CustomFields Question

[Spencer "Thunderball" Thayer]

If one googles customfield site:croogo.org there isn't any information clarifying how custom fields work. What I have learned comes from the Google Group. 

I am trying to permanently create several custom fields in the node add and edit CTP files. Something as simple as the example below does not work.

echo $this->Form->input('CustomFields.Test_Key_Value');

What would it take to create custom fields that are always present?

Thank you,

Spencer Thayer