Mindful Maine Slow Living Farm Retreat
Mindful Maine Slow Living Farm Retreat
Capture the magic of high summer during a weekend retreat at Mindful Folk Farm in pastoral central 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 and solar dyeing with guest teacher Maggie Haaland, 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.
Your 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, meet other attendees and get to know your instructors on a personal level.
Saturday, we’ll gather around coffee and tea and begin our day with a restful yoga flow. This day is centered around natural color and natural dyeing! We’ll gather dye materials, prepare the dye baths and learn about the process of creating a rainbow using three primary color natural dyes: madder (red/orange), indigo (blue) and a yellow from Osage, Tansy and/or Goldenrod. Each student will be given 4 mini-skeins of local wool to play with and 8 fat quarters (¼ yard) of linen fabric to dye. These materials will be pre-mordanted by your teachers to make your dyeing experience seamless and fun. Your class kit bag is also 100% cotton and will be pre-mordanted and ready to dye.
At noon we’ll break for a farm lunch and then spend the afternoon allowing you to continue with your dyeing and explore other crafts we’ll have on hand: weaving, darning, sketching and watercolor painting.
Sunday, we’ll switch focus in the morning and tackle a bookmaking workshop where you’ll be able to create your own journal or sketchbook. Weaving and mending are also options available to explore on this second day.
For lunch, we’ll pick up your order from nearby Pineland Farms and make the short trek over to the site of America’s First Fiber Mill for a picnic lunch and time art journaling in your new notebooks. Bring your swimsuit in case we have time for a cool dip in the stream.
Upon return to the farm, you’ll be able to gather up your materials and makes and pick a beautiful bouquet from Mindful Folk to take home with you.
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:
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.
Cyanotype
Maggie is bringing a very cool treat with her this year for us to experiment with: cyanotype. Also referred to as “solar printing”, this is a type of fabric paint that uses the sun to create high-relief imprints of objects against the fabric background of your choice. We’re looking forward to experimenting with this interesting technique on both dyed and undyed fabrics.
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.
Journaling
With your new, handmade cloth-bound journal, we encourage you to take some time to write, draw, collect plants and/or bits of nature to add to its pages to commemorate your time at 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. 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.
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.
For those staying in the area and looking for breakfast accommodations, we recommend:
https://blissfarminn.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=googlemybusiness
There are also countless hotels and bed and breakfasts in nearby Freeport (15 minutes), as well as Portland (30 minutes).
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 general store with a great selection. On Sunday, we’ll also be visiting this same spot for our picnic lunches and will take orders and pick up for students.
Refunds
We understand that sometimes life gets in the way of even our best-made plans, so we’re offering full refunds up until June 1, 2025 (about a month out from the retreat). After June 1, we will only be able to process cancellations if we have another student available on the waitlist for the retreat to take your spot.
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 18th-20th, 2025
Location: Mindful Folk Farm, 288 Morse Rd, New Gloucester, ME 04260
Retreat Cost: $650 USD per student