Rainbow Roots: A Botanical Dye, Yoga, & Regenerative Farming Retreat

Explore nature’s rainbow palette in our first weekend retreat where land becomes a living canvas for joy, creativity and connection!

Begin each morning with a grounding yoga class to anchor yourself in your own roots to place and sense of belonging. Explore the enchanting art of botanical dyeing, using ethically sourced materials from madder and marigold to indigo and walnut. Learn how to nurture the land and nourish our bodies through lessons on regenerative farming and farm-to-table community meals.

Through daily yoga, natural dye, and regenerative farming workshops, you will leave with:

• your own naturally rainbow-dyed fabric or clothing, infused with your own personal expression and creativity 🌈
• the rich history and cultural significance of natural dyeing, including its ancestral lineage across Africa and Asia 🧬
• the confidence and expertise to use indigo, madder, marigolds, & other natural materials to dye fabric in a spectrum of rainbows, from deep blues to golden yellows, earthy reds, and more 🌿
• a movement and meditation practice that honors your own ancestral relationships to land, while creating a deeper relationship with the earth 🧘🏽‍♀️
• experience planting and tending to a garden of dyeing plants that give us natural healthy rainbows, free of harmful chemicals and pollution 🌱
• an understanding of how regenerative farming is a key to healing our relationship with Earth, our bodies, and the colors of our clothing 🗝

What's Included

• Welcome Circle, Intention-Setting, and Tea Ceremony
• Two daily morning yoga classes aligned to the first chakra to foster stability, grounding, rootedness & a deep sense of connection to land.
• Three vegetarian, organic farm-to-table meals per day with nourishing plant-based snacks from the land.
• Natural dye workshop techniques & materials, which include Cosmic Honey-harvested madder, marigolds, calendula, and indigo plants, mordants, protective gear, applicators, as well as bandanas / silk scarves to test out your designs.
• Regenerative agriculture workshop focused on nurturing and rebuilding soil health, fostering biodiversity, water conservation, and building a regenerative community.
• Camping accommodations for 2 nights / 3 days with access to heated outdoor showers, an outdoor kitchen, a wood-fired sauna, and lake for swimming
• Closing Circle, Gratitude, and Guided Meditation

What to Bring

• Cotton-fiber clothes that could use some dye love to reclaim your closet!
• A favorite notebook to document the natural dyeing process and techniques as well as sketch and dream about your dye designs.
• Everything you need to be comfortable camping, including a tent, sleeping system, toiletries, medication, & clothing. Hammocks recommended! 🙃
• Swimsuits for an afternoon dip in the lake (Note: Temperatures can reach 90°+).
• A yoga mat for daily movement and meditation practices.

The Retreat Space

Cosmic Honey is an intentional creative community nestled within 433 acres of California chaparral hills, with a 40-acre walnut orchard, a young permaculture food forest and a half-acre pond full of fish, frogs & dragonflies, just two hours from the Bay Area. There are 10 miles of hiking trails through dramatic hills with panoramic views of Clear Lake & Mendocino National Forest, and a tapestry of starry skies on a clear night.

Cosmic Honey is intentionally working to deepen their understanding of being connected to nature and stewarding the land. Cosmic Honey values love, taking care of the land, respect, fun, joy, complexity, expansion of consciousness, and honoring the sacred. They are excited to work with people who want to change the world to be a more united, peaceful, and loving place centered around love, regeneration & creativity. They believe that creativity brings about transformation and that together we can build a healthy connected world using our imaginations and elbow grease.

Accommodations

This is an immersive camp-out experience! Pitch your own tent in our dedicated campsites on Cosmic Honey’s land, under the birdsong and shade of walnut trees. If you do not have a tent, we can provide you with one for a $25 rental fee.

We may have a few other accommodations including Lotus Tents and RV’s available for rent. Please reach out to let us know any of your needs so that we can create a comfortable experience for you.

Transportation

Transportation to Cosmic Honey is not included, however, we may be able to support carpools from Berkeley/East Bay/San Francisco. If you are in need of a ride or if you are able to offer a ride, please contact hello@wildawake.us.

Retreat Pricing*

By all of us contributing what we can afford, make this experience accessible for a diversity of incomes. The range reflects the disparity between economic conditions in the Bay Area, and is designed for those with more wealth to cover some of the costs of those with less access to wealth. Thank you for giving as much as you are able so that people of different economic backgrounds are able to join our programming.

As you decide what amount to pay, we ask that you not only consider your present-day financial situation governed by income but also factors including historical discrimination faced by your peoples, your current financial wealth, your access to income and financial wealth, people counting on your financial livelihood, and the socio-economic conditions of your locale.

• Partner: $500+
• Supporter: $375
• Friend: $250

*Adapted from Dr. Bayo Akomolafe’s We Will Dance with Mountains: Into the Cracks Slow Study course with For The Wild.

If you are interested in becoming a Cosmic Honey supporting member, we can offer a post-event discount of $75.

Finally, if you’re interested in attending this retreat, but it is currently cost-prohibitive, please get in touch with us about work-trade opportunities at hello@wildawake.us.

Community Values

As a community-centered space, everyone is encouraged to actively participate as volunteers, contributing their unique skills and talents to the collective experience. We kindly request participants to sign up for one cooking and one cleaning duty, creating a harmonious and well-maintained communal space that supports all of our enjoyment and well-being.

Meet Your Guides

Verenice Berroa-Torres

Verenice Berroa-Torres describes herself as a spiritual being having a human experience! She is a mother, daughter, friend, space holder, intuitive healer and Textile Artist. She is passionate about creating beauty with plants, minerals and textiles. Her curiosity and love for nature drives her to learn more about how to have collaborative relationships with the natural world. She strives for balance and flow in everything she creates, believing that each piece has its own unique essence and vibration that comes from the plants used. Her hope is to share the magic of botanical dyes, reminding us all that nature has always been here to support us throughout our lives. You can find her teaching classes at The Crucible and across the East Bay.

Liah Grace

Liah Grace is a co-founder of Cosmic Honey where she stewards the regenerative agriculture program. She works at the intersection of community building, art, plant growing and spirituality. She is certified as a Korean Natural Farming instructor and has been spreading wisdom and teaching through hands-on experiences of working with plants for the past 10 years. She weaves ancient wisdom with our modern understanding of farming science and believes that it is in our hands to grow the world we want to live in. She is passionate about magic and creativity and loves hosting awe-inspiring experiences for people through gatherings, celebrations, art projects and rituals.

Sophie Haruna Klimcak

Sophie Haruna Klimcak (RYT 200) is a co-founder and program director of Wild Awake. She harnesses her mixed-race background of Japanese, American, and Eastern European ancestry to bridge Eastern and Western ways of knowing to weave learning experiences that connect us to self, community, and land. She is a stargazer who loves to meet people by a campfire, on the yoga mat, and over a cozy cup of tea. She grew up climbing the olive tree in her front yard, finding homes in wildflower meadows, and is an avid backpacker with 300+ miles of trails logged, with a newly emerging passion for birding, poetry, and taiko drumming.

About Wild Awake

Wild Awake curates immersive outdoor learning experiences that are rooted in connecting with and caring for ourselves, each other, and the more-than-human world. We believe that when we re-orient our attention to the time and space around us, we can cultivate relationships that recognize our mutuality and interdependence.

For more details about Wild Awake, please visit www.wildawake.us. 🌿

Covid-19 Safety

Please do not attend if you are not feeling well, have COVID-19 symptoms, or have been in close contact with anyone who is COVID-19+.

Contact Information

Please reach out to hello@wildawake.us for any questions about this experience. We can’t wait to see you in the woods!