With Ambler Farm and Cider Mill, Kevin Meehan is Living his Dream in Wilton

photo credit:  Moments by Andrea Photography

If you visit Ambler Farm, no matter where you look you’ll see the handiwork of the farm’s program director, Kevin Meehan. With his singular vantage point of being Ambler’s resident head teacher as well as its sole resident with his family, he’s widely identified as one of the main faces of the farm.

GOOD Morning Wilton sat down at the farm one early summer evening with Meehan, to talk about what he’s accomplished there, about his other love—his day job as science resource teacher at Cider Mill School—and what else he plans for Ambler.

He definitely takes pride in hearing how great people think the farm looks, and he acknowledges how good it feels to have a vision, and realize it fully by building it with your own hands.

“I walk through here sometimes and realize, I built that garden,” he says, pointing at the teaching garden. “I built that,” he adds, pointing at the animal enclosure. “I built every single thing I see right here. It was a direct result of either my physical input or guidance or vision. And I find that incredibly exciting and satisfying. But I have other things I want to do here, and that is so incredibly satisfying too. I love that. I’m incredibly proud of where we are now.”

He has helped oversee the farm’s transformation over the last decade, aiding its gradual evolution from a piece of preserved historical land and farm house and growing each year into a place where children come to learn, where partnerships blossom with the schools and local organizations, and where the land now produces large amounts of crops, including vegetables, fruits, syrup, flowers and more.

It has grown organically and also by careful design, and through it all, Meehan says it was “breathtaking” to watch.

“I was a landscaper, which really came in handy when I first got here about eight years ago. The farm was a wreck. I moved more piles of soil and rocks. That first apprentice program we had was really a rock-moving program. We were ripping out brambles, and there was no garden over there.”

One of the other major changes that Meehan really pushed for early on was getting the gardens to be hands-on for kids, and not reserved for only a few adult supporters of the farm.

“They didn’t want kids in the gardens. The first farmer didn’t want anyone in the gardens. I said, ‘I can teach from anything, but we just have to get into the gardens.’ We’ve come just such a long way,” Meehan said, adding how much he enjoys working with Farmer Jonathan Kirschner. “He wants to work with kids—he wants them in the gardens! That’s the key.”

Making a difference in kids’ lives

It takes a good teacher to recognize one, and being a teacher is the current that runs through all aspects of Meehan’s life—teaching at Cider Mill, directing the program at Ambler Farm, and taking care of everything at the place he calls home.

“They all reinforce each other and make each job better,” he says.

He’s incredibly loved by his students. As both reporter and parent, I’ve seen first-hand his ability to captivate Wilton school children in and out of the classroom.

But the Norwalk native didn’t originally plan on going into teaching.

“I was landscaping this house one summer, and talked to a couple of painters who were teachers who suggested I try out a teaching program. I thought it was a noble career. I went to observe in a classroom in Norwalk, and from the first moment, when kids came up to me I knew I would make a difference. That is why I do what I’m doing, because I want to make a difference.”

At the start of his career, he worked in Norwalk. He wove in non-traditional teaching methods, making costumes and buying props at the thrift shop. “I loved that whole creative process. I get to practice the craft of teaching. It really is a craft. I have strengths and weaknesses. I have a gift when it comes to teaching—funny things just come into my head and interacting with the kids just seems easy to me.”

A few years later he took a job with Wilton schools, and knows how fortunate he is to be in a district with so many resources—both as an employee as well as a parent whose own children go to school here.

“Every parent should have the right to expect that a teacher will inspire their child. There are too many times when we have to lower expectations. I’ve heard too many times, ‘That teacher may be mean, but my child is learning a lot.’ You don’t need to be mean, that’s unacceptable. A teacher who uses profanity? That happens too. Or that we accept what happens with coaches, where we see behavior that’s inappropriate for the kids? We should expect more. I don’t think we should accept mediocre teachers. It’s Wilton—we’ve got great kids, we’ve got great support, we get great pay, we should have great teachers. If you’re not trying to be better every year—that’s my goal, to be better every year. I fully expect the year I retire that I’ll be putting as much into then as I am now,” he says.

At age 50, Meehan says his perspective now helps when he interacts with parents of his students. “I’ve been there, I know what they’re going through. Sometimes I speak candidly, here’s what your child is struggling with. Everybody is in a different place. I just really love kids, and I enjoy the parents as well.”

Meehan’s Big Ideas for Ambler

Ask Meehan what kind of ideas he has for expanding the programs at Ambler and you’ll find he has about a million.

He’d love build a new educational barn, complete with big sliding doors that open for maple syruping, and space to host more educational programs, along with an apple press and an upgraded kitchen.

He also thinks it would be great to add pigs to the farm.

“We add animals so that they can interact with the kids. We don’t need a whole bunch, just a few. That’s a nice wet area down there,” he says, gesturing toward the north end closer to the soccer fields. “That’s a great spot for a pig sty.”

Restoration of the field areas beyond the greenhouse means more opportunities too. He imagines many things the farm can do once the hay field at the south end is to a point he’d be happy about.

“We’re not just restoring the White House. We’re catching up on the tree work, to make things fill in and make everything safe. Then I’m going to feel like we can figure out how the farm works year round. Can we do ‘pick-your-own-pumpkin’ on Columbus Day Weekend and a hay ride? Is it going to be an orchard? Can we make it a hay maze?”

From potentially expanding the office staff and growing the programs to installing a new well and expanding the summer camp program, Meehan definitely has big plans. He knows that it will serve the public need, as Ambler programs are almost always at capacity now, even the new ones. Case in point: look to the apprentice program, the Punkin’ Chunkin’ trebuchet team as well as a new summer farm-to-table cooking program for teens. Then there’s also the perennial favorite, Ambler Farm Day, which happens on Sunday, Sept. 28 this year.

He theorizes why people love the programs. “It’s multi-age, and non-competitive. It’s just about being connected.”

Meehan also notes the generosity of Wilton residents is what makes the farm a success story. “Every once in a while I bump into someone at Village Market or Stop & Shop, who says, ‘I want to send you a check, what do you need?’ It somehow always works out—I call that ‘Farm-Shui” he laughs, adding, “Right now I need a log spitter. ”

He waxes poetic about the farm’s good karma.

“If you sat down with a piece of paper, you could not position the land raised above all the other land around it, visually block it as much as you can, put the animals and education section near the big parking lot, have the access from the back, and have the great lawn right there. How the cultivation land is hidden, how the gardens flow, and the berries, and how everything is laid out…I honestly think if you had planned it from scratch, you could not have planned it better.“

That makes it Meehan’s dream place to live.

“You’re tied to the seasons—I love the winter as much as the summer, maybe even more. The sunsets are unbelievable here. That storm the other day, with the clouds rolling in? That’s as beautiful as any sunset you’re going to see in Montana or Cape Cod. There’s something really special about this spot. I feel blessed. I like just walking around here at night. This place is so beautiful. Go somewhere else? Take a vacation? I just need to go outside and walk at a certain time in the evening to do that,” he says.

Meehan knows how fortunate he is to have raised his children, WHS senior Kate and 6th grader Logan, on the farm.

“This is not a stretch—I honestly feel like George Bailey. I might work a lot—I work a ton. I don’t travel. My life is very simple, it’s very focused. But I have gotten so much back. People come up and say, ‘I know you don’t hear it, but thank you for what you do.’ I hear that all the time. I feel like I’ve gotten a lifetime’s worth of thank you’s and acknowledgement. People have been very generous about that. You can’t imagine a more satisfying lifestyle than what I do. It’s not a normal life, but that’s ok. I’ve found happiness and balance in my life. I walk out my door, see how it looks and think, ‘I did that,’” he says.