Food, Horses and Yoga. If I had to name my top three passions, that’s what I’d say. Therefore, I am always coming up with new ways to savor and share them on retreat. I’m pretty excited about two new 2017 retreats, that have evolved from this mélange of my life’s primary pleasures.
Let’s get something out on the table: food can be complicated. Especially for women. My desire for myself, my family, my friends, my retreaters is to have food connect us. To each other, to our own capacity for health and healing, to nature and the earth. Food as connection is pure, powerful and pleasurable. But that requires sorting through all the noise that surrounds it: cultural baggage, alarming food industry trends, ethical concerns, etc. in order to make our own choices for sustenance – and to choose well. And, to simplify.
I’m always amazed when I travel to other countries how simple food can be. Somewhere along the line in America, we lost touch with that. Overprocessed, overdone, oversized. Allora, we head to Italy this fall – to the culture that long ago mastered the art of simple, sensational food. On our week-long Yoga and Vineyard Tuscany retreat, we’ll enjoy cooking classes, gnocchi and cheese making workshops (because how can you go through life without knowing how to make gnocchi??), and olive picking and pressing. Plus, yoga in our medieval castle. Plus, Italian wine. Yes, this is for real.
On our Yoga and Vineyard California retreat, food and wine educator/taste bud wrangler Dory Kwan has inspired us to tease out those gorgeous flavors that might otherwise elude our palate. You know, like that scent of grapefruit in your sauvignon blanc, or the pomegranate and fall leaves in your pinot noir. I’m partnering with Dory to take Cowgirl Yoga to new heights on our Culinary Cowgirl Yoga this August; we even had to add an extra day to do that justice. There will be farm-to-table food galore, an exclusive wine tasting with a wine historian, Dory’s signature “Alchemy of Taste” workshops, and lots of get up and go riding (experienced riders only, please). And by the way, we’re staying at a goat farm. So that goat yoga thing, you’ll get to do that too.
People always ask me, why all the yoga combinations? And I always answer, because yoga helps you do whatever you do better. Including eating and drinking. Let’s talk about that. There’s a word for this, that’s gotten a lot of buzz lately: mindfulness. The irony is that being mindful while eating and drinking is not difficult…but it is something we have to remind ourselves to slow down and do. Our yoga practice helps cultivate mindfulness, and mindfulness cultivates a heightened appreciation of food and drink. It all fits together perfectly.
If you want to be a foodie cowgirl yogini, this is your year. Join us! Yeehaw, Namaste, and Santé.
Recommended Reading for Foodie Cowgirl Yoginis
- Slow Food Nation – why our food should be good, clean, and fair, by Carlo Petrini (an Italian, certo)
- Food Rules, by Michael Pollan
- How to Eat, by Thich Nhat Hanh