In 2013, friends Mike Patton — founder of Yoga Vida yoga studios in NYC — and chef and farmer Davis Lindsey — of Blue Hill at Stone Barns and Stone Barns Center — traveled to Vrindavan, India on a yoga retreat. Impressed by the ashram’s self-supporting farm and simple way of life, the trip sparked an inspiration.
“I originally wanted to create a friends and family CSA (community-supported agriculture) in 2016,” says Patton, whose first Yoga Vida studio opened in 2010. “That idea escalated into creating a retreat center to share with our yoga community — in nature, with comforts and farm-to-table food.”
Four years after that trip, Patton and Lindsey found a 62-acre bucolic property that was owned by restaurateur Irving Lundy from the 1920s through the 1970s.
And in May, their vision finally became a reality, when they opened Yoga Vida Farms, recently rebranded as Lundy Farm — a respite that provides first-class food, relaxation, and rejuvenation.
“This is where we want people to slow down, and appreciate their surroundings,” says Patton.
Linger among Lundy Farm’s 62 acres and enjoy the curated farm where Chef and Farm Director Davis Lindsey (above) sources delicious food.
Patton clearly loves the property, with its original stone walls and bridges, ancient trees, and decades-old outbuildings. Rather than tear everything down and rebuild, he carefully renovated existing buildings: There are a total of 12 bedrooms and 12 beautiful bathrooms between the Lundy house and a guest house, as well as a large commercial kitchen and main dining area. Many rooms have more than one bed, allowing for a total of 20 guests at the farm at a time. A former barn houses the yoga studio, an exercise room, and the seed storage and vegetable-washing room.
Don’t miss a tour of the greenhouse and organic farm, to learn how food for the three-day retreats is nurtured from seed through harvest.
Chef and farm director Lindsey makes magic with the garden’s bounty. Breakfast is buffet style, with unique choices like congee or kitcheri. Lunch and dinner — during which guests are invited to linger and converse — are shared at the large farm table next to the kitchen; past menus included arancini, crusted tubers, and hearty buckwheat salad with edible flowers and vegan parmesan.
“Creating deep colors, flavors, and stories from our farm and for our food and guests make the revitalization of Lundy Farm feel like a special place to work as a chef and farmer,” says Lindsey. “The goal is to mimic ecological agriculture principals of biodiversity and soil management in our farm plan and illustrate that through our plant-based menu. We also support small, local farms like us that grow an assortment of other fruits and vegetables. Most of all, our team is having a lot of fun preserving these summer flavors for later seasons and using our intimate relationships with plants to come up with new ideas.”
Three meals a day are included in the retreats, along with lodging, activities such as yoga, and transportation to the farm from Yoga Vida studios in NYC.
