Ocean Hour Farm in Newport

Fostering Natural Life Cycles, Regenerative Agriculture, Education and Research

Ocean Drive in Newport seems like an unlikely spot for a farm, let alone one that is advancing climate change prevention practices. But on the Drive and its Newport Neck neighborhood, which host some of the City by the Sea’s swankiest addresses, Ocean Hour Farm is doing just that.

On approximately 42 acres at the former Swiss Village Farm Foundation property, Ocean Hour Farm (OHF) furthers the knowledge that whatever happens on land will impact the sea, from water drainage to plastic waste and herbicide pollution in our waterways. With Narragansett Bay on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other, the farm is a premier spot to witness the symbiosis between land and sea.

OHF bought the property in 2021 under the philanthropic guidance and as an initiative of the Schmidt Family Foundation, which also operates 11th Hour Racing, a Newport organization that works toward sustainable practices on land and sea.

“You can see the Bay there, and the ocean over there,” explains Farm Director Sara Wuerstle, as she stands on a platform at the top of the property and points in opposite directions to the water in the distance. “So, you can see how the land from here [is] basically a giant bowl that catches all this water [that] is moving through the farm. It’s the last point of contact before the water goes into the Bay and then the ocean. The land-to-sea connection is obvious.”

Water filtration is part of the farm’s ambitious strategy toward regenerative agriculture, soil health, watershed science and whole systems design. It’s also vital to rekindle the relationship between animals and plants—one of the biggest downfalls of the broader agricultural system is that the two became separated, she adds. By instituting rotational grazing, where livestock move from pasture to pasture and allow plants to regrow in the lag time, and by composting manure, which allows it to nourish the plants, the farm team fosters the regenerative balance of nature and the soil micro-biome, which includes healthy bacteria and fungi.

“So how do we get that back together? By the integrated cycle. It makes less work for us, we get better environments, cleaner air, better food,” Wuerstle says. “That’s really what regenerative agriculture is, and what we’re trying to get to.”

To do this, farm staff experiment on all levels to learn about the land, what it needs, and what flourishes there, from microscopic nutrients to livestock and trees. They’re testing water and soil samples to learn what nutrients are missing, monitoring the impacts of their research and management choices, as well as selectively expanding their herds of sheep and chickens, and exploring how to use wool to replace some plastics.

By eliminating mowing in certain pastures, they created habitat buffer zones that slow and filter stormwater, foster biodiversity of plants and animals, and encourage wildflower growth and the return of pollinator insects like native bees and bats. This is part of nutrient cycling, too, Wuerstle says—as wildlife come through, they bring different nutrients to the farm, including the key nutrient phosphorous in their poop, which is vital to plant development.

That biodiversity applies to the soil food web, too—the interconnected community of living organisms in the soil and how it interacts with our environment, plants and animals—and is essential to everything flowing naturally on the farm, says Education Program Manager Beth Alaimo. Even critters that are oftentimes seen as pests actually are a food source for larger animals. Using their research and education lenses, the team built a microscopy lab in the barn to understand and evaluate the farm’s soil food web as a metric for measuring impact of their regenerative agriculture trials and land stewardship practices. It also will empower farmers to learn how to identify microbes, understand their function in the ecosystem and use this knowledge as a management tool for their farms, they say.

This is part of OHF’s mission to “redesign the food and fiber system at OHF, and make scaled solutions so small- and medium-scale farming organizations could actually be successful and really thrive,” Alaimo says. Farmers used to be the hub of the community, she adds—their farms were the place to gather, to share, to learn, and “we want our farmers at OHF to become that again. They’re not just providing food, there are all these compounding benefits to having a farm near you—they’re building healthy soil, they’re cleaning our waterways, when they’re doing it regeneratively.”

Long-term engagement is critical to a sustainable future, Alaimo and Wuerstle say, so they also welcome juniors and seniors from Rogers High School, which is just down the street from the farm with its historic thatch-roof buildings built to resemble a traditional Swiss village. Students visit every month to learn about sustainable farming and its career potential. The farm team also hosts an apprentice with the Rhode Island Nursery and Landscape Association to further their agricultural education. This summer OHF will be adding a chef residency to its programming.

“What we’re really trying to do is build young people’s eco-literacy, so that they can walk out into a landscape and notice things that maybe other people wouldn’t notice and make observations and say, ‘This is where the water would flow,’ or just understanding how the ecosystems work,” Alaimo says.

As OHF takes shape in the Aquidneck Island landscape, it nurtures its own approach to ecological research and progressive, sustainable practices in education, scientific research and regenerative agriculture.

“We came with the whole systems design approach to this process, from the beginning. So, how do you work with nature instead of against it? You see what’s there first, and how you can integrate and enhance over time,” Wuerstle says. “And then, we wanted to make sure that we can help share those techniques and strategies, so other people can start thinking in that way, in their own context and their own community.”

Annie Sherman is a freelance journalist in Newport, writing about everything from food and business to interior design and the environment in the Ocean State.

For more information, visit OceanHourFarm.org.