Blog

Throughout the year, we rely on you, our supporters, to contribute to our work with a donation or as a member. This is especially true at the end of the year, and we thank you for those who made a gift to help us further connect people of all ages to farming and the source of their food.

Climate change is not only a pressing issue, but it's also becoming more widely discussed in mainstream media as the urgency of its impact heightens. In fact, Oxford Dictionary named "climate emergency" its 2019 word of the year. With that in mind, we launched two major initiatives this year that could have national—even global—impact on reversing the effects of climate change.

Last weekend’s 2 inches of rainfall was an excellent reminder of why we cover crop our fruit and vegetable fields through the winter. Heavy rainfall on open ground has the potential to create damaging erosion. That’s why in preparation for the winter, we plant cover crops on the plots with more highly erodible sloping soils.

If you visited us at Wolfe's Neck Center this summer, you may have noticed a welcome sign of change: both our organic dairy apprentice crew and fruit & vegetable intern crew were comprised solely of females. They all felt a sense of pride for representing to our many young visitors what a farmer can look like.

Growing up in Yarmouth, Allie Armstrong remembers time spent outdoors and frequent trips to Wolfe's Neck Center. From childhood into her teen years, her relationship with our nonprofit educational farm only grew. This place not only shaped who she is today, but she too has become an invaluable resource to our organization in recent years.

There's a bit of magic in the story of Strega Nona, and there's also a bit of magic in bringing a story to life. With the help of a hay wagon, farmers in a vegetable plot, and an outdoor cooking station, these children shared in moments of discovery that can only happen at a place like Wolfe's Neck Center.

Watch as our three organic dairy apprentices, Corinne, Caitlin, and Tierney make a frittata with all of the extra eggs and other ingredients from the farm!

Tuesday’s dusting of snow around the farm was a cozy reminder to the animals that life in the barn sure is a good one…

Fall is all about apples, foliage, and...wearing layers. Our members know that being part of our special community is the base layer of what makes Wolfe's Neck Center the one-of-a-kind educational resource that it is for so many. We count on our supporters to keep us bundled up through the seasons, and we hope that you, too, will see the many layers that make up our Wolfe's Neck Center membership.

Wolfe's Neck Center has secured a key partnership in a $3 million grant with Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences to expand research on how to reduce methane emission by cattle and the effects of adding Maine seaweeds to a cow's diet. Cattle are the largest human-caused source of methane emissions—the most potent of greenhouse gases—making dairy farms a source for reducing emissions at the start.