A place for connecting with food, those who grow it

Lori Kaye Lodes

Contributor

February 5, 2024

PLOVER – One year, seven months and four days after breaking ground, the Food + Farm Exploration Center (3400 Exploration Way) in Plover opened its doors – an education center aimed at reconnecting people with their food and those who grow it.

The center – which is located on land donated by the Worzella family, multi-generational potato and vegetable growers – was established by the Farming for the Future Foundation to:

• Promote agricultural literacy
• Increase the understanding of the origins of our food
• Deepen the relationship between farmers and consumers

Andy Reitz, executive director of Food + Farm Exploration Center and the foundation, said the site provides the farmland needed to tell the story of production agriculture.

“There’s a huge gap in understanding what farmers do and what goes into growing a crop in the field to processing to the table,” Reitz said. “Magic happens, but most people don’t know what that is.”

Reitz said he saw firsthand the lack of agricultural knowledge some Wisconsinites have during his 30-year career in the cranberry world and is excited to be part of educating people on where their food comes from. 

“As the idea (of a center) grew, and more of the growers and farmers got behind it, the Worzellas contributed prime farmland to it,” he said. “It’s a great parcel of land, and the land around us is actively farmed as well.”

The center focuses on agriculture education and literacy with a focus on items for which Central Wisconsin is known – including carrots, sweet peas, green beans, sweet corn, cucumbers and potatoes.

“We’re not dairy or livestock, as there’s a facility in Manitowoc focused on that,” he said. “And we’re not highlighting seed corn or field corn or soybeans. Instead, the center is focusing on what Central Wisconsin grows. We may go into cranberries, ginseng, mint and maybe apples and cherries as well.”

What’s inside?

The center has four, one-acre demonstration fields with center-pivot irrigators – one featuring a cover crop and the other three cut into two to create six half fields to grow potatoes, sweet corn, green beans, etc.

The 50,000-square-foot center also features 60 interactive, hands-on exhibits.

“(There is) an area dedicated to children, but it’s not a children’s museum – the learning is for all ages,” Reitz said. “(The center is) a combination of a teaching farm, science and exploration center, kitchen lab and community workshop in one.”

The Seedlings Children’s Gallery teaches through play for the center’s littlest guests, whereas the Ag STEM Gallery explores the intersection of farming and food, the people who make it happen and the processes that take it from field to fork.

The science and tech gallery highlights a full spectrum of food growing and distribution – from agriculture and water management to soil health, food processing, transportation and storage.

The center’s team, Reitz said, has been able to capitalize on the use of its Kitchen Lab with local collaborations.

Mid-State Technical College’s culinary program partnered with the center to host several culinary classes, capitalizing on their curriculum and staff to drive traffic into the building.

“The lab is designed to make that next leap of connection from ‘here’s what farmers do every day and what goes into getting a crop from the field to store’ to ‘now what do I do with it?’” Reitz said. “We will initiate and host other classes, demonstrations, mixology classes and more as we go and may host celebrity chefs as well.”

Reitz said Mid-State hosted a Slow Cooker Creations class and a Whole Food Reboot class in January, educating attendees about how to plan for busy weekday nights and how to incorporate whole foods into easy and flexible dishes, respectively.

And those are only the beginning, Reitz said.

“Our goal is to fill in the remaining days outside the Mid-State classes with educational activities for schools, our culinary programs and events and hosted corporate dinners, showers, etc,” he said.

Many of the items grown on-site, Reitz said, will be incorporated into the center’s Colorful Plate Cafe’s menu, with an evolving menu focused on local ingredients, as well as serving as a coffee shop.

“We’ve got a great bakery and cafe manager who is an accomplished chef and kitchen leader, and she’s got talent,” he said. 

Reitz said the center is also exploring a partnership with a local small-scale food processor to take excess produce and put it into a form that pantries, soup centers, etc. can use.

“You’d be surprised at how hard it is to give away food as you can’t just donate a bag of dirty potatoes because of food safety,” he said. “So, we are investigating how to get that into a consumer-ready package so we can be good community stewards.”

Education, Retiz said, extends to not only the various displays, exhibits and interactive opportunities within the center but also to the agricultural curriculum that is shared with area school districts as well.

Designed, approved and accredited lessons and STEM kits are available for schools to use in classrooms, including “lessons in a box” they can unpack, use, repack and return.

“Those range from chemistry and engineering to other topics that revolve around what happens on farms,” he said. “This complements the educational programming in the center’s Kitchen Lab and maker space where guests can do activities.”

Youth are also drawn on-site by the youth programming offered.

Reitz said the winter youth program focused on soil, potatoes and pollinators in December was a hit, and toddler programming has repeatedly sold out.

In addition, many school districts have taken advantage of taking field trips to the center – with many coming back with the rest of their families, Reitz said.

“Social media has always been great, and our metrics are shooting through the roof, especially on Instagram,” he said. “And we aren’t even shouting from the rooftops about the center yet. We plan to introduce a marketing campaign for the year with the theme, ‘Explore.’”

Reitz said he loves nothing more than making the rounds in the building and hearing the “oohs, ahhs and wows” from guests as they make their way through the facility. 

“Most say this place is huge, it’s amazing and they had no idea what it all features,” he said. “It can be a bit of sensory overload, but people continually tell us they really like what we’re doing here because the mission is critical – and they’ll be back.”

Reitz said that’s great news for the center, which aims to not only be a local destination but a tourist destination as well. 

“We hope the center will be the catalyst for more people to make Plover a destination when traveling versus just a pass-through,” he said. “I also believe that where it’s located, on the south end of Plover, is positioned to be the next area of development for the area. That includes being that ‘something else’ for families to do when they’re here for a sports tournament, for example.”

U-Pick Days

Though the center didn’t formally open until last December, Reitz said the Food + Farm Exploration Center was able to host its first community U-Pick Days and harvested its first year of crops in its fields.

He said the center’s team was able to demonstrate how tubers (the potato) form on a potato plant, for example, and host several guests to pick their own vegetables.

“We did a U-Pick day open to the community to get people interested and engaged and to give away the beans, peas, potatoes, etc. we had grown,” Reitz said. “You would not believe the smiles and gratitude from the people who came. Seeing a toddler digging into a potato hill and finding something was a Hallmark moment.”

Reitz and the team anticipate much more interest in that this year, as two events welcomed close to 100 cars of guests.

For more information on the Food + Farm Exploration Center, visit explorefoodandfarm.org.