Fed to Flourish: A Farm-to-Table Christian Women's Retreat

Earlier this year, I reached out to my friend Gi with the idea of hosting a farm-to-table Christian women’s retreat at hers and her husband’s intimate farm in New Jersey. The end result was so beautiful that I couldn’t wait to share it with you… and we’re already dreaming of the next time we can work together to bless women with biblical and nutritional information and encouragement! Welcome to your glimpse into the Fed to Flourish retreat!

A bit of back story… Brian and I met Josh and Gi when we tried to recruit them for the head chef job at the camp where Brian was serving as operations director in New Jersey. After sampling Josh’s cooking and getting to know his and his bride’s heart, we knew we wanted to work alongside them! God had other plans, and though we didn’t see them again for years, they went on to start a sustainable farming business a couple hours away in New Jersey. Gi and I kept in touch via social media, and I was always encouraged by the things she was sharing with women about caring for their bodies well, as God created us to do. Flash forward and we found ourselves co-hosting and team-teaching at an event I’d been dreaming of for probably a decade. Fed to Flourish was an immersive one-day retreat filled with both spiritual and physical nourishment. Our goal was to help ladies gain biblical encouragement and practical insight, in a gorgeous natural setting, to take their next steps in a flourishing life! Boy, did the day deliver.

Co-hosting a farm-to-table Christian women’s retreat…

From the time I arrived at Wild Roots Farm, I felt like I was on a retreat myself. After “we-haven’t-seen-each-other-in-six-years” hugs, we settled in at Josh and Gi’s giant farmhouse table and caught up on all God’s been up to in each other’s lives. It was the sweetest gift to be able to really hear their hearts for opening their home and their table to share God’s love with each person He brings there. We enjoyed fresh baked bread (with lots of butter, of course), while Josh finished making chicken soup from ingredients sourced right on their property. The girls stayed up and finished our last minute planning, while he finished food prep for the morning – and then realized we’d been a bit crazy planning an event to start at 8am! Not to worry, though… I’d wake up to a goat milk and honey latte before the sun was fully up, and we were off and running to welcome the coolest group of ladies for the day!

In the morning, we talked about how God feeds us, so that we might feed others, the truth of His word. We dug into three stories in scripture that overlap and show us how Jesus modeled this concept.

Getting to work out one of my favorite sayings… “awaken the palate; nourish the soul…”

Next Gi shared foundational principles of good nutrition. I took a full two pages of notes! What an incredible opportunity to learn from a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner in practical, applicable bits and pieces… and solid teaching that was also grounded in a biblical understanding of how God created our bodies to work so beautifully.

One of my favorite parts of the day was when Josh, Gi’s chef-husband, taught us about some basics of bread-making and gave us a hands-on experience in making focaccia. We each created our own, and then Josh fired them in the clay oven he and Gi built (and that they use often for their pizza night/farm-to-table dinners). We helped ourselves to butternut squash soup, a gorgeous salad with roasted chicken, and then got back to learning!

There’s nothing like getting your hands really in the food you’ll enjoy baked with hot coals on a chilly day…

We talked in the afternoon about biblical principles that related to what we learned about physical nutrition. I was finally able to share the scripture memory card set I’ve been working on for months, and some of my ideas for how we can better feed ourselves on God’s word!!

Another forever-memory of the retreat was when women of different life seasons began to share their hearts and connect in ways they might grow together both practically and spiritually going forward! Gi & I hosted a Q&A session and we both were every bit as encouraged by the incredible hunger and wisdom of the ladies who came, as they might have been as God worked in our serving them together.