Combine an hour of gentle yoga in a grassy farm field with post-yoga snuggle time with baby goats (and perhaps some cheese sampling, too!), and you’ve got yourself a fitness evening that’ll leave you glowing for hours. Because GOATS.
Sunflower Farm’s “yoga on the farm” started a couple of weeks ago and continues on Thursdays from 5:30-6:30 p.m. and Saturdays 9:30-10:30 a.m. [See the schedule on Facebook.]
The hour-long yoga class is held in a grassy field overlooking the farm barn and a fenced-in area where goats hang out (chomping on grass, sneezing and sounding off, and doing other goat things). Often, goats are also hanging out in the field where the yoga is happening (chomping on grass, sneezing and sounding off, and maybe wandering onto your yoga mat, nuzzling up for some head scratches, or altogether ignoring you).
It all depends – and Sunflower Farm owner Hope Hall chooses what’s best for the goats at each class. Either way, you’ll have plenty of time to hang with the goats after class. And in June, that includes older goats AND and the newly minted babies.
I had a chance to check it out a couple of summers ago, along with a field full of other yogis. We stretched under the trees, looked up to the sky, and breathed the warm summer air deep into our chests – with the sounds of goats calling out nearby. There were a few farm cats that seemed mildly interested in our practice. They wandered between mats and occasionally lied down to be pet or two play with the strings on someone’s hoodie.
After class was over, we went into the barn to greet the baby goats – we held them for a bit and posed for photos, and then did a “running of the baby goats,” which Sunflower Farm is kinda YouTube famous for. We pet the older goats, too, rubbing behind their ears and talking to them about farm life.
Hope Hall also brought out samples of their delicious cheeses, too. Bonus!
Yoga on the farm is by donation ($10-$15 recommended), so bring some cash (proceeds are split between the farm and the instructor, so you’ll be giving back to both for this cool event). It’s an all-levels class, too, so feel free to check it out even if you’re new to the whole yoga thing. Bring your own mat and water and maybe some bug spray and get ready to fawn over all the baby goat adorableness.
Yoga at Sunflower Farm
5:30-6:30 p.m. Thursdays and 9:30-10:30 a.m. Saturdays
Sunflower Farm, 12 Harmon Way, Cumberland Center, ME
By donation (bring cash. $10-$15 recommended). Also bring your own mat and water.
FMI: www.facebook.com/events/2164184717138762/
