35 - Shipshape Farm
[00:00:00]
Christa Hein: Hey there, welcome to the Farm Educator’s 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. [00:01:00] Let's dig in.
Christa Hein: Hi, welcome back to the Farm Educator’s Roadmap. Today I'm talking to Whitney Poitevint, Co-founder and CEO of ShipShape Farm in Traveler’s Rest, South Carolina. It's a family run educational farm that has grown quickly in just a few short years. Whitney didn't set out with a big dream to build a farm education business, but what started out of necessity has grown into something deeply meaningful.
Today she's creating programs for children and families that center around slowing down, connecting with nature, and building real relationships both on the farm and within her community. And one of the things I love most about her story is that this isn't just a business, it's truly a family effort with three generations working side by side.
Whitney, thanks so much for joining us.
Whitney Poitevint: Thank you so much for having me. This is very exciting to be a part of it.
Christa Hein: Absolutely. So [00:02:00] I'd love to start at the beginning of your journey. You've mentioned that this path into farm education wasn't necessarily something you planned from the start. Can you take us back to when you first moved to your farm? What did life look like at that time, and what did you think the property was going to be for your family?
Whitney Poitevint: That is a loaded question. We moved to the farm initially in August of 2020 when the world felt like it was on fire. We moved to 20 acres outside of town, from a quarter acre lot, three blocks from Main Street in Greenville, South Carolina. So, my regular life had been high heels walking everywhere, very downtown living, and all of a sudden, those high heels get shelved. I'm wearing muck boots, I'm dealing with animals, and I pitched quite a fit because it was not on my dream board list.
We moved to the land so that we would be hopefully more self-sustainable. We [00:03:00] didn't quite know what would happen with the world, and we wanted to be able to grow our own food and take care of our extended family that all lived nearby if the need arose.
So, 2020 was a wild year. We transitioned -
Christa Hein: Yeah.
Whitney Poitevint: Right? For everyone. So, we transitioned from four kids in public school to suddenly homeschooling. Living in the city to suddenly on a farm. Only one indoor dog to suddenly having chickens. It was a change on a massive scale, and we had no desire to make it a business. It was purely to take care of our family, and then that shifted over the years.
Christa Hein: So, at what point did you realize that you needed the property to start contributing financially? And then what was the very first thing you tried to bring income in through the farm?
Whitney Poitevint: Initially there was a shift at my husband's work. So I had been a stay-at-home mom for all of the years. At that time, we'd been [00:04:00] married 17 years, and so I had stayed home and done intermittent work. But then his role shifted, which impacted his paycheck, and so I started to try my hand at different things.
I am not an amazing baker, but I suddenly found that I was pretty good at making sourdough and people would pay for it. Which is shocking because I'm a terrible baker, but I was really good at sourdough. So, we started with baking sourdough bread, and then I rolled into apple cider donuts and the baked goods, and selling them at local places nearby.
The schedule for that was really hard as well as it's lonely work early in the morning. And I'm an obscene, extrovert night owl, so it was very much not a good fit, so we had to figure out something else. And before I figured out a different way to make money on the farm, my husband's job shifted, and so that necessity got paused again and I was [00:05:00] able to focus on some other things.
Christa Hein: So then how did education enter the picture? Where did the idea of bringing people to the farm come from?
Whitney Poitevint: Part of it was because I had realized making bread was a terrible choice for my personality, and I was complaining about that to one of my friends who lives in Pennsylvania. She had just attended a farm school, which I had never heard of such a thing before. She called me, said, “Whitney, you must do this. It's bringing people to the land and helping them enjoy it.”
So, I immediately thought there's no way that would sell or have a market here in South Carolina, because we're all pretty connected to the land. I grew up on a hobby farm. I just didn't see that it would be high priority for people's dollars. Boy was I wrong. So very wrong.
I thought the community connection would be the most important thing, but they [00:06:00] married very well. So, having people who wanted to be outside to get their children outside, married great with the fact that we had land for them to be exposed to it and it was a safe place.
You weren't really with the whole general population, which was a relevant component for people having babies, especially people who had babies in 2020, when it was so much fear and anxiety. The park felt scary, but coming to a farm with a limited number of the public that you get to stay with your child, you know if there's any allergens present, you can safely play and encounter wildlife and nature - it just really resonated greatly with people.
Christa Hein: Beautiful. So, in those early days of working on the farm before things were really established, what felt most unclear or uncertain to you as you were dreaming of this concept?
Whitney Poitevint: Oh, that's so many things. I felt [00:07:00] deeply inadequate to teach. I'm a mom and a mom of four. I love people. I love children, and I love helping them engage with the world, but I'm not a trained teacher. I'm not someone with a pedigreed background in education, it's self-taught.
So, lots of books. I've just voraciously consumed books on how to teach, styles of education, philosophy, and those types of things. So, I was concerned that I would misstep greatly, that people would put their trust in what they would be getting here at the farm, and then that I would have been the wrong place for them to put their trust.
I hope that makes sense.
Christa Hein: Yeah, it's amazing how common that imposter syndrome feeling is for people who are starting out in farm education if they [00:08:00] didn't come from a farm background or if they didn't come from an education background. Yeah. That's such a common feeling.
I want to stay right here in these early action steps a little longer, because I think that's where people can get stuck not knowing where to start. What was the first program or the first offering that you officially put out there, and how did you get the word out? Were you tapping into an existing network or building an audience from scratch?
Whitney Poitevint: Our very first thing was actually promoting parties, like being a party venue. And I joke that we are the YouTube of farms because YouTube started as a dating site and that is not what they became. And we started as an event venue, and then a couple weeks after launching parties, we immediately also attempted to see if anyone would be interested in a preschool program. It sold out very quickly, and then we added another one and we ended up adding two homeschool [00:09:00] classes in addition. So, our first session, we thought we would maybe have 20 kids, and we ended up having 100.
The marketing side of it - I built a website. I don't know what I'm doing. I just googled every step of the way and it was a drag and drop thing. So, there was a landing page, I created graphics on Canva, and then I have a pretty active personal social media presence. I've done social media since it came on the scene, and so I was able to tap into that, as well as through the use of hashtags, and then boosting posts for our Facebook page and our Instagram business page.
And then people just found us. And then I asked everyone I knew, even if I'm not your jam, do you know anyone who you think would dig it? Please share the information and let's see what we can find. So that [00:10:00] very first session, I think I spent $20 in boosting posts, and boom! We were there posting in Facebook groups and that kind of thing. I just also have no problem talking to everyone and saying, “Hey, we're doing this thing. Do you want to be a part of it?!”
Christa Hein: That definitely helps.
Whitney Poitevint: Yeah.
Christa Hein: So, when you were putting this together at the beginning, how did you decide simple things like pricing structure, or even how long your program should be?
Whitney Poitevint: So, I have a really short attention span, like really short. And so, I also had four kids in five years. So, when it comes to children, I know they struggle to sit still, and it's okay, they just need to move. And that their entire day schedule shifts significantly every six weeks, pretty much with their nap schedule and their needs. So, we settled on a six-week program length, because that's how life shifts significantly.
So, that was one part,for the length of it, and then the [00:11:00] duration of the class itself is two hours. And that's because we could touch base on everything on the land in an hour. And so, I wanted to give two so that we could go at the children's pace. So, there's none of this hurry up business.
That's a really key component of what we do here, is allowing children to go at their pace exploring the world, because when they have time to notice that the trees are moving in the breeze or that all of a sudden a nature trail they walked last week that was brown, and this week has little daffodils bursting. There's all these beautiful questions that pop in their brains, and they stick with the information so much better when they're not rushed past to the next thing.
Christa Hein: Yep. Absolutely. So usually when we're starting something new, there's lots of unexpected challenges in that first year, especially. What felt the hardest about trying to get this off the ground? The teaching side, the business side, or [00:12:00] just managing everything all at once?
Whitney Poitevint: All at once. And pricing, because you had asked about how we set pricing. I had no idea on any of that. I just started shooting in the dark, throwing spaghetti on the wall and finding that sweet spot of what would resonate? What would earn people's trust in dollars without alienating a large group of the market? I don't intend to serve every single person because I can't, but there are certain people within the market that I really desire to serve. So, finding out what their price point was that made it feasible for their budget was really important.
Then also the biggest struggle point for me was the tech side, because I am our tech person. I am not a tech person, but I had to learn how to build forms, how to get liability waivers, what signups would look like, how to track rosters.
How to navigate different [00:13:00] allergies that would be present on the land, making our space safe so all people could enjoy it was really important. How to figure out discipline processes. So, if we have behavioral challenges, like what our process is and that it's clearly communicated ahead of time, so no one thinks that we're singling a child out or a particular family. This is what we do, this is how we follow, and then communicating it in a manner that was easily remembered and then respected.
So those were the biggest ones.
Christa Hein: Yeah, those are huge.
So, your family is a huge part of how this all works. So, I want to shift to talking about this multi-generational aspect of your family farm business. So, your kids work alongside you and your husband at ShipShape Farm. How have your kids naturally found their own places in the farm as they and the farm has grown?
Whitney Poitevint: So, when we first moved to the farm, we asked each kid what area they wanted to be the [00:14:00] expert on. So, each one got to pick either an animal, or the garden, or something that they were going to dig deep on and have the expert level knowledge. I had working knowledge of all the areas, but each child was then either the goat expert or the chicken expert. We had a garden expert. We had dogs and bunnies experts, and when there's a problem, I go to the expert, because they've done the research.
So, for example, my son, who at the time was about to turn 10 when we moved to the land, and he loved the ducks so much. So, he became the duck expert. Well, one of our ducks got a sprained ankle, and so here he is at 10 and I had him call the veterinarian. And our friend is a veterinarian, and he came to the farm. And he did not meet with me, [00:15:00] he met with my son, who is the duck expert, and taught him what he'd need to do to take care of the duck and to ensure that he didn't have this problem again.
Now, he may not have had this sprained ankle. That may just be the wording that was used for a 10-year-old to understand, but he did have a foot problem and Landon handled it. So, they all just dabbled in different areas, including my husband. He loves field maintenance and making sure that we're taking care of the land well with the animals and everything is symbiotic, very Joel Salatin-esque if you will, and we just have fallen into the different areas in that manner.
One of my daughters is an artist, and so she handles any special chalkboard signs or special things that we need created to be beautiful. Another one loves to read stories with lots of voices, and so her job at parties or different things, is making sure that the right stories are chosen for celebrating that [00:16:00] child.
So that was a long answer.
Christa Hein: Oh, but so beautiful. What an amazing way to give that empowerment to your children, but also in a really helpful way for the family business.
Whitney Poitevint: Yes. It's what's really cool. So, all of my kids are either in traditional school setting or college now at this time, and so how they help on the land has shifted a bit in the timing. But during the summertime, they're extremely involved. And my oldest, who's away at college, she's actually my virtual assistant and helps with a ton of things. So, everyone is very hands-on, but as they've grown and as their time and ability has shifted, exact roles have grown with them as well.
Christa Hein: Nice. Well, and now your parents are also living on the farm with you. How did that decision come about and what has that transition been like? Having them a part of the farm and the programs?
Whitney Poitevint: When we first bought the property, we knew the goal [00:17:00] was to have them come on the land. And so we had lived here about a year, and the time was right, so they went ahead and sold their house. They actually moved onto the land in a camper so we could toe dip into all of us being “married” to each other, because it could be dicey. I mean, it ended up not being as dicey as it could have been, but there's just conflict and friction that happens when you get a lot of adults with strong opinions working closely together, but it has turned out beautifully.
The very first farm school session, I could have never done without my parents' participation. I got to teach side by side with my mom and dad, and it has been beautiful to get to know them in other realms. And they've always been dear friends of mine. My husband and I double dated with my mom and dad back in the day. They're very fun people, but to see them pouring into upcoming [00:18:00] generations and perpetually being willing to learn…
The amount of skills that my mom and dad came to the farm knowing has only doubled since they've been here. They just keep learning new things and it's inspiring to work with people who don't feel like you hit in a particular age an “Oh, well, I now know everything I need to know.”And so to be with people who are perpetually growing and excited to learn new things has been a fantastic benefit, aside from their relationship with our kids and how they all have worked together. Because again, my kids are experts on some of the things on the land, even for my parents. They go to the kids about it, and then the kids know the things that grandma and grandpa are experts on.
So, it’s just this beautiful symbiotic relationship where no one knows everything and that's good.
Christa Hein: I love that. So, I imagine there are beautiful moments as you were just mentioning. And probably some [00:19:00] challenges, too. What have you learned about running a business as a family?
Whitney Poitevint: Not everybody can do the same thing well, and that's good. So, we shouldn't all try to be the same person. I would say a super helpful tool in running the family business has been actually a personality test called The Working Genius.
It's not related to farm, it's not really even related to family. But it has been super helpful, because it's enabled all of us to appreciate the strengths that we bring to the table. And appreciate when we're maybe working in one of our weaknesses, but finishing the task that needs to be done, whatever it may be, and acknowledge that it might be harder for that person to do that particular task that comes easy to you, but they're the one that can knock it out right now. And so, they're doing it and it has just facilitated compassion for the challenges that come and it's given us language [00:20:00] to work through some of the conflict that comes when you have multi-generations and very strong ideas on the right way to do things. That gets hard.
Christa Hein: Awesome. So, I want to shift to talking about your approach to teaching, because it feels really intentional. I noticed a retro vibe on your website in your summer camp description. It mentions nostalgic memories of childhood and your farm parties have the slogan “Party like its 1984”. I love that! So, what does stepping away from the hustle culture and letting kids move at their own pace look like on your farm, and then what have you noticed happens differently when children are given that time and freedom to explore?
Whitney Poitevint: That's a great question. Kids see so much more than we give them credit for, and they see it at a different pace than we see it. Because their mind isn't going with all the other things that distract [00:21:00] us from what's directly in front of us. Children, if given the space, are inherently able to be exactly where their feet are, because they don't have anything else running through their brain to be elsewhere. This is a good quality, that was not insulting.
Christa Hein: Yes.
Whitney Poitevint: So, I have observed, we joke that hustle culture stays on the main road when you pull on the farm. We slow it down and that impacts how we encourage parents and their parenting. They don't need to rush from where you park to where we start our gathering. If it takes them 15 minutes because they're counting all of the rocks on the gravel road, that's fine. Let them do that, because that has grabbed their attention and they are not being distracted from where their attention lies.
So, we've observed kids who have never, ever sat still before. Sitting still after we run through six weeks of session, sitting still and listening to a story, which [00:22:00] involves focus, body control, self-control, consideration of others, respect for whoever is reading. There's a lot of great growth that happens when we pause and don't distract our kids to the next thing.
So, our philosophy, it's actually really informed by the Montessori method. I have read so many things about and by Maria Montessori, and the philosophy of building upon success. So, we allow kids space to try things and fail. Our obstacle course is hard, it's challenging, and it will take effort for our little people, especially to be able to fully complete the course. And some will not in six weeks of trying. And that's okay, because we as humans are anti-fragile, and we need opportunities to fail to try something hard that is not an automatic success and try again. Because that's where [00:23:00] we build resiliency. We build the ability to keep trying and that's such a life thing that's involved in education. It's involved in relationships, like, it's in every facet of life.
So, when we do our summer camps, we have a schedule that we follow, but everything has an asterisk. Because if we're rotating our groups through the different stations, then one or a couple kids just really want to stay with the goats and observe what they're doing, if at all possible, one of our counselors stays with that group and allows them to just watch the animals and interact with them for as long as they want.
We've had kids who came to summer camp and they were just overstimulated with all the ruckus, which I totally get. And so, we have a box of picnic blankets and, you need to tell your counselor that you're doing this, but you can take a picnic blanket, we'll help you [00:24:00] set it up in a grassy field, and you can watch the clouds go by. And you can take a coloring sheet if you want, but if you need a minute to process all the ruckus going on outside of you and to calm yourself down, we have space for that.
And I think that is, well, it's very intentional, because all of us, we get so spun up on things that we don't need to be spun up about, because we get so used to feeling that way. And our world is so vast and the farm enables you space to slow down and feel something different, feel peace and calm. And so, when we can enable kids to have that feeling, maybe they have a touchpoint that they didn't know existed from before.
Christa Hein: I love that. And then in addition to that, you're also working with the state learning standards. So how do you balance that curriculum, and creating [00:25:00] state aligned curriculum, while still keeping that hands-on nature first feel?
Whitney Poitevint: Ooh, that's a good one. So first of all, I have to give all the credit to our non-related staff member, who is a trained teacher, former classroom educator, who realized she loves teaching, but prefers a slightly different level of schedule. A little more flexibility, if you will. So, she's been a huge blessing to have here at the farm and she's the one who delves into the SOLs of South Carolina and then creates what we offer for the different school field trips that come on property.
So, our field trip arm is a little different. Those are a little faster, depending upon the size of the group, because we could have…our last huge field trip was 160 kids at one time. We are not a gigantic farm. So that's a lot of people. And the way we set it [00:26:00] up is, we rotate them through space to space, and we are reinforcing the same learning pieces at each site. And then they have some interaction with the animals, but it's a little faster, purely because we have to work with buses and schedules. So, I would love to be able to have them take all day long, but rarely does the school have that time availability.
Christa Hein: So, when you look back on your programs over the last couple of years, what do you feel like actually helped your program start gaining traction? Did you notice repeat families or word of mouth picking up? What did that look like when it first started happening?
Whitney Poitevint: Honestly, people loved it. I'm going to sound very flaky and emotional or something like that, because when we had almost a hundred percent.... We had 95% of our people who came to our first winter session sign up for our second session. And I [00:27:00] just - I cried. I was so blown away by that commitment and dedication to really what was just a… it came out of necessity, but was really just a lot of stuff that I did with my own kids and I wanted the opportunity to share it with other people's kids.
I thought a couple might like it, and then it turned out a ton did. Those families all would leave Google reviews, they would tag us in mom’s groups or homeschool groups. They would share about it, which it's a huge gift to have praise like that, to have your marketing plan be, “I love this so much, I'm going to stake my reputation on it to send you to that place.”
Like, it's a big deal. It's not a small thing to have people recommend you to others. And so, for that to grow blew my mind. We also did advertise in our largest kid [00:28:00] focused website in this area. It's an amazing resource for any family called Kidding Around Greenville. And so, we've advertised in there, and that grew our summer camp, but for our farm school classes, it has been word of mouth to the point that I don't advertise them anymore. So, it's because we have a wait list. And our summer camps now, we had three weeks of summer camp sold out in a week for this year, so we're 75% full and it's March, which for the third year of running a summer camp is crazy.
Christa Hein: Yeah. That's amazing. Well, and you also have groups traveling up to two hours to visit. What do you think is drawing people from that far away?
Whitney Poitevint: I don't know. That probably sounds terrible. We actually have a field trip coming from two hours away. These teachers are going to be sitting in a bus with kindergartners for a four hour round trip to come to the [00:29:00] farm. When that teacher reached out and said they wanted to come, I asked her what her priorities were and how I could help her find a closer trip. Because I just think that would be terrible! [laughter]
But from what I understand, for the field trips, people love that it is just their group on the property. So, it's a lot safer. They also love we're a nut free location. So, the different allergies that are airborne, those kids can experience the farm and nature safely. And many of them, if they have an anaphylactic peanut allergy, they've never been to the park - ever in their lives, because it's so dangerous. And so, we want to just be safe for those kids, the people who travel so far.
Because we do have a family who travels for our weekly farm school. They travel an hour and 45 minutes each way for a two hour class and they just love the community, [00:30:00] to be supported and encouraged in motherhood. That is for a preschool class.
I had my kids a while ago, so I had my kids in a different era really, because we didn't even have smartphones when I had my little people. My youngest was born in 2010 and the world is so hard, I feel, to raise kids now. It's perpetually terrifying and exceptionally lonely, and I think what people are attracted to is joy in the journey. So as a mom or a dad, celebrating your kid, and even when they meltdown, because they're just human. And knowing that you can navigate a meltdown in a public space with people who will support you in your parenthood.
Christa Hein: So, you mentioned community and the mothers finding that. What does community mean to you now, compared to before you started this work?
Whitney Poitevint: I think [00:31:00] my definition has stayed pretty similar throughout. We were a military family, so community is something built with intention. You don't accidentally fall into it. We also served in full-time Christian ministry there for a while, and community is something that is born from honesty and vulnerability. And community isn't inherently easy. It doesn't mean you agree on everything and it doesn't mean that you will be conflict free, but a healthy, thriving community bonds with one another and holds each other's hands through the hard times, and then helps you see the joy that's even there in the hard times.
And sometimes the joy is purely you won't have to repeat today. You don't have to live Groundhog Day. But sometimes the joy is just the fact that you get to wake up to someone smile next to you. Like, what a [00:32:00] delight and a miracle that is. And then to see the world wake up in spring and watch the flowers open, what unnecessary beauty is all around us.
And so, I think community, it's just expanded where I get to build community through the business, but I think my understanding and definition of it has stayed pretty standard.
Christa Hein: Well, it sounds like through the programs and that inspiration that you're providing for people to experience those things in front of them that are inspiring, and you allowing them that space to open up to that, that as well. Just that community aspect, building within them through your influence and inspiration.
Whitney Poitevint: Well, it's a joy. We have prayed hard for our property to be a place of refuge for all people. We welcome all people to our land and we seek to love them all well. And all of us are loved well differently. And that's a gift, too. To be able to see the people in [00:33:00] front of you as more than the difficulties.
Christa Hein: Yeah. So, the farm is still in a growth phase, which is really exciting. I see you're expanding into goat dairy production. How did that become a part of your vision?
Whitney Poitevint: I can't have cow's milk products.[laughter]
Christa Hein: Ha!
Whitney Poitevint: Yeah, there you go. So, we started with goats, because I couldn't have cow's milk products and we had land. A friend of mine had a dairy goat herd, and her life shifted and she could no longer care for them. So, she said, “Hey, if you'll just take my girls, I will coach you through it.”
She taught me how to milk, how to do all of it. And then she's like my on call support. She's that phone a friend for all of the issues. I'm sure she got tired of me in the first year. And then my girls started producing more than our family could utilize well, so we started selling the raw milk.
I know this goes across all over the [00:34:00] place. Every state has different lines, but South Carolina is very friendly to, well, their cottage industry laws are fabulous. And then raw milk as well is marvelous. And then we actually will have our permit from the state in the next month or so, so that we can then sell in stores and it's just all clear to go double thumbs up.
And we have people travel quite far to be able to get our goat milk because there's not very many providing it, and it's just really good for you.
Christa Hein: Nice. So, I heard you're also working on a YouTube channel focused on dairy goats. What made you want to expand into that space?
Whitney Poitevint: I don't even know. [laughter] My whole family loves YouTube. I hardly ever use YouTube, but none of them were willing to like, take on the mantle.
So, one day as a joke, I posted a video that someone took of me calling the goats. Like, I just holler for them. I would call it yodeling, but [00:35:00] there's another word that's harder to say that I don't remember what it is. But I holler for them and they all come running to me and they're just like, “Hey, we're here!” And I'm very loud and can hold the notes sustained for a very long time. And that particular video went viral, and then people just wanted to see more videos of the goats.
So, I do my very best to post my girls, but I'm not as consistent as I could be, because I have a lot of other things going on. I don't know how people say, “And then I'm going to do this at this time, and this at that time.” It's amazing! That is such a phenomenal skillset, and I did not develop that.
Christa Hein: Well, that was actually going to be my next question, because you have so many different things going on. How are you balancing it - running the business, the teaching, and being present with your family?
Whitney Poitevint: Probably terribly, you would need to ask my family. [laughter]. So, what is the analogy? That there's glass balls that you cannot drop and then there's rubber balls that can drop at times.
So, over [00:36:00] the fall, well actually 2025, we had a surprise renovation of our house that we had to do because of health issues. So, 2025 went sideways, so I cooked very little in 2025. So that was a rubber ball that dropped. And we did not eat in a crunchy manner whatsoever. We lived. So, my kids had to buy lunches at school, and that was really hard for me because I love cooking and I love gathering at the table. And just, good food is just a love language. It should be listed as a love language. So, it's just the things that can adjust. So, I work in little windows of time. I live and die by the timer, but I have to label what my timers are for, because I forget.
Christa Hein: So, when you look ahead a year or two into the future, what do you hope your farm has grown into?
Whitney Poitevint: We, this is very much my husband and I together, even though he works a full-time job (not farm [00:37:00] related). We have a lot of ideas and dreams of where it can go, but so far we've been so wrong. I don't even know if it's worth saying them. We would love to add more animals to the land for the experience, for the people who come on the land, and also to utilize them for land clearing. Potentially to learn how to process them so that we can know where our meat comes from. It's not in the cards at the moment with how many things we have juggling.
We do intend to grow the goat dairy. With what the market is telling us, that arm of our business, most likely we'll be able to grow to be on par for income as our summer camp, which is crazy.
You've actually been an inspiration. We would love to be able to bring the farm to the schools, because we have quite a few schools in our area that are unable to facilitate offsite field trips. And we [00:38:00] just think it's so important for kids to see things that are beyond themselves and that are out of their regular. So, some manner of that.
I am very passionate about literacy and story time with kids just loving books. So, I would love to be able to do, like, story time with a farmer at the library. And we are working on YouTube video tutorials for how to use the goat milk to make the products with it. So, we don't intend to sell products because the permitting is crazy, but we can teach you how to do it. And so, my mom makes goat cheese and goat milk mozzarella. I make ice cream and yogurt, so to help people with that.
And then we have a lot of ideas for different classes and ways to engage, other age brackets to pull in. There's a local university with an outdoor leadership program, we'd love to work with them on building an internship program. So, there's so many ideas and it's just [00:39:00] a matter of throwing it on the wall and seeing what sticks.
Christa Hein: Yeah, so I want to end our conversation geared towards listeners who are right where you were not that long ago. For someone who feels that pressure of needing or wanting to make something work, but doesn't have a clear plan quite yet, what would you want them to hear from your experience?
Whitney Poitevint: Try. First of all, for yourself, it's very beneficial to try something and fail. It's not a loss. It's an opportunity to learn, to reframe. You don't have to start and have perfection, but every person who never starts, never achieves perfection.
So, it's that willingness to just go for it, that willingness to maybe look foolish, to not know all the answers. You're never going to know all the answers. That's okay. Even when people ask us on the land a very specific [00:40:00] question and we don't know the answer, it's a great opportunity for all of us to learn. I will get their number, I will find the answer, and I will send it to them, like, and now I know!
The willingness to have humility, not assuming you must be an expert before you start. I bet every person knows something that somebody else doesn't know. And even if there's a lot of people who know what you know, you probably have a way of conveying it, or creating that product, or instilling that whatever, that nobody else does. And so, don't diminish your unique abilities because they're not somebody else's.
Christa Hein: Nice. So, to wrap up, where can people find you online to follow along on ShipShape’s journey with the farm?
Whitney Poitevint: We are on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook - All under the same name – ShipShapeFarm.com. It is an aspirational name. Or [00:41:00] Ship Shape Farm is our username. We are still in the process of getting everything shipped shape. [laughter] When we first moved here, it was very hot mess, but that is where we are. So Instagram is ShipShapeFarm, Facebook business page, and then the YouTube channel, as well as our website.
Christa Hein: Wonderful. Whitney, this has been such a real and honest look at what it takes to build something from the ground up. Not from a perfect plan, but from real life and figuring it out as you go and as a family. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us.
Whitney Poitevint: Oh, thank you so much for having me.
Christa Hein: Absolutely. And to our listeners, if you're in that early stage still piecing things together or wondering how to begin, I hope this conversation reminds you that so many of these programs don't start polished. They start because someone simply begins. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow, leave a review, or share it with someone who's dreaming about starting their own farm education program.
And as always, keep [00:42:00] teaching, keep growing, and keep connecting people 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.
