup — that they sell in 40 stores in Connecticut and online.

The Farrells live with their sons Jon, 9, and Colin, 6, and cat, Big Red, and dog, Bear on the farm they began in 2006, where they grow everything from elderberries to cucumbers to turmeric.

They said they developed the farm from a property that was wooded and growing with Japanese barley, but had in the past been a farm with dairy cows and sheep. They named it “Fat Stone Farm,” after the abundance of stones found on their property.

Their farm, which includes a greenhouse, barn and a sugar shack for producing maple syrup, is solar-powered and certified organic, and all of their heat comes from wood cut on the property.

The couple first started tapping a few of the maple trees on their property in 2004 and then started tapping their neighbors’ trees too, while working with the neighbors and sharing the syrup.

Bill said great taste and great quality for maple syrup requires processing on the same day, which they can do in the sugar shack — even if it means staying up all night.

“I call it an extreme sport,” he said.

They grow ginger in the greenhouse and also realized elderberries, which thrived in the soil on their property, would be a perfect crop, said Bill.

They had come up with the idea of elderberry apple shots after searching for something to pair with the elderberries that grow on their property, which can be bitter on their own. They found a recipe for elderberry apple pie in an old recipe book, an old-time heritage idea.

Liz pointed out that the historical foods that people used to eat in New England seem to be on a comeback.

According to a recipe contest, customers frequently use the elderberry apple shots on oatmeal, yogurt, and vanilla ice cream or in beverages from sangria to smoothies. The ginger apple syrup is often used to make a hot drink in the fall or winter.

The farm’s tag line, “Eat food from the dirt, not the lab,” comes from the idea that there aren’t enough whole foods in the world and processing food in the lab seems to be an unhealthier direction for food, she said.

“We know from growing our own food how much better we feel eating whole foods that are grown from the dirt,” said Liz. “We think it’s possible people can have these whole foods, and we can help make it really accessible and local.”

For more information, visit www.fat-stone-farm.com.

k.drelich@theday.com