Episode 31 - Wolfe's Neck Center
Christa Hein: Hey there. Welcome to the Farm Educators Roadmap. I'm Christa Hein, former nonprofit girl turned farm education entrepreneur. I've spent the last 30 years creating hands-on programs that connect people to the land animals, and the traditions that nourish our daily lives.
If you're listening, you probably believe what I do, that farm education is needed now more than ever. Not just on rural farms, but in suburbs, cities, and everywhere in between. In this podcast, you'll hear real stories and practical advice from farm educators all across the country, people who are creating change through their programs in creative and inspiring ways.
Whether you're dreaming about starting your first program, are already knee-deep in your own farm education work, or are just curious about how others are impacting their communities through farm education, you're in the right place. Let's dig in.
Christa Hein: Hi, welcome back to the Farm Educators Roadmap. Today I'm talking with Andrew Lombardi, the Director of Visitor Education and Experience at Wolfe's Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment in Freeport, Maine. Wolfe’s Neck Center is more than a beautiful coastal farm. It's a working regenerative farm, a research hub, farmer training center, and a public education campus all rolled into one. They're intentionally connecting food, farming, climate, and community. I can't wait to learn more. Andrew, thanks so much for joining us.
Andrew Lombardi: Absolutely. Happy to be here on a snowy, late February day.
Christa Hein: Yeah, so I always like to start at the beginning. Before we talk about Wolfe’s Neck Center, I'd love to know - how did you first get interested in education and farming?
Andrew Lombardi: It's been a long time, really. I guess if I was to go all the way back, when I grew up, my dad was a teacher. It's one of those things where you never want to be your dad, but secretly you kind of do. And in some ways, education was always a big part of my life.
Particularly, my dad was a really great teacher. He was well known. He taught social studies and did it in a way that at the time probably seemed a little radical but now is probably seen a little more mainstream - actually talking about the real things that happened and not glossing over some of the not so pretty stuff in American history. He felt that it was really important to teach and learn about that in a very honest way.
Since I was a kid, I've always hated school but loved learning. When I was 16, I started working, actually 15, I started working at summer camp. And that was my first step into that world. And then at my high school they had a child development program that you could take as an elective where part of your day you would spend working at a free childcare center that teachers, or students that had kids, could have their kids in that free childcare program. And then the actual high school students that have interest in education could take that as an elective and one of their periods of the day would be working in that ECE classroom.
So that's something I did in high school as well before going off and getting my degree in high school secondary education, which I've never used once.
Christa Hein: Well, so then what got you into the outdoor aspect of education?
Andrew Lombardi: That was always the thing that most interested me. It was almost 10 years plus at that same summer camp - I started running the outdoor programs there and that's really what I loved. I loved the dynamic nature of outdoor learning. You go in with a plan about what you want to talk about, but then suddenly there's an eagle. And guess what? We're talking about Eagles now. To me, being outside is always my favorite place.
I grew up in a city. My parents took us up to New Hampshire and I had an uncle in Vermont and then eventually an uncle in Montana. So even though we kind of lived a pretty urban environment we got outside a lot and it was really important for me. It's always been my happy place.
Again, I hated traditional school. I never understood why you just had to sit and listen, and you couldn't move around. So, to be outside, I can focus better if I'm ripping the leaf apart while I'm listening. That outdoor classroom was always my favorite place to be.
So, I started working in outdoor ed after college for a couple years for a company called Nature's Classroom, which people are probably very familiar with if you grew up in the Northeast area.
Christa Hein: Yeah, actually I wanted to mention I worked at Nature's Classroom as well. We had two sites here in Ohio in the nineties. They don't exist now, but yeah, it was so formative to my own journey.
Andrew Lombardi: You know, living together, I had a cell phone, but we weren't really using them. It was a limited amount of texts that you had, so there's just this really communal aspect to that outdoor education that I loved. And then, my partner and I, who I'm still with here in Portland, moved to Seattle and suddenly it was like, “well, how am I going to do outdoor ed in Seattle living in the major city?” And the answer was, I ended up working at a zoo.
While zoo education was never something I had planned to do, the major pieces were still there: being outside, being excited about nature, wild spaces, wild things. Even though it was manicured, you could still roll over logs and find bugs and things like that. The Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle is a gorgeous botanical garden and actually set the standard for what exhibits should be. They were one of the first places to make exhibits look like the actual environment where animals would live.
So, I ended up out there for almost five years before moving back to Maine. And that's when I found myself suddenly diving into farm-based ed. It was kind of a natural progression after doing education at a zoo in a more manicured place. But being really passionate about conservation there and then coming back to Maine and having it all come together between conservation, the connection between food and food systems. And then here we are.
Christa Hein: So, when you first came to Wolfe’s Neck Center, what was your role and how has it evolved into the position that you're in now?
Andrew Lombardi: Ironically enough, I was the events and group tour coordinator. I also have worked in food and waiting and things like that over the years, so I originally got hired to run the event series as well as transitioning out of wedding operations. The organization had made a point at the time to step away from weddings, which is really honorable because it has nothing to do with our mission. Obviously, it brings in a lot of revenue, so it was a hard thing to walk away from, but the idea was to focus more on what the mission was. But they still needed someone to kind of wrap it up.
So, I was brought on and I helped wrap up that season. I'd have to ask the person who hired me, but I think what was appealing about me was my education background. Because they wanted these events, like the farm to table dinners and these spring and fall festivals, to be more oriented within education and more mission connected. So rather than hiring someone with a really strong event space, set-up background, they went for the wild card and hired me instead.
After that first year, I also ended up taking over our community and visitor programs. Because really that event is about welcoming people to a space, and people are going to learn in a space, and feel safe and welcomed. There's a little bit of art to that and I think the overlap between events and hospitality and education are not so far apart as you might originally think. Because it really is about welcoming people into a world and making them feel that they're in a space where they can learn and open themselves up.
Christa Hein: So now let's zoom out a little bit. For someone who has never been there, how would you describe Wolfe’s Neck Center?
Andrew Lombardi: It's so tricky because it's such a large place. It's over 600 acres, but I always think of it in the lens of Freeport, Maine is a place that is known for retail stores. It's the headquarters of LL Bean, the 24-hour store. You can go at three in the morning and buy a pair of Bean boots, and there's the Old Navy outlet and the Gap outlet and all that kind of stuff, which to each their own.
So, I had never really been to Freeport. And when I went for an interview at this place, you take this turn at the top of a hill and Freeport becomes very rural pretty quickly once you get out of downtown. So, you're driving along and the box stores go away and suddenly it's like, oh, these are old farmhouses. Then you take a turn onto Wolfe’s Neck Road, and then it really starts to get rural, and you start to see pastures and farmhouses. Then you take a left onto the main campus and the first thing you see is ocean. Wolfe’s Neck Center is situated on a few miles of coastline.
So, when you come to Wolfe’s Neck, you have all of the pastures and fields right next to the ocean itself, and that's part of Casco Bay. It's not open ocean. It's protected within the greater bay, but it's stunning. The state park is right adjacent. And when you first come in, you go over this bridge that looks out over the ocean, and there's an island, and there's eagles and osprey. Even today, I've been at Wolfe’s Neck for about eight years, and I still get blown away by that turn sometimes. I think the natural beauty is what hits people first.
And then when you really start digging in, it starts to get a little more exciting. Not that the beauty alone isn't incredible, but when you have cows, ocean visitors, all together on that same landscape, it makes for a pretty special spot.
Christa Hein: Yeah, I bet. So, I see that you have so many things going on - farm camps, school field trips, public visitation, family programs, camping, tours, events, farmer training, and research. Will you tell us a little about your main programs and how they work together towards the center's mission?
Andrew Lombardi: There is a lot going on. Sometimes it takes a really long time when someone's like, “So what do you do in your job?” I'm like, well, this, this, this and that. So, my primary team, who I'm so lucky to work with all of those people, they're incredible, is the visitor education and experience. And it puts together all of the front-of-house programs at Wolfe’s Neck. Wolfe’s Neck is free and open to the public. There's no cost to just come there and walk, visit the barns or walk through the fields. So, that in itself is a program. We have over 30,000 visitors a year, and it's a funny number because you can't even track the people that walk their dog there every day or take their kids every day after school if they live locally. So, part of our program is we're almost a public park. You want to come play in the playground, hike the trails, jump off the bridge at high tide and go swimming, put your kayak in to launch it. The road that runs through the main farm is a city road. We're really integrated in the community in that way. So, that's what we consider our public programs. They're free or really low cost. And a lot of these look like your classic early childhood programs, family programs, and then also workshops for adults.
And then we have our farm camp, which is a huge part of our program and it's part of the summer camp. We also do winter camp and spring break camp and in-service teaching day camp for small groups of kids. So, when school's out, we can still have twenty kids at the farm. It's a pretty big farm camp program we have; we can have up to 120 kids a day. So, it's pretty scalable. Scalable is probably the wrong word, but pretty sizable.
In the spring and the fall, we invite a lot of schools from the surrounding area, but also Portland and Lewiston, which are the two biggest urban areas in Maine, or at least in southern Maine. Those are a little custom. We have schools that come from all over. And while we do have some pretty set curricula, we get middle schoolers that are looking to connect the marsh landscape with the ocean landscape and how agriculture all intertwines with that. So, we work really closely with the teachers to try to design a program that really connects what they're doing in school to what they're going to do on the farm.
That's our classic suite of education programs. I'm sure I'm missing something in there, but those are the big buckets, those public facing programs. Everything from, again, free story time to our chef Malcolm did a program called the Odds and Ends, which was cooking with the leftover meats as it were, tongue, organ, things like that. So that's a really wide scope. Farm camp, which is what you think it is, and those school programs.
On the other side of visitor education and experience is camping. We have 152 campsites both on the ocean and the fields, and those vary from Quiet Cove, which is walk-in only tents, no Bluetooth speakers, no kids, no dog or loud dogs. It's about being down this really special cove. There are only ten sites down there. And we have an RV area where if watching Netflix at night is what camping means to you, to each their own.
We run a culinary program with a chef named Malcolm who is also a farmer. And we run a little farm cafe in the summer with breakfast and lunch, and grab-and-go options out of our farm store. So, that's again getting food that's grown on the land into people's hands or things that we don't make ourselves, we try to get from other partners. You know, we don't make fine French cheeses, but Winter Hill just down the road does. So, we will try to use that kind of stuff. We also have our other recreational programs, hiking, guiding, kayak rentals and canoe rentals.
That's a really large scope as well when it comes to all the hospitality of cleaning all the bathrooms, and having a farm store, and checking people in and out and the turnover of cabins. But the reason they're connected is the point of it all and having this place that we get to steward, is to bring people in, invite them into an agricultural space that, frankly, people don’t always feel welcome in. We have a lot of people from Boston and New York that are just trying to get out into open spaces, and it's all about bringing people in and having that opportunity to have them connect with food and farming and hopefully learn a little something.
And we don't indoctrinate kids. We're a Stonyfield Yogurt farm. We run a dairy operation that does commodity milk sales to Stonyfield Yogurt. But our point isn't to have kids go home and be like, “Mom, why don't we have Stonyfield?” “Because it's $9 a quart probably.” It’s just thinking about food. Whether that's little kids pulling a carrot out of the ground or an adult that's camping that is like, “how come your cows aren't in the barn?” It's like, oh, well that's because they're out eating grass. This is a pasture-based farm. You might be used to seeing a tie stall barn where the cows are going to be in one spot and they're fed TMR or mixed ration or what have you. So, we're all about exposing people to new things, new ideas, and again, that kind of connection.
And that's what I think of when I think of regenerative agriculture. It's rooted in indigenous knowledge. It's working with nature to produce food, not taking from nature in order to have food. I think a lot of the times we explain it, especially to our visitors, our department exists so you can make some of those connections, and how deep you want to go is up to you. You want to just go watch the cows get milked once, great. If that's all you do while you're here, I'm happier. If all you do is buy a dozen eggs from the farm store, cool. But maybe you go and you learn a little bit about some of the research programs going on about biochar and why we have these different rows of squash. Maybe you do sign up for a workshop and learn how to make sausage for that first time and make that connection to the animals that you saw down in the education garden. Those pigs become meat, and then that becomes sausage. I think sometimes when we're operating in the world that we operate in, we take for granted how distant people really are with that basic A to B to C. I guess that's a pretty long answer to what our basic program area does.
And then of course the people we work with are doing other incredible things. Like our work on our visitor experience and education team is so rooted in place-based in Freeport. But we have a team at Wolfe’s Neck Center that's part of the Northeast Farmers Fund that's helping farmers get what they need to adopt regenerative principles on their farm and regenerative actions on their farm. We have research. The dairy grazing apprenticeship has a location based in Wolfe’s Neck Center that's training the next generation of pasture-based dairy farmers. We just get the privilege of talking to the public about all the great work that's going on in ag, feeding those people, getting them to maybe roll over a log and see a salamander. And make the connection if we use chemicals on our farm over there, you're not going to have salamanders over here. And that kind of connection between those natural spaces and the food that we produce.
Christa Hein: I love how you have all these different ways that people can touch in at whatever their level is. And one thing that kind of stood out to me, that is so unique for your farm camp, is you have the camping that the families of the farm campers can stay there as well. And that the whole family can get this deep root in the land that you can really only get when you spend the night someplace. That's just amazing how many different ways you have for people to connect.
Now, since you have this huge outdoor classroom: the barns, the shoreline, forest gardens, pastures. How intentional are you about using the landscape itself as a teacher, and how do you decide what landscapes and animals become the teaching tools on any given day?
Andrew Lombardi: It's very intentional. Again, thinking of that connection between those natural spaces in agriculture themselves. Like farm camp for example, we have all the kids split up by age group. So, as part of their day, they're going to have a farm focus time, and they're also going to have an ecosystem exploration time. And those are going to rotate every day. So, the kids are there for those five days. They're going to rotate through doing chores and animal systems. Like it might be dairy day and also ocean day. So, you're going to go up to the dairy and learn about the cows and pasture-based dairy. Again, it looks different based upon the age that you are, but then after you do that dairy, you're going to hop on the wagon and go up to the shoreline at low tide. And again, that's all happening within a half mile from there. So, I think it is very intentional in that way where there's not farm day and then nature day, but the two happen at the same time.
We say it almost too much it seems. Sometimes I say it like ten times a day, but we always say pasture as an ecosystem. When we talk about the different ecosystems on the farm, we consider the pasture one of those ecosystems because it's just like any ecosystem, it has to be diverse and healthy. So, I think when we really take kids and explore those spaces, that's what we're looking for. And obviously, there's a little more open exploration kids can do at the shore at low tide than they can at a working dairy, because there's skid steers and manure and pitchforks and all that kind of stuff. But I think that same kind of mentality of, again, it's experiential. It's that experience-based learning and I think we just ask a lot of questions. And I think answering questions with another question is something that I think we do a lot in both those natural spaces, but also in the agricultural spaces.
So instead of just answering, it's like, well, why do you think that? And if that's the case, why is this? And it's always one of the best answers you can give. I think we live in such a just Google quickly to have an answer, then that's the answer and then we move on, especially with the youth. But adults too, I mean, we forget how important the things we say for kids is also important for adults. Critically thinking and trying to come to your own answer and problem solving versus just looking it up.
So, I think, both ag spaces like the garden, you never know what's going to happen when you pull something out of a raised bed, has that same kind of excitement. And again, it's dynamic, those spaces change. Pig day is going to look different if it's raining. And just because it's raining doesn't mean we're not going to do pig day. It just means what we're going to do is going to be totally different and that's what makes it such a good classroom.
Christa Hein: So, I'm curious, when you tackle topics that maybe aren't as feel-good as what's happening on the farm, or what's growing or the animals that are born - talking about things like climate, food systems - how do you talk about those in a way that feels grounded and hopeful instead of overwhelming?
Andrew Lombardi: A couple different ways, I guess. Different between adults and youths, of course, but there's definitely some overlap. I think right off the bat we are really focused on never talking down about anyone else's operations. We're not going to be like, well those eggs come from this factory farm where all the chickens are in cages, and how terrible is that? In the grand scheme of things, everything going on at Wolfe’s Neck, we're a drop in the bucket when it comes to agriculture. The amount of pigs we produce a year versus the actual amount of pork that's produced is so minuscule. And the food system's complicated, you know. We all can't afford to shop at the farmer's market or the co-op, or sometimes you're on a road trip and your only option is Subway.
The food system is really diverse. It's really complicated. So, to just be like, look what all farms should be, is wrong. And I think that's something about regenerative agriculture that I really like, is regenerative agriculture is place-based. Regenerative ag is going to look different on the coast of Maine than it's going to look in Arizona or it's going to look in Northern California. That I think we talk a lot about right off the bat. Every farm is different. The food system is complicated, but here are some ways that through regenerative ag we can do these little things that can make a big difference.
And I think we talk a lot about it too, where it's a community thing. Regenerative agriculture is also a people; there is no regeneration without people being a part of it. It can't just be about soil. It also has to be about people. And to have regenerative practices, but exploitive practices for farm workers, is also not regenerative. So, it's all connected.
One thing we try to instill is like we're all part of a community of eaters, a community of food system participants. And we're not going to find one thing that's going to solve any climate crisis. We're going to find tons of little things. This little farm in Maine is going to cover crop a bit more. Like, we till at our farm is a great example. And I think no till is one of the number one things. It was like, “Wait you till? How could you be regenerative?” And it's like, “Well, let me tell you a little bit about this. It doesn't work for our heavy clay marine soil.” Then there are other farms that don't do certain composts because they have a different soil amendment that they need. But it's all these community partners with good intention, doing what they need for their land to make it healthier and produce food for people. And then we'll do it our way, and they can do it their way and a factory can do it this way. It's going to be all of those things working together that is going to make holistic system change, not this one place.
So, we like to show people what we can do here and hopefully that gets their imagination going of what they can do, or what other farms can do, or other organizations that have nothing to do with agriculture. I think it really is around that community mindset that I think we try to instill on people. Even with our youngest farm campers, one of our farm camp rules of the day is to take care and it's take care of yourself but take care of each other. Take care of the land. So, I think in a 4-year-old, a bud as we call them, it's about instilling that love for the land because later in life, hopefully they'll protect what they love.
And I think for an adult, it's just about exposing them to thinking a little bit differently about what this could look like. One example we give a lot, because talking about climate can be tricky, but we try to simplify it. Think of it like hiking where everyone knows leave no trace. Imagine if you went a little bit further. So, leave no trace is great, but imagine instead of not leaving your trash in the woods, you picked up other people's trash. And there's that branch that was blocking the trail, and you moved that branch and you did all these little things. So, you used the trail for what it was for, but then you left it a little bit better even though you used it. And that's what food production can be. We can produce food and actually have the land that we produce the food off of be healthier.
And I think that's a lot of what we talk about. We do meat at the farm, too. And we'll have kids in with the lambs because they help us rotate them on pasture. And they're like, well what’s going to happen to this little guy. And it's like, well, in March when he's at the right size, we're going to send him off to be slaughtered. And that's okay because his existence with this land, what he's doing to the land by eating that grass and applying manure, he's helping build these soils and then we're going to feed people and that's part of that lifecycle for him. So, we don't shy away from it with our kids, even the little ones. It's usually the adults that have a harder time with them. The kids are like, yeah, I like chicken. You're like, yeah, absolutely. It's usually their parents are like, oh my gosh, no. But I think kids can be very reasonable with it.
Christa Hein: So, you've mentioned a couple of them, but can you go more into what products that you grow, what animals, what crops?
Andrew Lombardi: Oh, sure. Yeah. So, our largest operation is a dairy. Give or take, there's probably about a hundred head of cattle with like dry cows, calves, et cetera. We do a little bit of beef, but mostly as a byproduct of dairy or certain steers that were selected for good genes to be beef. That dairy goes to primarily Stonyfield Yogurt sales. We work with them, they're a great partner, but we also keep some for ourselves. Our chef uses it to make our own cream cheese which we serve on bagels, cheesecakes and ricotta and things like that.
We also do some veal. Pretty small amount, but as part of our dairy operation, there's going to be veal. Again, we do that raised on pasture. So, we're pretty proud of that product. I think that's a great teaching thing that we do with people because people hear the word veal and they're like, “God no, you couldn’t.” And we kind of explain and like, oh yeah, that makes sense. We do mutton and lamb. Both meat sheep, but also a small selection of fiber sheep for educational purposes. We do pasture raised pork mostly. Forest edge, kind of silvopasture style. We do egg laying birds, and we have a fruit and vegetable operation. We've got close to about four acres of field production. Some of that specifically goes to research projects. We have one heated tunnel and then we have a collection of non-heated houses as well.
And all the food that we produce, with the exception of Stonyfield Yogurt, is only sold on property. You'll never see Wolfe’s Neck Center food anywhere else. That's not our place. We want to be a resource to farmers, not a competitor to other farmers. I mentioned Winter Hill before, they also do an incredible pork operation. And we're not going to go to the farmer's market and take money out of Steve's pocket. We have enough people with the campers and visitors. They sell all out of the farm store. And then our culinary operation uses a ton of that food as well. You know, breakfast sandwiches for six months of the year uses a lot of bacon and eggs. So, a lot of it we use in house or for partner dinners. We do a farm-to-table dinner series, or we sell to campers because that's part of that connection. They come in to check in for their campground and around them is an abundance of farm-raised food from us and from partner farms. If there's something we don't do, we're happy to highlight some other great work that someone does. So, you can buy eggs, tomatoes, lettuce, and go back to your campsite and have a pretty small food footprint there, which is pretty special.
Christa Hein: So, Wolfe’s Neck also does farmer training, research, and works to support farmer viability. Even if visitors don't see those pieces directly, how do you help the public understand that your work is bigger than just one farm?
Andrew Lombardi: You know, that's one of our biggest challenges we're always working on. I think particularly for the casual visitor, trying to be like, by the way, let me talk to you about the Northeast Farmers Fund and Taps, a technical service provider. You know what I mean? You start getting into kind of measurement and things like that and you start to see people's eyes gloss over a little bit.
I think we try to integrate it. We do so many farm tours and things like that. For example, while we're doing a farm tour. I give tons of them every year. We do a lot of them from a wagon, you know, do the drive an hour, we stop at five places and talk a little bit about the different operations. So, for example, for a research program, we'll stop at the fruit and vegetable production field. And obviously we talk about what we produce, what organic means, what regenerative is, what's cover crop. But then we'll be like, “And you see that kind of row back there? That is a research project.” I think what our education team is really good at is taking pretty complex stuff and distilling it into bite-size pieces of what we want people to take away.
This last year we were part of an American Farmland Trust biochar study. Essentially, we used biochar on three different production rows of winter hardy squash. And then on our tours, we keep it really brief. We'd be like, and we're doing this research project, spoiler, it doesn't work here because the type of soil that we have, the biochar doesn't actually do anything. But we always then explain it's actually really important that we did this because now there's some farmer out there that's been hearing about biochar. He's not going to waste his money because he's going to know his soil type and he's going to look at that study once it's published and be like, oh, I have this heavy marine clay soil. This farm had that same soil. They used biochar, they saw no changes in yields, and they'll save their money and get something else. So even though we didn't get like the “cool, wow, look at this squash”, like the squash still grew fine. If it wasn't for the deer, that was a problem.
I think people like that little tidbit. They walk away with that where it's like, oh, okay without really getting into the depths of what the methods of this research project is. A place like Wolfe’s Neck can do this small little research piece, and the point is just helping farmers, because you can only do so much in one growing season. And then depending on how many years you farm, maybe you only have 25 growing seasons to actually try things. So, we can share that information with each other. And farms that take on research, places like Wolfe’s Neck, can take that burden. We're not going to ask someone that's going to make all their winter CSA money off of hardy winter squash that they can store to risk reducing their yield, but we can take that on.
And I think that's something that we really like to talk about with people, just those little tidbits. Because again, people think there's overalls in a straw hat, that's a farmer. And it's like, no, farmers are also scientists and there's a lot going on. And there's a lot of support. So, I think again, our role is giving these little tidbits, these little bite-sized things. And for some people that'll be all they want. But for someone else, they might go home and start doing a little bit of research and who knows how far they'll go into looking into something. And I like to imagine that those people go on to do all these different actions, but that's not our real role. Our role is to show people what could be possible.
Christa Hein: I love that inspiration part of it.
Andrew Lombardi: Yeah, exactly.
Christa Hein: So, what are you most excited about right now at Wolfe’s Neck Center? What feels like it's growing or evolving?
Andrew Lombardi: For the greater organization there's the Northeast Farmers Fund, which is still blossoming. But it's really exciting to be a part of an organization that can help farmers in the Northeast get the tools they need. I think for a lot of farmers they would love to do certain things, but things are so cost prohibitive. And I'm excited to share that with other people so that then they can hopefully share it with others and others. So, I think that's really exciting for the greater organization.
If I zoom in a little bit, this will be our second year of this new visitor education and experience. Two years ago, the idea of mixing that recreation, hospitality, and education was what dawned this new department, which at first seemed kind of crazy. But now that we've done it, and this incredible team of people I get to work with has had this incredible first year of doing it. We've really laid the foundation of this coworker collaboration across our programs. And that to me is so rewarding. When the person that's in charge of making reservations for campsites comes up with an idea of how we can talk about some farming element, that's really special.
Again, the community element is what I love about the kind of farm-based education world, there's so much sharing. No one holds anything precious. Everyone's so happy to share. Like this podcast, it's all about sharing with other people. Getting to do that on the team of people I work with every day and that collaborative nature continues to be the most exciting thing. And again, it comes back to that dynamic nature. And then something will go wrong, and I'll still get to go outside. And someone's going to be sick, and Andrew will have to teach a choice-time activity. And I'll get to go in the woods and roll over logs and look for salamanders and take goats on a walk in the woods with some visitors.
And then we're bringing back pizza night. We haven't done pizza night in a few years. Our chef is bringing back wood-fired pizza nights on Fridays in the summer. So, I'm pretty excited about that, but that's kind of selfish because I'll just get to eat farm pizza every Friday night and his pizza is the best.
Christa Hein: So, I always love to ask people for their advice. For educators who are small and scrappy, what advice would you give them about building strong systems as their programs grow? What would you tell them to prioritize in their own visitor experiences?
Andrew Lombardi: So, I think through the line of all the places I've worked over the years, I think it's to be welcoming and be excited and surrounding yourself with other people that are welcoming and excited. There's nothing like working with people and at a place where everyone else that is there has the same excitement that you have, and it's impossible to have that not be contagious. And it's so clear anytime I go to a program, and I can tell that the person that's doing the program loves what they're talking about, it's the best program I've seen. You know, I go to a national park or the state park next to us, there's this guy, Andy, that's worked at the state park for 50 years. He knows every tree in that property. And you listen to him talk and he loves that place, and it's so contagious and it's incredible.
So, if you can keep yourself with that excitement, and welcoming people into your excitement, I think your programs can only get better and grow and your career in this world can only go further. It’s kind of one of those litmus tests. It's like I want to be around people that love what they're doing. They're excited about it, and they want to welcome more into what they're doing. It's like if you check those boxes, it's pretty hard to go astray.
Christa Hein: I love that. So, to wrap up, where can people follow Wolfe’s Neck Center, learn about the programs or reach out? What's the best place to connect online?
Andrew Lombardi: So, the website of course has a ton of information, because there's a lot going on. It's wolfesneck.org. And then we have all the classic social media: Instagram, LinkedIn. Of course it's not going to be possible for everyone, but one of the beautiful things about Wolfe’s Neck Center is, if you're in Maine, just come. You don't have to make an appointment. You don't have to sign up for a class. Well, you can, but you can just show up from dawn ‘til dusk, or you can even camp there. So, if you just happen to find yourself in the southern Maine area, you can just pop in, walk the property. You'll probably run into one of us. We're out on the grounds all the time. Obviously, we'd love for people to learn about our programs online, to reach out to us and anyone on the ed team. All of our emails are listed there on the staff page. We love sharing. We love connecting with people. Building these communities is the best part of what we do. But if you're ever in southern Maine, just pop in, it can be that simple. It's a pretty special place, and we'd love to have people come join us and share it.
Christa Hein: Awesome. Andrew, this whole conversation really captured how a farm can be both a working agricultural system and a powerful classroom, and how thoughtful visitor education can bridge both of those worlds. Thank you so much for joining me and for the work that you're all doing at Wolfe’s Neck Center.
Andrew Lombardi: Thank you.
Christa Hein: To our listeners, whether you're running programs on five acres or 500, remember that the experience you design matters. The way you welcome people in, the way you connect the dots and the way you help them leave feeling hopeful, that's powerful work.
If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love if you'd follow the show, leave a review and share it with another farm educator who could use a little encouragement. Until next time, keep teaching, keep growing, and keep bringing people back to the land.
Christa Hein: Hey farm educators. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Before you go, I've got something special for you. If you're ready to build a farm education program that people are excited to book, grab my free guide, Five Simple Steps to Growing an In-Demand Farm Education Program. It's packed with the same steps I used to grow my own farm education business.
It'll help you get noticed, attract clients, and make an impact. Just head over to www.farmeducatorsroadmap.com/fivesimplesteps to get your free copy. It's quick, easy, and will make your programs irresistible. I can't wait to see what you create. Thanks for listening, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
