Category: Featured

04 Oct 2024
Featured, News Cassidy Harvey 0 comment

Education Center & Farm Market: Greenacres Expands at Nippert Barn

Education Center & Farm Market: Greenacres Expands at Nippert Barn

If you’ve driven by our Indian Hill locations on Spooky Hollow Road this year, you’ve probably noticed the construction on our north campus. We are excited to announce that the Nippert Barn is being renovated to serve as our second dedicated agricultural education center and the new home of our Farm Market. Once completed, it will offer guests of all ages unique opportunities to experience Greenacres in new and engaging ways.

Children attending field trips will learn about generative agriculture and farm-to-market concepts, deepening their connection with the environment and gaining a clearer understanding of where their food comes from. Visitors of all ages can enjoy rotating educational content built as part of the Farm Market experience or participate in scheduled programming. The market will continue to offer fresh meat and produce and is scheduled to open in mid to late November.

With the growing popularity of our agriculture-focused field trips, we’ve outgrown the capacity of our Kennel House facility, which is currently our only dedicated agriculture education space. This renovation comes at the perfect time. Surveys show that 40% of 4th and 5th graders don’t know hamburgers come from cows, and 16 million Americans mistakenly believe chocolate milk comes from brown cows. The new education center will help bridge this knowledge gap through hands-on learning experiences focused on sustainable farming practices, the journey of food from farm to market to table, the lifecycles of animals, and much more!

“This new facility will provide community learners with a concrete connection between our pastures and the products we grow. Our aim is to offer hands-on experiences that close the knowledge gap on agricultural topics while bringing state standards in subjects like Social Studies and Science to life. We also see this as a chance to teach how we farm for biodiversity using Holistic Management practices, ensuring that actions taken to restore land and livelihoods are ecologically, socially, and economically sound.” – Scott Wingate, Chief Program Officer, Greenacres Foundation

In addition to its educational mission, the new space will enhance the visitor experience at our Farm Market through rotating quarterly exhibits that showcase the variety of programs Greenacres offers—from research and agricultural operations to environmental preservation and our commitment to keeping Cincinnati a thriving hub for the arts.

The renovated space will also serve as a versatile venue for mid-sized, mission-related events. Demand is growing for livestock workshops, farm-to-table dinners focused on nutrition, and opportunities to learn from our gardening staff. The building provides the perfect setting for these activities, offering direct access to our pastures, gardens, and woodlands.

Our commitment to sustainability has made this renovation particularly exciting. We’ve taken great care to blend the building’s historical integrity with modern sustainability features. It is now equipped with geothermal heating and cooling, exceeds modern insulation standards, and incorporates strategies to maximize natural light while minimizing heat gain. We also prioritized recycling materials wherever possible. One highlight is the reuse of the original wood in the classroom space, preserving the beautiful old-growth wood paneling. The renovation also includes a rainwater capture system feeding into an underground cistern and a new wetland design to help purify runoff.

We greatly appreciate your continued support and look forward to many more years of community engagement and education at our new facility!

16 Sep 2024
Featured, News Cassidy Harvey 0 comment

Around Greenacres – Summer 2024

Around Greenacres - Summer 2024

A Toast to Summer

In June, Greenacres hosted a special Farm-to-Table event in collaboration with Oakley Wines. The evening began with a unique cocktail experience, where guests used Greenacres-grown garnishes to craft their own drinks, while learning about our gardening practices from the Greenacres Garden Team.

The highlight was a 4-course dinner featuring fresh meats and produce from Greenacres, paired with select wines from Oakley Wines. Chef David Saffles, known for his creative culinary skills, crafted a menu that highlighted local flavors. Katie Reeder, Wine Director at Oakley Wines, and Stephanie Webster, Founder of The Rhined & Oakley Wines, provided their expertise and shared their passion for fine food and wine.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who attended and contributed to making this event a success. Your presence and support made for a memorable evening of fine dining and community.

Preparing for the Nippert Barn Opening

The Buildings and Grounds Team has been busy all summer preparing for the exciting opening of the Nippert Barn. Their efforts are focusing on creating custom features that will enhance this incredible new space at Greenacres.

The team is building custom checkout counters and tables for the new Farm Store, as well as designing engaging displays for the Experience Center and classroom space. These displays will include a native grass root showcase and a bee hive exhibit, offering unique educational opportunities for visitors.

Outside, they’re collaborating with the Garden Department to design new fences and gates along the driveway, and they are working on a custom fence for the Nippert Garden. Additionally, they’re creating a new entrance sign that will warmly welcome guests to the barn.

The Buildings and Grounds Team’s dedication to these projects is helping bring the vision for the Nippert Barn to life, and we can’t wait to share this exciting new space with you soon!

Raising Turkeys the Right Way

As we gear up for Thanksgiving and Turkey Week at Greenacres, the Livestock Team has been working hard all summer raising our flock of Broad Breasted Bronze turkeys. These birds arrive as day-old chicks and are carefully nurtured over a 16-week period until they’re ready for your holiday table.

For the first five weeks, the turkeys stay indoors where we use heat lamps to regulate their temperature—keeping them safe and cozy while they grow. After that, they move outdoors to enjoy fresh pasture every day in a carefully managed rotation. Each year, we raise the turkeys on different fields to avoid potential health issues, ensuring they grow in the best possible conditions. Curious about our process? Learn more about how we raise our turkeys here.

Now, we’re excited to announce that you can reserve your 2024 Thanksgiving turkey or ham! To secure your spot, order now before they’re gone.

Horses Unleash Their Inner Picassos

The Equine Department was full of energy this summer, hosting a variety of engaging camps and programs. From our popular rider-themed camps, like Horsin’ Around, to collaboration camps with other Greenacres education departments, the stables were constantly abuzz with activity. In addition, we held several Exploring With Grace programs, where around 140 children had the chance to learn about and interact with our amazing horses. These programs ranged from single-day events to 3-part series, catering to children aged 5-18.

A standout highlight of the summer was our horse painting activity! Children teamed up with a horse to create vibrant abstract masterpieces. Using grain placed on plastic-wrapped canvases, the horses swirled paint across the surface with their muzzles as they nibbled, creating one-of-a-kind designs. It was a fun and memorable experience for everyone involved—including the horses, who showed their excitement by nickering and whinnying as soon as they saw the canvases!

In addition to these exciting activities, the Equine Department welcomed three new staff members, who will be helping launch brand-new equine education field trips. We look forward to seeing how these new programs will continue to enhance our educational offerings in the future!

Companion Planting

If you haven’t joined one of our farm tours or Ley Field Garden Picnics yet, you might be surprised to learn that we grow flowers in our vegetable gardens. While the bright blooms certainly add beauty to the rows of crops, their true value goes much deeper.

Flowers play a crucial role in companion planting by attracting beneficial pollinators and deterring pests. A stroll through our garden will reveal calendula, zinnias, sunflowers, alyssum, safflower, and chamomile—all strategically planted to support our vegetables.

For instance, calendula attracts beneficial insects like ladybugs and lacewings, which help keep pests in check. Marigolds, on the other hand, are known for repelling or trapping insects that can damage crops. Bees and other pollinators are also drawn to the flowers, helping to spread pollen across vegetable blooms, which boosts productivity.

By welcoming a variety of beneficial insects, flowers help keep our plants healthier, and in return, the vegetables they produce are more nutritious. Next time you’re tending to your own garden, consider adding flowers to your plot for a vibrant, more productive space!

Exciting Progress at Spooky Hollow Farm Wetland

The restoration work at Spooky Hollow Farm Wetland continues to thrive, marking another successful season of environmental stewardship. Originally a small farm pond with a failed berm, the wetland has been transformed into a vibrant hub for environmental education since its construction in 2019. 

This summer, the focus was on managing invasive species and planting native flora. After efforts to control invasive shrubs and brambles in the surrounding woodlands in the winter of 2023 and spring of 2024, the team planted over 20 native shrubs and understory trees. Buttonbush shrubs, for example, now provide essential shade and cover for wildlife, while redbud trees will soon enrich the woodland’s understory.

The wetland banks were also enhanced with native forbs and grasses, contributing to the site’s ecological health. These ongoing efforts will not only support local wildlife but will also create even more engaging educational opportunities at Spooky Hollow Farm for years to come.

Cultivating Future Educators

This summer, we successfully launched the pilot year of our Educational Internship Program, an exciting initiative aimed at nurturing the next generation of educators. Five Environment Education Interns joined us across our Indian Hill and Milford sites, working alongside full-time educators. Over the course of the summer, they observed and learned from our staff, preparing to lead their own student groups this fall.

At Greenacres, we have always believed in using nature as our classroom—whether it’s a stream, forest, pond, or field—and the Internship Program was another step toward growing educators who can continue this mission. The interns participated in specialized trainings every Tuesday, led by Greenacres staff, where they gained valuable insights into teaching strategies, natural history, and other departments at Greenacres. They also took part in field trips to local organizations, expanding their professional knowledge and network.

As part of our future plans, we are excited to expand the program in 2025 to include internships in our Arts and Agriculture Education Departments. Applications for the 2025 cohort will open in March of next year.

We were thrilled to have these passionate individuals join the Greenacres team and look forward to seeing how they apply their skills in the future!

Sustainable Farm Management Workshop Highlights

This August, we hosted a workshop with Holistic Management International (HMI) focused on sustainable farm management practices. It was a pleasure partnering with HMI to host this workshop. Workshops like this play a vital role in empowering farmers and land managers to create thriving, resilient ecosystems that balance the needs of people, land, and fiscal health. To learn more about the workshop and HMI, visit: Finding Balance in Farm Management

15 Aug 2024
Featured, News Peter Wheeler 0 comment

Weathering the drought

Weathering the drought

Harvesting Water, Nurturing Life

At Greenacres, we’re committed to practices that not only benefit our land, animals, and community but also help us weather challenging conditions, like the current short-term drought we’re experiencing in Indian Hill. Our robust water management system is a key part of this effort, and we’re constantly working to improve it.

Our Indian Hill campus features underground cisterns with a total capacity of 19,000 gallons, alongside four ponds covering a quarter of an acre each. These cisterns connect to an extensive network of underground pipelines, delivering essential non-potable water to our livestock and supporting the irrigation needs of our greenhouse and Ley field garden. This system of pipes and cisterns is not connected to the Indian Hill potable water system.

This system allows us to meet most of our agricultural water needs independently, reducing our reliance on external sources and creating resilience during periods of low rainfall. Using these resources efficiently allows us to maintain the health of our livestock and crops, even when nature falls short. It’s just one of the many ways we stay true to our mission of sustainable, responsible land stewardship.

How do our underground cisterns work?

Our underground cisterns collect rainwater from the larger rooflines on our property, such as those on the riding arena and Nippert Barn. These roofs, made from corrugated sheet metal instead of traditional asphalt, direct rainwater through downspouts into the cisterns. The choice of metal roofing is intentional—it prevents contamination that asphalt runoff could cause, ensuring the water remains useable. Once stored in the cisterns, the water is distributed through underground feeder lines using water pressure, supplying spigots for our animals and irrigation lines for our greenhouse and gardens.

13 Jun 2024
Featured, News Leonore Salvado 0 comment

Around Greenacres – Spring 2024

Around Greenacres - Spring 2024

Closing out the School Year

We had a fantastic spring educational season, providing programs for over 15,000 community learners since January at all of our locations. We offered lessons that ranged from Arts in the Natural World to Weather & Climate through our Arts, Agriculture, and Environment programming. Each of these programs is aligned with state standards. With the help of classroom teachers, the lessons are customized to provide authentic, real-world learning opportunities for students that bring their learning standards to life. This season we were able to provide programming for students across a multitude of learning disciplines, including the Arts, Generative Agriculture, and Environment!

Looking ahead, we are excited to announce that coming this Fall, we will offer programs in our Equine Education department! As we develop and pilot this new programming, we will focus on bringing Math standards to life for 8th graders! If you know any math teachers who would be interested in having their students learn geometry, Pythagorean’s theorem through equestrian demonstrations, care, and management. Please contact Greenacres Education Operations at education@green-acres.org or 513-898-3262.

Spring Equine Programming

Springtime in the Equine department is a busy but exciting time for staff, students, and horses! Our 50 lesson students, including our Pony Club members, returned from the winter eager to develop their skills. Along with the spring flowers blossoming, our students blossomed in their respective levels and riding abilities. Our students showed focus and dedication in their riding and have progressed beautifully in their skills throughout the spring. Members of our Pony Club team competed at the Spring Bay horse trial and had a very successful first outing for the season!

Along with teaching our riding lesson students, we held nine Exploring With Grace groups broken down into a three-part series. Each group came for three consecutive weeks where they learned about horse care and handling with the final week involving a bareback ride through an obstacle course. As excited for spring as students and staff are, the horses were even more thrilled to have the emergence of green across the fields as this meant the return to pasture grazing. The horses spend the winter in our all-weather dry lot and as spring grass returns, they begin the acclimation back on pastures. Once acclimated to grass, the utilization of rotational grazing begins. Rotating our horses within the pastures using electric temporary fencing to create smaller sections ensures an even graze and ample time to rest and regrow.  

Monitoring Stream Health

This spring the Research Team started its first round of stream monitoring. Monitoring streams on the property is another way to check Greenacres’ ecological impact on the land and surrounding ecosystems. The data collected are stream macro-invertebrates and a few chemical and physical parameters. Macro-invertebrates were sampled using a method called kick netting. They then were collected, sorted, and identified down to order. After identifying what is present in the streams, a score can be generated based on what orders were found. Both North Branch Sycamore Creek and Raiders Run scored “excellent”. This indicates that both streams are healthy and have little pollution problems. The Research Team will continue to monitor the streams in Indian Hill and will soon be replicating this on Greenacres’ satellite properties.

“Sampling macro-invertebrates is a great way to assess stream health because they are indicator species for water pollution levels.”

Chad Gibson, Senior Research Assistant

Spring and Summer Preparations

The Buildings and Grounds crew spent their spring preparing for the event season, as well as summer camps. They prepped the hiking trails around the property to ensure they are safe and enjoyable for summer camp activities. They also continuously maintained the Ley Field to keep it pristine and inviting for programs and events. This included transforming old split rail fence materials into mulch for use in the gardens. Preparations at the Arts Center included opening the fountains and moat. In addition to these large projects, the estate crew inspected and repaired the fence lines in our pastures to make sure the grazing season was ready to go into full swing all around the property! We are grateful for the team’s dedication to keeping Greenacres beautiful and safe for students, campers, guests, and staff.

Perennials at Michaela Farm

Each year at Greenacres Michaela Farm, there is an anticipation for the return of seasonal perennial crops which are plant species that are cultivated and live longer than two years without the need to be replanted each year. Perennial crops include fruit, nuts, herbs, and vegetables. Michaela Farm grows asparagus, rhubarb, strawberries, pawpaws, pears, lavender, oregano, spearmint, chives, sage, thyme, lemon balm, and rosemary.

Perennial crops offer several benefits to soil health. Their deep roots enhance soil structure and porosity as the slow decomposition of roots and leaves adds organic matter to the soil. They improve the soil’s water-holding capacity and provide continuous cover, which protects against erosion. And since they don’t need to be replanted every year, they minimize soil disturbance and support thriving soil organisms.

Once established, these crops typically require less maintenance, making them both time-saving and cost-effective for gardeners. As the plants mature, harvests usually increase each year. Most perennial crops, however, have a short harvest window, requiring timely picking to maximize yield.

Ley Field Hedgerow

The heavy rains we received this Spring did not stop the Indian Hill garden team from accomplishing their goal of planting nearly 300 plants in an enormous hedgerow. With the help of various departments, the fencing that originally separated the Ley Field into two sections was removed and replaced with this incredible hedgerow, filled with native plants. The team meticulously selected species to attract pollinators, birds, and many other critters to the area. Not only is this native planting creating habitat and food for these insects and animals, but it’s also adding a beautiful educational space to the field! This new hedgerow has also created an exciting project for our research team, meticulously monitoring the pollinator activity in the area.

Garden Team planting hedgerow in Ley Field

Included in the new hedgerow are:

  • Serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea)
  • Red Chokecherry (Aronia arbutifolia)
  • Witch Alder (Fothergilla gardenii)
  • Red Twig Dogwood (Cornus sericea)
  • Fragrant Sumac (Rhus aromatica)
  • Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
  • Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
  • Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
  • Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia)
  • Culver’s Root (Veronicastrum virginicum)
  • Blue Hyssop (Agastache x foeniculum)
  • Prairie Dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis)
  • Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohioensis)
  • Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)
  • Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum)
  • Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii)
  • Little Bluestem (Schizachryium scoparium)
  • Yellow Tickseed (Coreopsis lanceolata)
  • Yellow Twig Dogwood (Cornus sericea)
  • Spicebush (Lindera benzoin)
  • False Indigo (Baptisia australis)
  • Button Bush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)
  • Winterberry Holly (Ilex verticillate)
  • Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis)
  • Purple Bee Balm (Monarda fistulosa)

Nature's Classroom: Ley Field Garden Picnic

In late May, our Garden, Livestock, Research, and Events teams collaborated to create an enchanting evening at our Nature’s Classroom: Spring Ley Field Garden Picnic. This memorable evening brought families together with hands-on activities in the Greenacres Ley Field. Guests of all ages learned about pre-industrial ley farming, a sustainable agricultural practice that combines diverse plant species and animals to nurture soil health and foster ecological balance.

The garden team created you-pick stations throughout the ley field, where guests harvested fennel, peas, radishes, turnips, and their own flower bouquets! The research team set up a pollinator observation station and engaged participants with discussions about the vital role of pollinators in our ecosystem. The livestock team answered guests’ questions regarding animal production, with sheep and lamb nearby for observation. It was a wonderful way to kick off the outdoor season and we look forward to more events this summer and fall.

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