How to build an iron farm in Minecraft (26.x)
Build an 11×11 floor of Cobblestone (120 blocks) and leave the centre block open.

Cobblestone is what Stone drops when you mine it without Silk Touch, so it fills your inventory from the first minutes underground. It is the material of stone tools, of the furnace and of countless early builds.
It is made with the Stonecutter from Stone. It is mined with a pickaxe.
Your first upgrade from wood is made of it: cobblestone heads give stone pickaxes, axes, shovels, hoes and swords. Eight cobblestone in a ring make a Furnace, and the Dispenser, Dropper, Lever and Brewing Stand all need some. Smelting cobblestone gives stone back.
As a building block it resists explosions far better than dirt or wood, and slabs, stairs and walls of cobblestone are crafted directly. Combined with moss or vines it becomes Mossy Cobblestone.
When flowing lava meets flowing water, cobblestone appears: this is the cobblestone generator, the classic way to get an endless supply in skyblock maps and survival bases alike.
Stone → Cobblestone
// Slots with several items cycle through every accepted option.
Build an 11×11 floor of Cobblestone (120 blocks) and leave the centre block open.
153 blocks, oak and Cobblestone, a bed inside.
A cobblestone generator gives you endless Cobblestone from one Lava Bucket and one Water Bucket.
Craft a Wooden Pickaxe (3 Planks on top, 2 Sticks below in the middle) and mine 3 Cobblestone from any exposed stone.
At the Stonecutter: 1 × Stone gives 1 × Cobblestone. Mining the block drops it.
It makes stone tools, furnaces, dispensers, droppers, levers and brewing stands, and is smelted back into stone. It is an ingredient in 23 recipes, made at the Crafting Table, Stonecutter and Furnace; for example Cobblestone Slab, Cobblestone Stairs, Cobblestone Wall, Diorite, Dispenser and 15 more.
The fastest tool is the pickaxe.
Placed under a Note Block, Cobblestone gives the Bass drum sound.
Stone Age (Mine Stone with your new Pickaxe).