Farm Educator's Roadmap®

When Wendy Prentiss noticed her students were feeling overwhelmed by climate anxiety and their future, she realized what was taught in schools did not provide practical solutions. So, she decided to act. Leaving behind a career as a classroom teacher, Wendy joined Holly Hill Farm. A 120-acre organic nonprofit farm nestled in a coastal suburb of Massachusetts that has been connecting people to food, conservation, and sustainability for over two decades. Today, as Education Director, Wendy helps oversee programming that reaches over 20,000 students each year and partners with more than 40 local schools building and managing garden education on school grounds. In this episode, Christa talks with Wendy about how Holly Hill Farm balances working farm production, community outreach, and scaling farm education. From coordinating school garden schedules and designing high school AP Environmental Science field trips to launching an 8th-grade civics hub and feeding local families through their Farm to Food Pantry initiative, Wendy offers practical wisdom for educators looking to build sustainable, high-impact programs. You’ll hear: 🐓 Transitioning to farm education: How Wendy moved from traditional school education into farm-based learning to combat climate doom with hands-on hope. 🥕 Managing school garden partnerships: The practical realities and scheduling logistics of supporting school garden beds across 40 partner schools. 📜 Operating a multi-faceted farm: How Holly Hill balances historic 1780s barns, organic farming, conservation trails, and community events under a "one farm" mindset. 🚜 Engaging older students: Creative ways to connect with middle and high schoolers through AP Environmental Science exam prep, 8th-grade civics pathways, and high school culinary arts visits. 🥦 Giving back through Farm to Food Pantry: How local teenagers grow fresh produce for food-insecure families in their own community. 🏷️ Sustaining non-profit programs: How a three-tiered revenue model, tiered workshop pricing, and required memberships for summer programs help sustain the farm's educational mission. 💡 Starting small: Advice for aspiring farm educators on overcoming overwhelm by taking it "bird by bird" and trusting staff, volunteers, and students with real responsibility. Learn more about Holly Hill Farm: 🌐 Website: https://hollyhillfarm.org/  📸 Instagram: Holly Hill Farm Cohasset 👍 Facebook: Holly Hill Farm Cohasset Farm Educator’s Roadmap:   🌐Website: www.farmeducatorsroadmap.com                                                         📘 Take the Free Quiz: Discover Your Farm Education Path 📸 Instagram: @farmeducatorsroadmap                                                                                     👍 Facebook: @farmeducatorsroadmap                                                                                       👩‍🌾 Join the Private Facebook Group: Join us!

What happens when you stop asking "How do we fit kids into a system?" and start asking "What does a child actually need to truly thrive?" 🌱✨ In this heart-opening episode, I am joined by sisters Gillian Berard (a public school teacher of over 10 years) and Jenna Baggott (a former NICU nurse and health advocate). Both women spent years inside large systems, noticing how rigid checklists and "Band-Aid solutions" were slowly disconnecting children from their natural curiosity, creativity, health and vitality. When sudden, heartbreaking grief touched their family with the unexpected loss of their brother, it completely shifted their perspective. Remembering his final words—"Love you to infinity"—they decided life was too short to leave their dreams on the back burner. Together, they leaped all-in to establish Infinity Academy in Ridgeway, Ontario: a 17-acre biodynamic farm school where academics, project-based learning, French immersion, nature, and emotional well-being flow seamlessly together. Tune in to hear their beautiful journey, from a serendipitous discovery of their future land to creating custom assessment tools for teachers that prove education can look completely different! You’ll Learn: 🏫 The Spark of Change: Gillian shares what she saw after a decade in public education and why traditional assessment models hinder true hands-on learning. 🩺 From Healthcare to Soil: Jenna reflects on her NICU nursing background and how her quest for root-cause health led her directly back to nature and soil biodiversity. 🕊️ "Love You to Infinity": The powerful, emotional story of turning profound grief into courage and action after losing their beloved brother. 🛠️ The 30-Day Crunch: What it really took behind the scenes to open their 17-acre farm school doors in just one month. 🔓 Golden Handcuffs & Bold Leaps: How they navigated private micro-school setup in Ontario, self-funded their vision, and broke free from comfortable traditional careers. ⛸️ A Day at Infinity Academy: Balancing explicit math and literacy blocks with real-world projects (like calculating flow rate and geometry to build a winter skating rink!). 🐓 Living as a Biodynamic Ecosystem: Moving beyond simple organic labels to view the farm terrain, animals, and children as an interconnected, self-healing system and what it means for overall health. 📱 Assessing Soft Skills with MyBinder: Defining micro-skills like resilience and open-mindedness, and building an app to help educators track important soft skills without burnout. 🌟 Viral Growth & Keeping the Dream Alive: How losing their original social media account led to a raw, heartfelt video that gained 2+ million views and touched families worldwide. Learn more about Infinity Academy: 🌐 Website: infinityacademyed.com 📸 Instagram: Infinity Academy Farm Educator’s Roadmap:   🌐Website: www.farmeducatorsroadmap.com                                                         📘 Take the Free Quiz: Discover Your Farm Education Path 📸 Instagram: @farmeducatorsroadmap                                                                                     👍 Facebook: @farmeducatorsroadmap                                                                                       👩‍🌾 Join the Private Facebook Group: Join us!

One year. 46 episodes. Incredible guests that I am so grateful to have shared their stories on this podcast. In honor of our first year of the podcast, I'm talking about a question that's followed me through 30 years in farm education: how do you decide which good idea is actually worth building? Not which program or business idea sounds the most exciting in the moment, but which one you'd actually want to live, week after week, year after year. Because we're not just building farm education businesses, we're building our lives. I think a lot of educators can get stuck, not because we don't have enough ideas for programs, but because we haven't stopped to ask what we actually want our business to look like.  It's not about putting you in a box, it's about giving you a clue -a place to start recognizing what fits you, so you can build the farm education business and life you want. Tune in and you'll hear: 🌱 How having too many good ideas for your farm education program might actually be the thing that's keeping you stuck. 📅 The one question I ask myself about an "ordinary Tuesday" that's guided almost every big decision in my farm education business. 🏡 The reason I built Bring the Farm to You the way I did, and what it taught me about knowing yourself before you build a farm education program. 🧭 Why "not yet" isn't the same thing as "never," and how that one shift changed the way I plan for the future of my farm education business. 🔍 The question I ask myself whenever another farm educator's idea catches my attention, one that turns "Ooh, I want to do that" into an actual clue about what I really want for my own program. 🧩 Why I built a quiz to help farm educators find their own answer to all of this and what I hope you do with your results. 🔗 Take the new “Discover Your Farm Education Path” quiz here: https://tinyurl.com/yjxwe6x6   Learn More About the Farm Educator’s Roadmap:   🌐Website: www.farmeducatorsroadmap.com                                                                📸 Instagram: @farmeducatorsroadmap                                                                                     👍 Facebook: @farmeducatorsroadmap                                                                                       👩‍🌾 Join the Private Facebook Group: Join us!

When Sarah Siburt stepped away from a 23-year career in public education to become the Executive Director of Timberview Farmstead, she didn't just take on a new job, she stepped onto a 150-acre canvas of pure possibility. Built on the site of a former golf course in South Fort Worth, Texas, this rapidly growing nonprofit teaching farm has undergone a massive transformation to connect a bustling urban community back to the land. Despite opening its doors to the public in 2024, Timberview has scaled its impact at an incredible pace. Today, the campus features livestock barns, a sophisticated aquaponic greenhouse system, robust summer camps, and a long-term middle-to-high-school mentorship program that stays with students until they graduate. In this episode, Sarah takes us behind the scenes of launching a massive farm education project from scratch. She shares how she designed "Educator Preview Days" to solve marketing challenges, how she aligns activities with strict state educational standards, and why a culture of "unreasonable hospitality" is the secret to building a community where everyone feels they truly belong. You’ll Learn: How 150 acres of recreational country club land was strategically re-engineered into a thriving, fully operational educational farm campus, navigating complex pasture, water, and forage setups. Why transitioning from a middle school choir and elementary music teacher to a farm education director felt completely natural. The genius, low-cost marketing strategy Sarah used to quickly fill their field trip schedule and creating an immediate waiting list. Inside Timberview's unique after-school initiative that follows sixth graders all the way through high school graduation. How Timberview uses a closed-circuit aquaculture and hydroponics system as a living laboratory to grow 4,000 heads of lettuce a month, while converting picky eaters on the spot during greenhouse taste tests. What it means to practice "unreasonable hospitality" on a family farm and how to design accessible spaces where neurodivergent, gifted, and special education students can all truly thrive. The practical advice on how to start fundraising for a farm education non-profit from the ground up. Learn more about Timberview Farmstead: 🌐 Website: timberviewfarmstead.com 👍 Facebook: Timberview Farmstead 📸 Instagram: Timberview Farmstead Farm Educator’s Roadmap:   🌐Website: www.farmeducatorsroadmap.com                                                         📘 Free Guide: 5 Simple Steps to Growing an In-Demand Farm Education Program                 📸 Instagram: @farmeducatorsroadmap                                                                                     👍 Facebook: @farmeducatorsroadmap                                                                                       👩‍🌾 Join the Private Facebook Group: Join us!

When Tana DeSandres looks out at a farm, she doesn't just see agricultural land, she sees an evolving classroom driven by curiosity, empathy, and natural cycles. After spending over three years coordinating the historic education gardens at California's renowned Hidden Villa, a cross-country move brought her to the historic fields of Lincoln, Massachusetts. Today, as the Education Manager for Codman Community Farms, Tana is helping lead a nonprofit community anchor that proves a working regenerative farm can seamlessly weave multiple agricultural enterprises directly into a powerful educational curriculum. Operating its main property while actively managing 150 acres of town-owned land, Codman Community Farms has been a staple of its local community since 1973. In this episode, Tana shares her journey from the foothills of Yosemite to managing farm education on both coasts. We dive into the day-to-day realities of rotational pasture systems, how to translate complex soil health concepts into tangible lessons for young children, and the incredible community connection the farm fosters. You’ll Hear:  🌲How a childhood love for the outdoors and a pivotal college volunteering experience shifted Tana's career path from traditional classrooms to outdoor and farm-based education. 🛠️Key frameworks Tana carried over from her time at Hidden Villa to build deep empathy, up-close plant and animal interactions, and student empowerment. 🐄A look at how Codman uses rotational grazing teach children about the beautiful, regenerative cycle where humans care for animals, and animals care for the soil. 🛒How a 24/7 self-serve farm store operating entirely on the honor system builds deep community trust, fosters local partnerships, and gives their community a true sense of personal ownership over the farm. 📚A behind-the-scenes look at structuring diverse programs, from Little Farmer's Helper afterschool groups and summer Barn Buddies, to adult sustainable landscaping workshops and community farm-to-table dinners. ✨Why Tana stepped away from highly rigid, structured lesson plans to embrace fluidity and capture spontaneous "magical teaching moments" provided by the farm's daily ecosystem. Learn more about Codman Community Farms: 🌐 Website: codmanfarm.org 📸 Instagram: Codman Community Farms Farm Educator’s Roadmap:   🌐Website: www.farmeducatorsroadmap.com                                                         📘 Free Guide: 5 Simple Steps to Growing an In-Demand Farm Education Program                 📸 Instagram: @farmeducatorsroadmap                                                                                     👍 Facebook: @farmeducatorsroadmap                                                                                       👩‍🌾 Join the Private Facebook Group: Join us!