Retreat Farm

Location Brattleboro, VT
Acreage 500
Protected Since 2001

Honoring our Interdependence: Annual Celebration
Sign up for our Annual Celebration! Please join us for this year's event on 9/17, which will take place at the Retreat Farm.

A gathering place for community, food, history, and recreation

Retreat Farm is a year-round destination for outdoor recreation and community connection. Visitors to this 500-acre historic property along the West River in Brattleboro can walk the trails, meet farm animals, attend seasonal events, and enjoy the local food market. With roots dating back to 1837, the former working farm has evolved today into a hub — managed by the nonprofit Retreat Farm — where people can engage with the landscape in many ways. In 2001, the prior owners, the Windham Foundation, worked with us to conserve most of the land for education, community, farming, and land stewardship — forever.

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Public Access
Dogs Allowed On Leash
Parking

Retreat Farm offers 11 miles of trails for walking, hiking, biking, skiing, and snowshoeing. The farmstead area features gentle paths, a nature trail for families, and a universally accessible section with interpretive signage. Seasonal kayaking, a farm market, public events, art installations, farm animals, and kids’ play areas make it a well-rounded destination for visitors of all ages.

Public Common & Trails: Every Day, Dawn to dusk

Retreat Farm Market: Wednesday-Monday, 10am – 6pm

Give others space to enjoy the property.
Leave no trace by using the on-site facilities to minimize your impact.
Dogs are not permitted near farm animals and must be leashed and under your control. No dogs, other than service animals, at public events or in buildings.
Carry out all trash including pet waste.
No camp fires, littering, smoking, or alcohol. No motorized vehicles.
Bow hunting is permitted in accordance with Vermont Fish & Wildlife regulations. For your safety, please wear orange or red on the trails during the fall.

To access the Farm Market, go to 400 Linden Street, Brattleboro, VT. To access the Farm, go to 45 Farmhouse Square, Brattleboro, VT.

There are four parking areas to access the Farm and trailheads. Please see the property and trail map.

Property and Trail Map

Bow hunting is permitted in accordance with Vermont Fish & Wildlife regulations. For your safety, please wear orange or red on the trails during the fall.

Trails, farm adventures, and cultural discovery

11+ miles of trails for all ages and abilities

Retreat Farm offers an extensive trail system open seven days a week from dawn to dusk, featuring over 11 miles of free public trails. Five trailheads provide access to a variety of trail networks and destinations:

Farmstead Area Trailhead: Direct access to the Nature Trail (0.65-mile loop), Forest Playground, upper pasture animal areas, and the starting point for the Storybook Walk and Trail Magic art installation — ideal for families with children. Visitors can explore Hope Garden, a circular series of raised vegetable and flower beds tended by Retreat Farm staff, volunteers, and community partners.
Solar Hill Trailhead: Leads to the Woodlands Interpretive Trail (1.2 miles), a moderate 1-mile loop with 18 educational placards on ecology and geology created by naturalist Lynn Levine.
Market Trailhead (via Cow Tunnel): Connects to the Pollinator Path/Meadow Loops (1 mile), a flat, scenic boardwalk through pollinator habitat along the water’s edge, perfect for birding and viewing farm fields. The first half mile is universally accessible with interpretive signage about Abenaki history.
Retreat Tower Trailhead & Harris Hill: Provides access to Retreat Tower (0.5 miles), built in 1887 by the patients of Brattleboro Retreat, a mental health care facility. The tower is locked and closed for safety, though visitors enjoy viewing the structure. There is also a cemetery nearby with graves dating back to the 1800s. From here (or the Woodlands or Ice Pond Trails), you can also access Harris Hill and climb approximately 210 stairs to the top of a 90-meter Olympic-size ski jump built in 1922. The site hosts annual ski jumping competitions and offers spectacular panoramic views of the surrounding landscape.
Ice Pond Loop (1.85 mi): where thousands of pounds of ice were once harvested by the Abenaki to preserve food, offering quiet wooded experiences and elevated views.
West River Meadows Trail (1 mi): A one-mile footpath named the Wantastegok Mskodal Ôwdi (West River Meadows Trail). With access points on Rt. 30 and Eaton Avenue, the first half mile is universally accessible, with benches added at scenic viewpoints. The rest of the trail remains rolling and occasionally narrow. Features six interpretive signs highlighting the environmental, natural, cultural, and historical features in both English and Abenaki.

Multi-use recreation

Trails support walking, hiking, mountain biking, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing.

In 2006 and 2007, the Windham Foundation and Brattleboro Retreat collaborated with the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps (VYCC) to revitalize the trails, making them more environmentally sound and accessible.

New trail signs are continuously being added throughout the trail system to make them easier to follow.

Kayaking and wildlife viewing

The Retreat Meadows, located at the confluence of the West and Connecticut Rivers, are ideal for seasonal kayaking, birdwatching, and wildlife observation. Despite the name, Retreat Meadows is not a grassy meadow — it is a shallow, flooded area created by the Vernon Dam, which historically was agricultural land and also sacred Abenaki land, as it remains today. Today, it serves as an important wetland habitat and a peaceful paddling destination with frequent sightings of migratory birds and local wildlife. Interpretive signs feature Abenaki culture.

Family-friendly experiences

Families can explore the Forest Playground featuring a mud kitchen, jumping stumps, and building materials for forts. The Storybook Walk provides a unique opportunity for children to follow the pages of a children’s book along a short loop trail, with books changing seasonally to highlight diverse, land-based storytelling.

Visitors can also meet farm animals, including oxen, goats, and donkeys on nearby pasture, adding animal experiences to a day of play and exploration.

Art and cultural installations

Retreat Farm features public art installations that highlight the connection between people, land, and culture. In 2025, for example, a striking 120-foot mural by artist Charlie Adams was installed and reflects on Abenaki cosmology and local history.

Also in 2025, Trail Magic, a community quilt installation led by artist Amber Paris, located near the Forest Playground, was installed for kids and adults alike to interact with the eco-inspired quilting squares — many stitched with reflections on how people connect to the land at Retreat Farm. These installations add a layer of reflection and storytelling to the natural experience.

Market, food, and events

Retreat Farm Market: local food and community connections

Located in a renovated cheese factory, the Retreat Farm Market is open Wednesday through Monday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., offering hyper-local products from nearby farmers and producers. The market features award-winning Vermont cheese, artisan maple syrup, craft beverages, chocolates, and other locally made products. Visitors can enjoy daily cheese sampling with resident cheese experts who highlight Vermont’s artisan cheesemakers.

In 2025, some of the local producers include Tavernier Chocolates of Brattleboro with locally foraged and grown ingredients, Parish Hill Creamery, of Westminster West with award-winning cheeses, and The Bunker Farm of Dummerston with maple syrup, flowers, and pasture-raised meats (also conserved with VLT).

The Community Food Project also calls Retreat Farm home. The non-profit farms the land to provide a sliding-scale CSA of produce grown at the farm to the local community. Miller Farm (Vernon, VT) grows hay on Retreat Farm’s conserved agricultural fields, helping to keep the farm in organic production while supporting the area’s largest organic dairy.

Events, food trucks, and more

Retreat Farm is where people in Brattleboro come together. The farm hosts cheese and wine tastings, chocolate walks, family farm days, group bike rides, and more.

Check the Retreat Farm Events Calendar for up-to-date event listings and tasting schedules.

Weekly summer Food Truck Roundups attract up to 1,500 people on Thursday nights with local food, live music, and kids’ activities. Tickets in advance are available on a sliding scale for adults and are free for children under 12. Season passes are available. Additional seasonal events include art exhibits and farm-based educational workshops.

North Barn event space

The North Barn serves as the region’s largest indoor venue for weddings, community events, and Retreat Farm programs, offering year-round access.

Stewardship and conservation

Permanently conserved lands

Retreat Farm’s 500+ acres of fields, forests, and waterways are permanently conserved, preserving the character of the land and ensuring public access now and into the future. The conservation easements also make it possible for Retreat Farm to pursue funding that supports long-term care of the land and expands opportunities for people to visit the farm.

Land restoration and habitat management

Retreat Farm actively restores native habitat and manages its woodlands and pastures to enhance ecological health. A major focus is controlling competitive, introduced (sometimes called invasive) species—especially bittersweet and Japanese knotweed—through a combination of mechanical removal and targeted treatments. Restoration efforts are ongoing in the woodlands, along meadow edges, and at forest borders.

The farm collaborates closely with forestry professionals and conservation partners to plan habitat improvements. Visitors will notice boot brush stations at trailheads, installed to prevent the spread of wayward seeds and protect fragile native ecosystems.

Floodplain adaptation and climate resilience

Sections of flood-prone farmland, including areas adjacent to Retreat Meadows, are undergoing transition into riparian buffers with native plantings to prevent erosion and protect water quality.

Following the damaging floods in 2023, Retreat Farm began exploring climate-resilient land uses, including the future planting of fruit and nut trees in areas subject to periodic flooding, rather than annual crops. This approach supports both biodiversity and regenerative agricultural practices while growing crops that can withstand flood damage.

A landscape shaped by history

Honoring Abenaki homelands

Retreat Farm sits on Abenaki homelands, where the Abenaki hunted and gathered in the woods and waters for centuries, and later came to use the riverbank fields for agriculture. Today, Abenaki culture bearers help Retreat Farm create interpretive signage along trails and educational programs share the cultural and ecological history of the site.

From therapeutic farmland to community gathering place

Retreat Farm’s land has a deep history tied to the Brattleboro Retreat psychiatric hospital, which established the farm in 1837 as part of an innovative therapeutic program where patients worked the land.

In the early 20th century, the construction of the Vernon Dam flooded significant portions of the hospital’s farmland. In return, the hospital was given additional parcels of farmland across Brattleboro, resulting in a patchwork of farmland and forests spread across multiple parcels.

The hospital ran a dairy and mixed-use farm for over 150 years.

In 2001, the Windham Foundation bought 500 acres of the farm and forest land from the hospital, keeping portions of the farm operational and the site’s agricultural legacy going until a new owner could be found. In 2015, Retreat Farm, a newly formed nonprofit, took over stewardship of the farmstead area and central campus, focusing on public access, conservation, and community well-being.

Interpretive signage along the farmstead pathway by Jan Albers, award-winning historian and author of Hands on the Land: A History of the Vermont Landscape, shares the history of the farmstead.

Today, the property welcomes nearly 100,000 visitors year-round while honoring its history as a place of care, agriculture, and connection to the land.