Blog and News

Written by Natasha Stewart Why Cover Crops Matter: Protecting Soil and Sea at Wolfe’s Neck Center As a demonstration campus, we spend our time here at Wolfe’s Neck Center tending to vegetables, fruits, grains, forages and livestock. But some of the most important crops we grow aren’t harvested at all. They are cover crops, and…

Written by Harry Kimball This November, the team behind our Visitor Education & Experience program area at Wolfe’s Neck Center hosted a first-of-its-kind Summer Farm Camp Operators Gathering in partnership with the Farm-Based Education Network (FBEN). This conference, attended by 36 leaders in the space from 7 Northeast states, was focused on sharing solutions to…

Moving through the kitchen, Chef Malcolm Kelly steadily works to puree the 150 pounds of squash before him. A less daunting task, considering he started with 400 pounds harvested right here on the Wolfe’s Neck Center campus following the completion of a biochar field study led by the research team to evaluate the impact of…

“The best part of my job?” Chef Malcom Kelly thinks for a moment. “Working with products in the kitchen that I have helped to grow on the farm.” For Malcolm, who spent many years working in high-end (and high-stress) restaurants, the direct connection between farming and food at Wolfe’s Neck Center “has made cooking fun…

Cooper Giblin cuts an impressive figure standing in the back of his ancient pickup truck, going over his plans for grazing a small pasture in Freeport, Maine, with his three lowline Angus cows. Every aspect of the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship curriculum is on display, from the practical (How will the cows exit the trailer? Is…

As we all enjoyed the warmer weather back in May, our Dairy team was already looking towards the winter months as they prepared bales of hay that would feed our cows. As the weather gets colder, we move our cows into the dairy barn to keep them warm and cozy. But, with less ample opportunities to graze, we feed our herd with the hay we bale throughout the winter season.

Carbon in our soils tells a story: about the nutrients in the ground, the local water cycle, and the health of ecosystems that surround our farms. Soil carbon measurements can help farmers and researchers evaluate the overall health and weather resilience of a piece of land and how agricultural practices are impacting the environment and…

Advancing the science of regenerative agriculture requires time, acreage, and risk that production farms often can’t spare. At Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture & the Environment, we put our landscape, nonprofit status, and deep regional partnerships to use building this knowledge and passing it along to farmers in Maine and across the Northeast. What does…

By Annabelle Williams This blog is part of our series of Wolfe’s Neck Center Stories, focusing on the people and the programs that drive our work for farmer viability, thriving ecosystems, and vibrant communities. Fall 2022. It was the first iteration of a course titled “Ecotopian Visions” and I was writing found poems from the…

At Wolfe’s Neck Center Farm Camp, campers ages 4 to 17 engage in hands-on learning that immerses them in sustainable agriculture and the natural world. During this weeklong experience, they care for livestock, tend (and taste) what’s growing in our gardens, and explore the ecosystems all around us. Farm Camp isn’t just something campers look…