Mindful Maine Retreat
I am beyond excited to announce a wonderful collaboration between Hannah Thiessen Howard (author of Slow Knitting and Seasonal Knitting) and myself this Summer here on the farm!! We hope you’ll consider joining us in July for a magical experience of connection, slow crafting and mindful living. Read more below, and full details can be found on the signup page!
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Capture the magic of high summer during a weekend retreat at Mindful Folk Farm in pastoral coastal Maine. Immerse yourself in nature with a handful of other passionate crafters ready to slow down and recapture the magic of a carefree childhood, filled with creativity and friendship. You’ll play with new materials and techniques under the guidance of natural dyer, herbalist and shepherd Hannah Welling, explore mending with a guest teacher, and lean into the peaceful rewards of slow crafting, watercolor painting and more with Slow Knitting author Hannah Thiessen Howard. Walk away renewed, energized and connected to the land and newly-discovered friends.
The Itinerary:
Arrive Friday afternoon and settle into your lodging (options here) or set up camp on Mindful Folk farm, then meet the group for a kick-off bonfire and welcoming ceremony, where you’ll receive your class kits and commemorative goodie bags, meet other attendees and get to know your instructors on a personal level.
The next morning, we’ll gather around coffee and tea, begin our day with a restful yoga flow, and then tour the project stations, allowing you to explore tea blending, natural dyeing, mending, fiber crafts and watercolor painting throughout the day. We’ll break for a farm-fresh lunch and then spend the afternoon in free-flowing session, allowing you to revisit the crafts most intriguing and exciting to you from that morning.
Sunday, we’ll do it again, with a fully free day where you can be guided by your own interests and dive deeper into specific projects you’d like to finish or begin. For lunch, we’ll hop over to a favorite local shop to pick up provisions for a picnic lunch at the site of America’s First Fiber Mill. If the weather permits, attendees will have the option to take a break for a dip in our secret swimming hole! Upon return to the farm, we’ll wrap up our projects and close out the evening with a celebration.
Freedom to explore:
Unlike traditional retreat and event setups, Mindful Maine gives you the option to chase what’s most exciting to you. Spend time in each of the craft sessions offered, or focus entirely on a project that has captured your imagination. This retreat includes several areas of focus for you to explore:
Tea Blending
Gather everything you need to make beautiful, hand-blended teas with the abundant herb and edible flower garden at the farm. Start your morning with something fresh and vibrant and bundle your own tea blends to take home. Provided in your class kits you’ll find our hand-written guide to herbs and flowers and compostable tea bags to prepare your concoctions.
Natural Dyeing
Hannah Welling has made a name for herself providing exquisite farm yarns dyed in an array of stunning natural color! Discover the secret world of plant pigment with a prepped selection of mordanted yarns and fabrics, ready for you to dip into cauldrons of color from foraged and collected botanicals. Each student will receive a set of mini skeins and fabric fat quarters to experiment with, and guidance from Hannah to achieve the best results.
Plein Air Watercolor
Before she was a fiber crafter and book author, Hannah Thiessen Howard was a painter, studying Fine Art throughout her most formative years. Students will receive a ready-to-go palette of watercolors made from natural dye sources, brushes and paper in their class kits. Hannah will guide students through watercolor painting techniques and tips, then you’ll be turned loose to capture the scenery of the farm and beyond.
Mending
Help your projects last a lifetime by learning mending techniques from our guest instructor Maggie Ruth Haaland. From simple stitches to stabilize and secure, to celebrating the art of patching and repair with embellishments and decorative detail, you’ll be ready to approach the art of mending with new eyes after this class! Students will be provided with all materials needed to learn the stitches and techniques.
Needle & Fiber Crafts
No retreat would be complete without time spent with fiber, especially a retreat at a fiber farm! Students may bring their own projects to make progress on, or can try their hands at something new: spinning, knitting, crochet, and quilting, using materials available for purchase from Mindful Folk Farm. Crafting time is anytime our attendees need down time, throughout the retreat.
Trip Details
Mindful Folk Farm is located in New Gloucester, Maine, approximately 35 minutes from Portland, ME and 45 minutes from Augusta, ME, where our closest airports are located. We will connect attendees in a small chat group prior to arrival, where you can coordinate car rentals if desired. We are unable to pick up or transport attendees to or from the airport or lodging: please consider your own transportation needs when planning to attend.
Lodging & Transportation
How you’d like to stay with us (or visit for the day) is up to you. The farm will have a grassy knoll prepared for on-site tent camping, or you can snuggle up at one of the nearby bed and breakfast or rental options. Lodging on-site (tent camping) is free to attendees; off-site lodging needs to be arranged separately. Attendees are responsible for their own transportation to and from the farm.
Meals
Mindful Folk will provide the following meals to attendees:
Morning coffee and tea bar.
Friday night, bonfire-ready eats like hot dogs and s’mores for our evening celebration.
Saturday lunch on the farm, including homemade egg salad, fresh veggies and more.
Attendees have the option to bring their own food for snacks, or can pick up items at Pineland Farms, a nearby market and deli with a great selection. On Sunday, we’ll also be visiting this same spot for our picnic lunches, which students will choose and purchase on their own.
Attend the Mindful Maine Retreat
Reserve your spot today–spaces are extremely limited to keep the intimate setting of this retreat and allow attendees the most time with instructors and materials.
Dates: July 26-28th, 2024
Location: Mindful Folk Farm, 288 Morse Rd, New Gloucester, ME 04260
Retreat Cost: $600 USD per student
Register here!
2021
As I sit here, the temperature outside is 16 degrees (downright balmy compared to the -30 we had a short time ago) and I am praying that none of my ewes goes into labor until this bitter cold has passed. I always feel as if I should have more time than I do to get caught up on blog posts, newsletters and social media posts, but alas…the farm is about ready to explode with activity once again, and I will be right in the middle of it. I will try my best, however, to fill in the gaps of 2021!
Last Spring we welcomed our lambs as usual…except every single one of them, save one, was a ram. We’ve never had that happen before, and are still quite positive that we could not make it happen again if we tried. Kidding season followed, with some ridiculously cute babies being born from both our Angoras and Cora’s Dairy goats crossed with one of our Angora bucks.
Lots of other babies were born too…bunnies, chicks and ducklings to name a few!
We held a few workshops and classes, which were wonderful and successful. This summer was the first time I participated in a local farmer’s market, selling lamb, fiber, flowers, duck and chicken eggs, and a few vegetables. I am excited to return to market this summer with expanded flower options and more lamb and eggs!
And, in the midst of all the summer business; incredible harvests, the addition of a sap house and an outhouse, children close by our side, dyeing yarn from our flock with the plants we grow and forage, and trying our best to embrace every minute of a fleeting season by slipping away for occasional hikes or dips in our secret swimming holes.
We lost a dear friend, Crusoe…the big black dog many of you have been greeted by when you arrive here on the farm. The loss of his presence has left an enormous hole in our hearts.
The loss of the Common Ground Fair this past fall brought to light the importance of our community of friends, supporters, fellow farmers and family. After our “Harvest Moon Festival” we set to work putting the farm to bed; which was much delayed after a very late frost!
This year, we had the honor of our yarn being featured in many new knitting patterns! We introduced two new yarn bases, “Haven” and “Kindred”, both of which contain fiber from our animals here on the farm with the addition of a little something extra from other local fiber producers! “Kindred” is a Cormo yarn with Angora bunny added to give the finished product the most exquisite feel…squishy, oh-so-soft and a little bit fuzzy. It gives you all the feels!! My very good friend Alicia designed a stunning cabled hat with matching mittens specifically for this yarn. These patterns can be found at the above link.
“Haven” is a blend of Cormo from our lovely brown girl ‘Fly’, and a bit of local Alpaca to tame the squish and lighten the colour a bit. Alicia also designed a hat and mittens for this yarn base! These patterns can be found on her Ravelry page here.
And, Alicia also presented a re-release of a very successful pattern using some of our straight brown Cormo! That pattern can be found here!
And, my dear friend Beatrice at Thread & Ladle very generously designed the perfect cowl to show off any hand-dyed yarn! Our very first yarn base we ever created, ‘Phinela’ is featured in this wonderful, quick knit. That pattern can be found on Bea’s Ravelry page here!
Harvest Moon Festival!
I hope you’ll join us for this super special event here at the farm! Masks required for both vendors and visitors, regardless of vaccination status!
*** UPDATE: We are still on for Saturday the 25th of September! There may be showers, but we’ll still have fun!!
Lambing Season Roundup
It was clearly the year of the ram lamb. We had only one ewe lamb this year, which is crazy…but the lambs were no less beautiful! A few of our favorites:
Duck Egg & Bone Broth Soup
This recipe is basically my go-to for a super-nourishing and quick meal. I actually love it for breakfast, and it’s delicious on a long hike. It tastes just like chicken noodle soup, but much easier to whip up if you’re short on time. Good chicken bone broth is essential in this recipe; we make our own, but it can be found at most grocery stores nowadays.
Duck Egg & Bone Broth Soup
Ingredients:
One Pasture raised, organic duck egg, scrambled in a dish
10oz (or more) high quality, preferably organic, chicken bone broth
Salt to taste
Instructions:
Bring broth to a simmer in a small pot
Gradually stir in raw egg
Season with salt to taste
You’re done!
Super easy! I’ve also added fresh spinach, mushrooms, thin sliced carrots, etc. Enjoy!