Please join us for an intimate and relaxing get-away to start 2023 with grace and aloha. Our program will find that sweet spot of balancing, heart-felt daily work to deepen our personal commitment to optimal health and well being, with plenty of fun and relaxation. Our focus is to help you dial up your day-to-day habits for health through farm fresh food, plant-rich menus, deep sleep, daily stretching, personal time, and a few fun excursions to explore the marvelous Big Island.  Plus a bit of didactic instruction focused on deepening your commitment to healing your body and healing our planet.

Hawaii Farm Retreats (our Hamakua Coast location) is a 26 acre Natural Farm with chickens, cows, pigs and a huge variety of fruits and vegetables growing in the lush soil. Jennifer's son, Drake (one of our instructors), is a master of Korean Natural Farming techniques, and the entire farm is managed with micro-organisms which are brewed onsite -- never any chemicals.

Our beautiful ocean view studio is fully equipped with every prop to ensure our practices are the best they can be. There's even a Wall Rope system! Please note this is NOT a "yoga retreat" per se.  We will engage in lovely stretching daily, in a yoga studio, led by yoga instructors (Jennifer and Emily), however if you are new to yoga, that's fine!

This retreat is geared to healthy seniors.  We will be taking some hikes and you should be comfortable walking 5 miles.  The lodging is set up as doubles, so please sign up with a friend!

We will explore the best of the Big Island! Excursions include Volcanoes National Park, local beaches and markets, Akaka Falls State Park, and the spectacular Botanical Gardens just down the road.  All excursions are optional!  You may stay and lounge in the hammock at your cabana.

Accommodations are in luxury cabanas set on a slope with spectacular views.  You will marvel at the blue Pacific from the spacious lanai and be amazed at Mauna Kea, the largest land mass on the planet, which presides over your cabana's back windows.

The first six partcipants will likely choose to stay at the on-campus  three cabanas.  All are doubles, suitable for 2 people whom are comfortable sharing either a queen sized bed, or roommates can sleep separately with one in a supremely comfortable air mattress bed.   Each cabana has a private bathroom and a small refrigerator. 

My favorite feature of the cabanas is a huge lanai  (Hawaiian for porch) with deck furniture, a hammock (which could also  be used for sleeping) and a light breeze that completely keeps bugs away.  The cabanas surround a huge kitchen-living  room complex — fully stocked!  This is where we will have cooking  classes, enjoy meals, and lounge on the lanai together.

After the on-site spots are filled, the next 6 will be housed in a fabulous similar location just 20 minutes up the coast with Randy and Alison at Mahana House. Folks staying at Mahana House will need to rent a car for daily transportation.  

Either location includes 3 delicious meals daily, onsite sessions and excursions.   

A UNIQUE ITINERARY has been intentionally selected, just for YOU! These experiences are impossible to have as a casual visitor to Hawaii!

The informational classes include Natural Farming soil-enriching, fermentation techniques for both garden and human health (with Drake),  the Gut-Brain axis and how to maximize gut happiness (key to enhancing  cognitive functioning and mental/emotional ease- with naturopathic physician since 1993 Dr. Emily Kane), plus a food-gardening class in a world-class kitchen overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  We will also enjoy an evening of Hawaiian chanting with cultural ambassador, Desiree Cruz.  Desiree will also present an art activity of block-printing, using the original carved blocks of Hawaiian artist Dietrich Varez.  Dietrich's work is featured at the spectacular Volcano Art Center Gallery.

Both Jennifer and I will be your instructors, on alternate days, for Deep Stretching and Meditation.  

See detailed itinerary.

LIMITED ENROLLMENT!

This  retreat has space for only 12 participants because Jennifer and I want  to give you a lot of personalized care and attention.  All 6 accommodation options are doubles.  Bring a friend!  Your deposit of $485 ensures you have a spot.

Trip price is $2335 for early birds.  $2585 after June 1, 2022

This is excellent value for 10 days and 10 nights with fabulous meals (3 daily of course), clean and comfortable rooms and the quality of instruction you will receive.

A payment  plan is available. Payment in full is due by December 4, 2021.   

Some of you may have known me for years,  but if you want a bit more background, here goes.  I grew up in North  and West Africa since my parents were professional diplomats with the US  Foreign Service.  I came to the US at age 16 and attended the Madeira School, and then Harvard University (class of 1978) where I majored in Comparative Literature.  My thesis was on the art of translating French  poetry, with a focus on the works of Paul Eluard.  After college I lived  in Paris for 3 years, then came home to develop an emerging career in  performing arts management, first in Washington DC and then in New York  City.  

At age 30 I went through “Saturn return” and left my job as  manager of Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane and Company (modern dance), and moved  to Seattle to begin my adventure of being trained to be a naturopathic  physician.  After a lot of schooling I graduated from Bastyr University with a doctorate degree in Naturopathic Medicine (ND) and a master's degree in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (LAc).    I was cajoled by a colleague  to join her  practice in Juneau after graduation in 1992.  I agreed to stay a year.   I’ve been in Juneau ever since and love my Alaska life.  I married a  local guy (whose “other life” is also on Big Island, where he has  cultivated a beautiful organic orchard full of exotic tropical fruit  trees). Going between Southeast Alaska and Big Island is fantastic.  Our daughter is a  neuro-scientist who got a great start in these 2 exceptional locales.

Guiding the potential for optimal health in members of my communites is an enormous privilege, and brings me enormous  joy.  Our convenience-oriented society has derailed us all away  from optimal health.  Junk food, screens and staying indoors have become  alluring.  

Let’s continue to buck those trends together!  What better way to engage with the full power of the 2022 winter Solstice than to  bask in the radiance of a rejuvenating retreat.  Please join me!

Jennifer founded Hilo Yoga in 1997.  She brings her passion for self discovery through yoga into her teaching, offering asana that is safe and effective, as well as heart-centered.  She is also adept with meditation instruction, and deeply committed to regular practice.  She intersperses yogic philosophy as themes throughout her classes and teaches for for the benefit of each individual student.

Jennifer believes we are meant to be joyous.  Practicing the philosophy of Hilo Yoga is a lifestyle which has given her the tools to discover her purpose.  Through her teaching, she joyously shares what she has learned from other teachers, as well as what she has discovered from her own personal practice.

Drake has been deeply immersed in the microbial world through a nearly lost art of Korean Natural Farming.  He has distilled the message of his teacher Master Cho down to 9 "Core Solutions" which are now wildly poplar because, despite being mainly for plants and animals, they are human-consumable and lead to magnificent health benefits.  As an elementary instructor for half a decade, Drake puts this complex and invisible message into a palatable and simple lesson plan for all ages and levels of knowledge.

Suze has been cooking since she was 12 years old, working her first job as the "Cookie" on her father's commercial fishing boat in Southeast Alaska.  In recent years, and since moving to Hawaii, she has discovered yet another deep passion -- home gardening.  She loves sourcing ingredients right outside her front door and transforming them into something wonderful to share with family and friends.  She looks forward to sharing home gardening discoveries and food recipes with YOU to further the dream of healing the planet through health food and land stewardship.