“It was as if the land was telling us what to do,” said Eleanor Houston Smith. In 1940, Eleanor and her husband, Lawrence M.C. Smith, of Philadelphia, purchased what is now Wolfe's Neck Farm, along the coast of Casco Bay in Freeport, Maine. The farm was named after Henry Wolfe, the first settler on the neck. The Smith’s developed their 600-acre saltwater farm operation, along with other acquired land, as proof of their belief in the useful preservation and protection of open spaces.

A photo of the Smiths, looking quite lively.

The long-range planning of the farm began in 1949, when Eleanor Houston Smith became a member of the Cumberland County Soil Conservation District. Eleanor liked to say she had “been in the conservation world since ‘conservation’ was a dirty word.” The Smith’s managed their land resource using sustainable practices, purchasing their first 17 Angus cows in 1959, and created a market for organic and natural beef directly off the farm. Lawrence Smith was a great proponent of satellite farming, assisting other area farms in keeping their land open, viable, and productive.

Today, the barns, pastures, and hay fields once owned by the Smiths, continue to be used to raise Wolfe’s Neck Natural Beef. The property today is managed by the Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation and to learn more about their activities, visit wolfesneckfarm.org.

In 2001, the Wolfe's Neck Natural Beef program was opened to family farms committed to raising cattle to our strict protocols. The commitment to sustainable agriculture pioneered by Eleanor and Lawrence Smith, and continued today by our producers, is behind every product sold under the Wolfe’s Neck Natural Beef label.