Greenhouse and High Tunnel Growing: Explore our heated, and unheated, four-season high tunnel growing facilities and learn how we use these tools to extend our growing seasons and grow food year-round. Students will take soil temperature measurements as well as compare indoor and outdoor crops.
Pasture Raised Hens: We keep around 200 laying hens that move rotationally throughout our various pastures to benefit our soil while laying healthy eggs. Students will get up close with production poultry, while learning about the benefits of natural soil amendments and pasture management.
Busting Cow Burps: Wolfes Neck Center is involved in a multi-year experiment to find how we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cows. We’ll learn about cow digestion, and how local seaweed can actually help cool our climate.
Composting & Manure: Composting and manure operations are a huge part of what we do here at the farm. All manure on the property is either applied directly to the fields as fertilizer or is added to our compost to improve our soil. We will use thermometers to check the temperature of our compost beds (multiple beds across the property) as well as compare the health of our soil.
Pastures, carbon, and cooling our planet: Our herd of pasture- raised dairy cows not only make high quality milk – they also help our pastures draw down carbon from our atmosphere. We’ll head out onto real pastures to focus on carbon sequestration and the pasture as an ecosystem while taking measurements that farmers take every day.
Sustainable Dairy and Cheese Making (15 students or less): Students will head into our commercial kitchen and learn about the science of making cheese. While our cheese rests after cooking, we’ll visit our dairy barn and pastures to learn how this delicious favorite food can be made sustainable with our grass-based pasture systems.