Being recognized alongside some of the top farm stay destinations in the nation is an incredible honor and a reflection of everything our team, our land, and our guests bring to this place every day.

Experience It for Yourself

If you’ve been thinking about booking a farm stay, there’s no better time. Come breathe in the fresh Carolina air, taste nourishing farm-to-fork meals grown from our own greenhouses and fields, and unplug in a cabin surrounded by 750+ acres of working farmland.

You can read the full USA Today 10Best list here: 10best.usatoday.com/awards/best-farm-stay.

Ready to plan your stay? Book your Juneberry Ridge farm stay today.

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Juneberry Ridge concert series returns for sixth year

By Stanly News Journal

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Thank you to the PBS team for capturing what we’ve been growing here, and what it feels like to stay awhile. We hope you’ll plan a visit soon.

Explore our upcoming farm stays at juneberry.com/farmstay.

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Plus, for the full experience, check our festival stay for a two-night all-inclusive weekend in our comfortable cabins, complete with our fields & flavors farm tour, all meals and try your aim at our 5-stand clay shooting event (open to all levels, first timers and expert sharp shooters).

By Visit North Carolina

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Lost your zen? Reconnect with nature on a forest walk, say “aah” at a spa or take a whole weekend to recharge.

Research has shown what many have always known – time spent immersed in nature is good for us. Enter: Juneberry Ridge, where the farm’s two- or three-night stays offer a high-end, all-inclusive retreat experience. With every detail planned, you’re free to relax, dine on farm-fresh meals, and take part in wellness activities like yoga and forest bathing. And with 750 acres of grounds, that’s a lot of forest to bathe in.

By Visit NC

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The weekend’s itinerary fosters friendships between guests, time to reconnect with a partner or friends and downtime for reading walking. Each activity is designed for all comfort levels; no experience is needed to participate.

Just before bedtime, guests participate in Yoga Nidra, a guided meditation. A good nigh’s sleep is promised after the hour-long experience.

During the stay, a forest bathing guide leads the group through a three-hour exercise along a short path in the woods. Forest bathing, an immersive practice with a focus on healing, is attributed to lowering depression, stress, and heart rate. The guide offers several invitations to discover through seeing, smelling, and touching the forest. The session finishes with a tea ceremony.

Several activities such as forest bathing, the garden to glass mixology class, and the farm-to-fork dinner on Saturday, and the Sunday brunch are open to the community, not just overnight guests. Tickets are all available online.

Juneberry Ridge, a 750-acre working farm in Norwood, North Carolina, offers two- and three-night weekend getaways twice a month. Guests stay in rustic one-bedroom cabins, or they can book the Longleaf Cottage, a spacious three-bedroom home, all set in a wooded area. Meals are farm-to-fork, and many of the ingredients are grown on the farm.

Getting there: A 75-minute drive east on country roads will take you to Juneberry Ridge’s entrance. The farm is located at 40120 Old Cottonville Road, Norwood, NC.

By Vanessa Infanzon

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The post ‘Centered’ in the Carolinas: Wellness Retreats to Jumpstart the Year By Vanessa Infanzon appeared first on Juneberry Ridge.

Some farm vacations let you roll up your sleeves and do farm chores. At others, you can just breathe the fresh air, relax, and enjoy serene pastures and rural views.

About an hour east of Charlotte, Juneberry Ridge offers a unique blend of agritourism and sustainability. What began as a farm dedicated to healthy soil and plant diversity has evolved into a vibrant retreat featuring wooded cabins, event spaces and creative culinary experiences. Set in rolling Piedmont countryside, this spot embraces North Carolina’s largest residential renewable energy system. Next time you visit, make sure to experience their latest offering: forest bathing!

By Visit North Carolina

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The 750-acre regenerative farm in Norwood is quickly becoming an immersive environment for relaxation and the availability of abundant nature. Founded more than 10 years ago, Juneberry Ridge has grown into an agritourism destination with wooded private cabins, beautiful event spaces for culinary and educational experiences and a 43,000-square-foot greenhouse.

As the temperatures cool and summer turns to fall, Juneberry Ridge is offering guests a chance to step off the path and into the woods to engage all five senses through monthly guided forest bathing experiences.
The term “forest bathing” emerged in Japan in the 1980s as a physiological and psychological exercise called shinrin-yoku (“taking in the forest atmosphere”). Research has shown what many have known innately: time spent immersed in nature is good for us. Slowing down and indulging your senses in the forest leads to an increased ability to focus, a bolstered immune system, and enhanced creativity, among other benefits.

“Through a series of guided invitations, you will experience the sounds, smells, sights, tastes and textures of the forest around you,” says Suzanne Durkee, chief executive officer of Juneberry Ridge. “Many cultures have long recognized the importance of the natural world to human health, and we are grateful to welcome guests to experience that revelation at Juneberry Ridge.”

Each forest bathing session at Juneberry is led by a wellness coach and forest guide. For each three-hour experience, participants are invited to slow down, get present and connect with the natural world through a gentle awakening of their senses.

Forest bathing has been shown to improve cardiovascular health, lower the risk of chronic diseases and even promote better sleep, Juneberry wellness coach Karla Aldridge says. Plus, all that fresh air and natural light can give your body a much-needed vitamin D boost.

“Forest bathing is a powerful stress reliever,” Aldridge says. “The sights and sounds of nature have a calming effect on our nervous system, reducing anxiety and helping you to unwind. Just a few minutes surrounded by trees can lower your heart rate, reduce blood pressure and boost your immune system. In fact, research has shown that forest bathing can even reduce the levels of stress hormones in your body.”

Forest bathing is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon Sept. 14, Oct. 5 and Nov. 2. Reservations are required and admission is $60 per person.

Each session begins at Juneberry’s Toadhouse event venue, 40120 Old Cottonville Road, Norwood.

Participants are encouraged to bring a bottle of water and arrive at least 10 minutes before the start of the session.

For additional details and to make a reservation, visit juneberry.com/events.

By The Stanly News & Press

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Juneberry, about an hour east of Charlotte, began more than 10 years ago as a farm and nature retreat that focuses on healthy soil and plant diversity. Over its lifespan, the farm has grown into a thriving agritourism destination. Today, visitors will find event space, wooded private cabins, and inventive culinary experiences.

by Sunny Hubler

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At our final Juneberry Jams fireside chat, Daniel shares how reconnecting with nature’s rhythms isn’t just about restoring land—it’s about restoring ourselves. Watch the full fireside chat below.

A path to restoring the land and ourselves

On June 22nd, 2024 at 5:15 PM, Ashton, our Chief Operating Officer, introduced Daniel Firth Griffith, a hunter-husbandman, storyteller, and award-winning indie author, as our third and final fireside chat guest speaker of our three-weekend long Juneberry Jams festival. As the evening unfolded, Daniel challenged us to rethink our relationship with nature. Through his unique philosophy of “kincentric” rewilding, he reminded us that working with nature instead of against it transforms not just landscapes but ourselves, too.

Daniel began by discussing rewilding, a movement to restore land to its natural state by encouraging native plants, animals, and ecological processes to thrive. His experience restoring the land over the past decade at Timshel Wildland, a kincentric rewilding project he co-founded in central Virginia, served as inspiration for his latest book, Stagtine. He shared it’s not as simple as letting nature take over. Even in rewilding, there’s an element of human control, he explained. However, Daniel believes in working with what we’ve been gifted—honoring and enhancing the land within its existing parameters. 

This perspective inspired what he calls kincentric rewilding, a term that his book uses to define the relationship that all of life has with one another. Daniel explained that “kincentric” combines kin (kinship) and centric (concentric). The kinship side reflects the idea of a single living system—this sense of oneness where we all work together. But there’s also the concentric side, which reminds us of the cycles of death, rebirth, and many other interconnected rhythms of life.

Daniel challenged us to reflect on our place within these cycles: What is our role in these natural systems? Kincentric rewilding he explained isn’t just about restoring the land—it’s about restoring ourselves. It’s about finding balance, working with nature instead of trying to control it, and reawakening our connection to the earth in the process.

The importance of happy cows

Ashton shared an idea that resonated deeply, food isn’t just something we eat—it’s what connects us. “Not only does food bring us together,” Ashton said, “but for a lot of people, it’s the only connection they have to the natural world on a daily basis.” Think about it—the vegetables on our plates, the bread we slice, even the coffee in our cups—they’re all little reminders of how tied we are to the earth, whether we realize it or not.

This connection becomes even clearer when we look at the animals that feed us, particularly cows. Dan Kittredge, founder of the Bionutrient Food Association, is researching nutrient-dense beef, exploring what it means for beef to deliver health benefits. But what’s more important for our well-being—nutrient-rich soil that produces nutrient-packed beef, or happy soil that nurtures happy cows?

What a cow eats and how it lives doesn’t just affect its own well-being—it affects us, too. If a cow eats feed sprayed with glyphosate, a chemical herbicide that’s known to wreck the gut microbiome, we’re essentially inheriting that glyphosate when we consume its meat or milk. Beyond physical health, Daniel posed a fascinating question. If happiness is biochemically driven, could eating meat from stressed or unhappy cows transfer those stress-related chemicals to us?

This idea challenges us to see food as more than just fuel. It’s a transfer of energy, life, and maybe even emotion. What we eat connects us—not just to nature, but to the lives that sustain us.

How plants “communicate” with us

It’s not just animals—plants have a story to tell, too. The Xenohormesis Hypothesis dives into this idea, showing us how plants adapt to stress and pass those adaptations on to us. For example, resveratrol—a compound in red wine—helps stressed plants survive harsh conditions while influencing the biology of the humans who consume it.

Daniel shared a compelling study about asparagus that reframed how we view food as communication. In this study, asparagus—a spring crop—was grown in a hoop house during winter. The plant anticipated warm weather, but when it didn’t arrive, the asparagus chemically adapted to the colder conditions.

Here’s the fascinating part: when people ate this asparagus, their bodies adjusted to the plant’s “message.” The usual transition from spring to summer didn’t occur. It’s as if the asparagus was saying, “Wait—summer isn’t here yet,” and their bodies listened.

Our food isn’t just nourishment; it’s a conversation. Each bite carries signals from the environment where it grew, speaking directly to our bodies. This reminds us that what we eat is far more than calories—it’s a conversation with the world around us.

How food deepens our connection to nature

Food speaks most clearly when we eat seasonally and locally. Local, seasonal eating isn’t just trendy or fresh—it’s about syncing with nature’s rhythms. It’s about choosing foods that align with the cycles of the earth.

Daniel put it beautifully: “When we start to turn locally, we start to understand that local food matters. And once we understand this, we begin to see that the people preparing that local food on local landscapes matter. Suddenly, community erupts.”

That’s where the magic happens. Eating local isn’t just about feeding ourselves—it’s about investing in something bigger. It’s about farmers, land, and communities working together in harmony. When these pieces fit, food becomes more than sustenance—it becomes the glue that binds us to one another and the earth.

In summary, Daniel Griffith reminded us that working with nature isn’t about letting go or taking over—it’s about finding that sweet spot of partnership. When we embrace the natural rhythms around us, we discover how interconnected everything truly is.

We’re all part of the same system. Kincentric rewilding shows us that life is a beautiful cycle—growth, death, and rebirth all working together. When we lean into these rhythms, we don’t just heal the land—we heal ourselves, too.

Healthy land, healthy lives. Whether it’s plants or animals, their health directly affects ours. If we care for them—through ethical, thoughtful practices—they give that care right back to us. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.

Food is our lifeline to nature. Every meal carries the stories of where it came from, whether it’s the soil that grew it or the hands that harvested it. By eating local, seasonal food, we strengthen our bond with the earth and the people around us.

In the end, it’s simple: we’re not separate from nature—we are nature. And when we work with it instead of trying to control it, we create a world where everything—land, animals, plants, and people—can thrive together. It’s a journey worth taking, one meal, one moment, one connection at a time.

About Juneberry Jams

Juneberry Jams is an annual summer festival celebrating regenerative agriculture, great music, and farm-fresh food in Stanly County, North Carolina. The festival is hosted by Juneberry Ridge, a 750 acre farm, education center and events destination in Norwood NC. There’s no better place to build community and learn about soil health, local food, and holistic farm management than the local farms forging the path for healthier agriculture.

Juneberry Jams was made possible by title sponsor and community partner, Uwharrie Bank as well as Kinetic by Windstream, and Visit Stanly. Community sponsors also included local business leaders, Stokes Construction, Precision Mechanical, and Uwharrie Technology.  Music programming was produced in partnership with Charlotte-based non-profit, Tosco Music.

About Daniel Firth Griffith

Firth Griffith is a hunter-husbandman, storyteller, and award-winning indie author of four books. His latest book, Dark Cloud Country, came out in 2023 and won two INDIE Awards in Nature and Environment. Described as the poet laureate of the climate crisis by Allan Savory—the Zimbabwe-based originator of Regenerative Agriculture—he is the founder of Timshel Wildland, the largest rewilding and relational conservation project in the Eastern United States. Timshel’s work was most recently featured in India’s largest progressive media organization, The Wire.

Daniel is also the co-founder and President of the Robinia Institute, a center for rewilding’s social emergence and the Mid-Atlantic’s Educational Hub of the Savory Institute.

Daniel is the host of Denusion and writes regularly on Substack under Denuding the Illusion. He writes for Resilience.org, Permaculture Research Institute, Front Porch Republic, and the Stockman Grass Farmer, among others.

Daniel lives in Virginia with his wife and three children.

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