Farm Educator's Roadmap®

What happens when a public school teacher realizes the educational system no longer aligns with her core values or the future she envisions for her own children? For Lindsey Vose , it meant choosing a radical pivot: stepping away from financial security, pensions, and traditional benchmarks to build an alternative learning ecosystem completely from the ground up. Today, Lindsey is the founder and...

Dr. Bonnie Laabs , an inner-city science teacher, turned her PhD research on trauma and brain development into a thriving nonprofit. In this episode we discuss how she transitioned from a traditional classroom to founding WEE Farm on less than 6 acres right outside Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is proving that you don't need hundreds of acres to create a powerful, purpose-driven educa...

Christine Deck’s journey into agriculture is deeply rooted in a desire to rewrite her family’s history. After watching generations of farmers forced out by the "get big or get out" era, she and her husband founded Deck Family Farm in Junction City, Oregon, as a diversified, regenerative haven. Today, the farm is a thriving ecosystem of cattle, heritage pigs, dairy, and a full-farm CSA, all serving...

Dr. Charlotte Wolfe didn’t just set out to build a farm; she set out to restore an ecosystem. After decades as an environmental scientist, she took 85 acres of industrial corn and soybean land in Indiana and began the slow, quiet work of bringing back the prairie and the wetlands. What started as a personal restoration project soon grew into Prairie Winds Nature Farm , a place where the land itsel...

When Dr. Camille Lewis looks at a garden, she doesn't just see plants—she sees a classroom, a community lifeline, and a bridge to a more resilient future. Based in Tallahassee, Florida, Camille founded Earth’s Garden LLC to transform urban spaces into vibrant hubs of agriculture and STEM learning, drawing on her deep roots in a multi-generational farming family and her career as a dedicated e...

When Abby Collins started working at The Lands at Hillside Farms at fifteen years old, she was serving ice cream. Today, she’s helping lead a 438-acre community anchor that proves a farm can be so much more than just a place where food is grown. Hillside isn't just a dairy farm; it is a sanctuary. Through intentional design and a "give, give, give" philosophy inherited from their founder, Abby and...

When Jenni Adams helped start The Madison Farm , it was about bringing the farm into the rhythm of everyday school life. Set on a school campus in Tennessee, this nonprofit farm is woven into the student experience—from preschool through high school—where learning happens through real work, real seasons, and real responsibility. But building something like this didn’t come all at once. In this epi...

When Cathryn Anderson  first arrived at Pineland Farms , there wasn’t an education department. Just a handful of field trips… a lot of possibility… and a place that felt like it could become something more. Fifteen years later, that “something more” has grown into a dynamic, ever-evolving education program reaching visitors of all ages—through farm visits, seasonal events, self-guided explora...

When Tyrean “Heru” Lewis looked around his neighborhood, he didn’t see access to fresh food—so he took action. With no formal plan, he began growing in his backyard… then on a vacant lot… and slowly, something much bigger took root. Today, Heru Urban Farming in St. Louis, Missouri is a space where food, education, and community come together—but the path to get there was anything but straightforwa...

Shipshape Farm in Traveler's Rest, South Carolina didn’t start with a business plan—it started with a need. In the middle of a season that felt uncertain, Whitney Poitevint and her family made a big shift: from city life to farmland, from routine to something entirely new. What followed wasn’t a straight path—but step by step, it became a farm education program that now serves families, builds com...

At its core, Piney Woods Farm is about nourishment—in every sense of the word. From building healthy soil to providing fresh food for families, this La Grange, Georgia-based nonprofit is focused on creating impact that extends far beyond the farm itself. And along the way, it’s become a place where people come to learn, connect, and slow down. In this conversation, Jessica Breaux shares how Piney...

Amber Bruckner is the founder of Pine Row Preschool , a small farm-based preschool in Michigan where young children learn through animals, nature, and everyday farm life. At Pine Row, gathering eggs, feeding animals, exploring the creek, and following children’s curiosity are all part of the rhythm of the day. In this conversation, Amber shares how her background in early childhood education led h...

Hidden Villa in Los Altos, California is one of the pioneers of environmental education in the United States. Founded in the 1920s, this 1,600-acre organic farm and wilderness preserve has spent more than a century helping people connect with the land through farming, nature exploration, and community learning. In this episode, Senior Manager of Education Christina Emmett shares how Hidden Villa b...

Andrew Lombardi , Director of Visitor Education and Experience at Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture & the Environment , shares what it really looks like to design visitor education inside a working regenerative farm. Wolfe’s Neck isn’t just a beautiful coastal farm in Maine — it’s a dairy operation, research hub, farmer training center, campground, culinary program, and public education...

Farm Discovery at Live Earth Farm with Jessica Ridgeway What happens when a love of food, community, and sustainability grows into an 18-year farm education nonprofit? In this episode, I sit down with Jessica Ridgeway, Executive Director and founding leader of Farm Discovery at Live Earth Farm in California. From her graduate research in participatory action research to raising children in the fie...

Episode 29 – Stewarding a Farm for Generations: Education, Food, and Community at Snipes Farm What does it look like to steward a place — not just for today’s programs, but for generations to come? In this episode, Christa sits down with Melanie Douty-Snipes , Director of Education and Camp Director at Snipes Farm & Education Center , a multi-generational family farm turned nonprofit education...

Episode 28: Starting Where You Are: Lessons from 7 Months of Farm Educator Interviews This episode of the Farm Educator’s Roadmap is a little different—there’s no interview this week. Instead, host Christa Hein reflects on where she is right now in her own farm education work and what has emerged after seven months of weekly conversations with farm educators across the country. Prompted by thought...

Farm to Table Kids: Betting on Yourself, Following Nature, and Rebuilding Again Stephanie McDonough’s journey is a powerful reminder that farm education isn’t tied to one piece of land — it’s rooted in purpose, persistence, and heart. From childhood days in her grandfather’s flower garden to building thriving farm camps and school partnerships, Steph’s path has been anything but linear. In this ep...

Letting the Land Lead: Growing a Farm Education Business One Step at a Time at Heritage Creek Farm Cindi Hughes is the founder of Heritage Creek Farm & Education Center , and in this episode, she shares the very real, very grounded story of how she built her farm education programs over the past 14 years — without growing up on a farm, without a formal education background, and without chasing...

Bloomsbury Farm School didn’t start as a grand plan — it started as one farmer, one child, one teacher, and a whole lot of listening to what the land and community were asking for. In this episode, I’m joined by founder and farm owner Lauren Palmer and Director Shannon Wilhelm for an honest conversation about how Bloomsbury grew from a small outdoor experiment into a full farm-based homeschool pro...

Project Grows sits on just five acres in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, but the impact reaches far beyond the fence line. What started as nine human service agencies responding to childhood obesity and food insecurity has become a full ecosystem of farm education, youth jobs, cooking classes, and a mobile market that brings fresh food directly into neighborhoods. In this episode, I talk with Educat...

Anne Kuehne started out teaching kindergarten and first grade—then saw, up close, how access to fresh food was out of reach for many kids. What began with collecting extra produce from neighbors and showing up (even once with only 15 snap peas and a tub of hummus!) grew into Sproutin’ Up : a youth-powered, community-rooted nonprofit in Fort Collins, CO. Today, Sproutin’ Up farms a little over an a...

Fernbrook Farms is a living mosaic: education center, CSA, wholesale nursery, and a historic inn—braided together by one family’s multi-generation love of land and learning. In this conversation, Brian Kuser shares how Fernbrook’s “one farm, many doors” model works day-to-day—and why diversity (in programs and people) is their superpower. From Saplings preschool naps outside to market-style C...

Southern Oregon’s Rogue Valley Farm to School is proof that you don’t need your own farm to make a huge impact on kids, cafeterias, and local growers. Instead, they weave together partnerships with schools, teaching farms, and food service staff to bring real food and hands-on learning right where kids already are. In this episode, I’m joined by Education Program Manager Ellie Thompson and Lead Sc...

Fiddlehead Care Farm is a therapeutic farm in Ontario where counseling meets animals, gardens, and woodland trails. Founder and director Stephanie Deaken shares how growing up with a sister with Down syndrome, a “dream job” in a children’s hospital, and a move to a dairy farm all converged into a place where kids and families can breathe easier. In this conversation, we explore why Stephanie is a...