WOLFE’S NECK FARM in Freeport celebrated the completion of its Little River Farmstead on Thursday.
In celebration of the completed renovation of the historic Little River Farmstead, Wolfe’s Neck Farm held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday in Freeport
It wasn’t farm staff or even directors who performed the ribbon-cutting at the new Wishcamper Livestock Education Barn, however — it was the children in attendance, a choice emblematic of the farm’s commitment to the agricultural and outdoor education of future generations.
The renovation comes as the first in a series of future restoration projects — what Executive Director Dave Herring calls “TransFARMation” — that aim to remodel Wolfe’s Neck Farm as a growing statewide, regional or even national educational resource for sustainable agriculture.
“We’re just getting started bringing this place to life in a way that the world really needs,” said Herring at the event. “The world needs places like Wolfe’s Neck Farm now more than ever. We need places for people of all ages to connect with food and connect with farming, to connect with each other, and to connect with the outdoors and nature.”
Friends, family and community members gathered at the 626-acre oceanfront campus in Freeport as Herring told a personal anecdote of his emotional connection to the farm. After joining farm staff in 2012, he recalled welcoming a group of multi-cultural students from Portland to camp at the farm.
“The energy that came out of that bus when that door opened was palpable, like an explosion,” he said. “Seeing those kids run off the bus and enjoy this place, absorb this place. … It was clear to me that we needed to do better for those kids so that they could have the experience at this place and absorb the power of this place like I knew that they would.”
The new infrastructure — a renovated house and newly built barn — will be used as summer camp headquarters, staff offices and to house a dairy herd for visitor education, respectively. Previously, the Little River house was used as a catchall for storage and farm equipment. The decision to rebuild the barn, formerly demolished in 2008, was made to better accommodate the farm’s small animal program and will include sheep and lamb, laying hens and goats as well as educational demonstration areas, such as an egg-washing station.
The new barn is dedicated to Joe and Carol Wishcamper, neighbors and longtime friends of the farm. Herring honored the two at the event for their continued support throughout the years.
Within the next five years, the farm hopes to break ground on a new dairy facility, a new education facility and a visitor center. Before they do so, however, they hope to preserve the historic and aging pre-existing infrastructure through a series of renovations, including the Banter House, which was completed in 2015, the Little River Farmstead and the Pole Barn, which the farm began to renovate on Wednesday.
“Part of what makes Wolfe’s Neck Farm so amazing is that it hasn’t really changed a lot in many decades, and we’re still committed to keeping it that way,” said Fiona Wilson, president of Wolfe’s Neck Farm’s board of directors. “But at the same time, we are really excited to start reinvesting and renovating some of our aging infrastructure so we can do more great work here. This is the first phase of that.”
• THE FARM hopes to break ground on a new dairy facility, a new education facility and a visitor center. Before they do so, however, they hope to preserve the historic and aging pre-existing infrastructure through a series of renovations, including the Banter House, which was completed in 2015, the Little River Farmstead and the Pole Barn.
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