Public Events and Retreats
2021 Events and Retreats
This is a listing of our events and retreats that are open to the public. Some are free and others require a ticket or application.
In addition, whether you are an organization, business, state agency, yoga studio, school, or family looking for a unique wedding or reunion spot, you can book your own event or retreat with us.
We hope to see you in 2021!
2021 Events
Spoons for All – Spoon Carving Workshop
with Peter Forbes
Date: May 22-23, 2021
Time: 2-day weekend workshop
Cost: $225 Workshop and Meals, +$75 optional overnight
For more than 15 years, and with more than 2,000 people, we’ve taught spoon carving on this farm as a method for bringing people together and for accessing creativity. Spoon carving, for us, has always been an important act of community building. Please join us for a creative time of using your hands and minds to carve a spoon from green wood. All skill levels are welcome. MORE…
Family Overnight at Knoll Farm
Dates: May 26, 27, 28, 29-30*, 31, June 1-6*, July 5-7*, 8, 16*, Aug 30, 31, Sept 1 (*=booked)
Time: 1-3 nights
Cost (sliding scale):$100-$145 per person per night, dinner and breakfast included; $50-75 kids age 3-13; babies 2 and under free
Are you and your family ready to come together with other families from within your Covid safety bubble to celebrate all that you’ve missed during this endless quarantine? The Family Overnight at Knoll Farm is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for your family and close friends to fully explore the farm and stay in residence overnight. Have a farm-to-table dinner featuring our outdoor pizza oven, sleep in a yurt with a skylight to the stars, enjoy a campfire and hot tub on the edge of a magical forest, and wake up to a blueberry breakfast. MORE…
Opening Night Picnic
for Season Pass Holders
Date: May 26, 2021
Time: 5:00 PM
Reservation required
This free event of picnicking and live music is a kick-off to the season for our Season Pass holders. Come and join us on the hillside to be together (socially distancing required), enjoy a fire and food, and watch the moon rise over the valley.
Yestermorrow – Timber Framing Course
Date: June 6-12, 2021
Time: 6-day course
Cost: $1,250 early bird course rate (meal plans and accommodations are separate costs)
Over the last two decades, the historic craft of timber framing in residential construction has experienced a revival. Experience the fundamentals of designing and constructing a timber frame using mortise and tenon joinery. Students will learn layout techniques, tool use and sharpening, and joinery cutting methods as we work on a small timber frame project, culminating in a raising on the final day. Evening lectures will address the history of the craft, finishing techniques, and mechanical systems for timber frame houses. We will also cover frame design, joinery choices, and integration of frame and house design. This course will focus on traditional hand-cut joinery and tools and will also demonstrate some of the power tools used by modern timber framers. MORE…
The Better Selves Fellowship I
Date: June 21-27, 2021
Time: Week-long residential retreat
Our own fellowship program offers activists and leaders from the fields of conservation, community well being and social justice the opportunity for reflection, focus and renewal. MORE…
The Better Selves Fellowship II
Date: June 28 – July 4, 2021
Time: Week-long residential retreat
Our own fellowship program offers activists and leaders from the fields of conservation, community well being and social justice the opportunity for reflection, focus and renewal. MORE…
Renewal Weeks
Dates: July 12-15, 2021 & September 20-23, 2021
Cost: Free
Our Renewal Weeks are open by application to any group in Northern New England who will benefit from a free retreat at Knoll Farm’s Refuge. Every summer, though the generosity of our supporters and especially an anonymous donor at Vermont Community Foundation, Knoll Farm is able to gift a multi-day retreat with meals and accommodations to groups, associations, or organizations that have been doing essential work in their communities and need the opportunity to rebuild and restore themselves. MORE…
First Light Benefit Concert – Lula Wiles
Date: Saturday, July 24, 2021
Time: 5:30 picnicking, 7:30 concert
Tickets go on sale June 1.
Lula Wiles is a band consisting of Eleanor Buckland, Mali Obomsawin, and Isa Burke. In Paste Magazine’s words, they’re “provocateurs of the best kind, rabble-rousers with the purest intentions.” At its core, Lula Wiles’ work is centered around songcraft. The lyrics are sharp and the melodies finely wrought. You can hear, too, a growing maturity, a widening worldview. MORE…
Making Refuge: The art of place-making that sustains difference, brings people together and inspires change.
led by Peter Forbes and Helen Whybrow
Date: July 20-23, 2021
Time: 4 day workshop
Cost: Room and meals (3 nights) $400, Sliding scale tuition
This is an ideal workshop for people who work in land stewardship departments of land trusts, or board members who aspire to discover how land can be appreciated more fully by a community, or for individuals who have a similar dream and want to see an example close up. Every month, people write to us to ask if we would share our decisions and structure and challenges around what we’ve created at Knoll Farm. This workshop is for them and for you. MORE…
Benefit Concert for Knoll Farm & Better Selves Fellowships – Kat Wright
Date: Saturday, August 14, 2021
Time: 5:30 picnicking, 7:30 concert
Tickets go on sale July 1.
Kat Wright, whose voice is both sultry and dynamic, delicate yet powerful; gritty but highly emotive and nuanced, has been described as “a young Bonnie Raitt meets Amy Winehouse”. Add to that voice enough stage presence to tame lions, and the combination of feline femininity proves immediately enchanting. There’s soul flowing in and out of her rock ‘n’ roll with a serpentine seduction. Some of soul music’s sweet, grand dames belt, shout, seethe, and succumb, while Wright sings gently like a heartache’s apology. It’s funky in spots and beautiful all over. And it hurts a little … like it should.
The New England Regional Better Selves Fellowship
Date: August 16-22, 2021
Time: Week-long residential retreat
Our own fellowship program offers activists and leaders from the fields of conservation, community well being and social justice the opportunity for reflection, focus and renewal. MORE…
Facilitating for Change: Transforming Places and Spaces in Polarized Times
with Peter Forbes
Date: August 24-27, 2021
Time: 4 day workshop
Cost: Room and meals (3 nights) $400, Sliding scale tuition
This annual workshop teaches practical skills grounded in facilitative leadership. We will explore how this adeptness can transform organizations, coalitions and communities to make progress together. How does one embody that work, to be open to the things we can’t see in ourselves, to more fully recognize one’s privileges, to move our work away from charity and toward mutual aid? MORE…
Season Pass Holders Picnic
Date: September 21, 2021
Time: 5:00 PM
Reservation required
This free event is to thank our Season Pass holders with a special night of picnicking and live music. Come and join us on the hillside to be together (socially distancing required), enjoy a fire and food, and watch the moon rise over the valley.
By joining our community, you become part of the story of this land.
Be the first to know when the berries are ripe, workshops are scheduled, or leadership fellowships are announced.