Escape to Wildflower Farms in New York for winter comfort and luxury

GARDINER, N.Y. — It’s absolutely one of those days determined to be dominated by snow. Snow already covers the ground and its continual fall mists the air and fills the view as far as the eye can see … or, at some points, can’t see! It just won’t quit.

On this day in early December, while navigating slushy roads in New York’s lower Hudson Valley to find Wildflower Farms, Auberge Resorts Collection, snow’s joys seem distant.  Especially because, on arrival at this rustic resort retreat, many people and cars are all trying to move into the same place at the same time, and doing it with the snowfall and slush.

The only way to gain entry to the resort is via the valet parking system, designed to deprive guests of their cars and in turn better connect them to the very ground beneath their feet — Wildflower Farms is that kind of place, a modern, albeit commercial, utopian “commune.”

It actually turns out to be a wonderful, freeing thing even in this suddenly freezing cold late fall. For one thing, the narrow lanes are freed of traffic and there are no cars rumbling by the cabins. But right now, it’s another hurdle to jump, even as staff hustle to facilitate.

Waiting all year for snow

The entrance to the main lodge must be cleared and the guy shoveling snow can be forgiven for not feeling chipper, and he certainly does not look it. But one smiling fellow dashing about taking care of luggage and putting it onto the carts that will take guests to their cabins declared he was happy for the seasonal blanketing. He’d been waiting for it all year and this was the first of what he hoped would be many more snowy days. Yeah, he’s a snowboarder. They get a bit like that.

The main lodge appears to have two sides — on one: check in, shop and lounge; on the other: Clay, a restaurant, bar and lounge. These flank a rotunda where two sides are wide open to the elements. Cleverly, this open-sided space, officially known as the Great Porch, has lots of seats posed around a big fire pit.

The roaring fire is doing a fine job — it’s pretty warm close up. It might be a Sunday afternoon, but folks wrapped up in stylish coats and hats, or plain practical cold weather gear, keep the restaurant’s bar busy, ordering cocktails and beers. It’s a super happy place — don’t they know it’s freezing cold?

Cocktails and fun must wait. For now, the goal is to check in and unload travel’s encumberments, and as soon as possible. A wonderfully friendly and calm girl at check-in soothes the process and administers hot herby tea. The lounge area offers a window of walls over the white-coated grounds. “The Gunks” appear hazy in the distance. Waiting here, sipping tea, is very calming. And then there’s the call to embark on the final leg of the journey: Clamber onto a cart to shunt along a narrow lane to a cabin — it’s cold, it’s wet with dissolving snowflakes, and it is dark and the misty snow looks ghostly.

A touch of luxuriousness

Just when you begin to think, "Why am I not on a plane to the Caribbean?"  you are dropped at your cabin — aka suites — and the valet unloads your bags. Once through the door, delight and feelings of glad you came wash over you. Outside the weather is frightful; inside it’s utterly delightful, with a familiar rustic Northeast homely vibe, mixed with more than a touch of luxuriousness.

Stone slab flooring in the hallway, where there’s a place to hang a coat and place one's outerwear, leads to a dressing area to the right, which in turn leads to a massive bathroom with a big walk-in shower and an egg bath you just know you won't have time to use. Still, who knows? This might be one of those stays where time stands still for a little bit.

Now, just past the all-important mini-kitchenette with its coffee-making doodads and fridge is the open plan bedroom/sitting room. There’s a couch that looks onto the rear porch where a snow-covered daybed and other chairs endure a long wait until use in spring. Inside, a daybed next to a pipe stove is destined for more and immediate use.

The epitome of winter hygge

Once daylight ensues, you find that the view from that back porch via the French windows is beautiful, and that is surely in no small part to the much-bemoaned snow. The post construction landscaping, still tender and new, definitely gets a bit of a boost in the wow department from the coating. Especially, from this vantage point inside a cozy room with the pipe stove aglow — my, it all looks charming. This is the epitome of winter hygge — that Scandinavian ideal of embracing winter’s elements and stillness with comforting coziness.

In order to appreciate warm and cozy, there must be the experience of the cold, crisp winter landscape. Outside of a full-blown hike, trekking to one of the barns, for want of a better name, for activities is invigorating.

From hikes to cooking classes

Activities change with the seasons: summer picnicking and fall foraging become winter hiking and snowshoeing with a local guide, or a wreath-making workshop using dried flowers, twigs and greenery.

Cooking classes are popular year-round. Today, in Maplehouse, a short walk from the base lodge, several women are gathered to watch local baker Ashley Napoli, head of Focaccia Flourist, as she demonstrates how to make a sourdough focaccia pizza. Napoli’s business name is playful: She decorates her pizzas with colorful edible flowers, and herbs and vegetables, in the form of pretty flowers. Flourist-florist! She also makes other focaccia and sourdough edibles, and whatever guests bake, they may take away with them.

Then there’s the much-marketed wellness aspect. Sound baths, reiki sessions and many movement classes are on offer. Tucked away on the opposite side of the lodge from the restaurant is Thistle, an Auberge Resorts Collection spa, and an indoor saltwater pool — and outdoor hot tubs. There is an outdoor pool, which, unless something really weird happens with the weather this winter, will be closed for the winter.

Wrap up for a brisk early-morning walk over to the henhouse where guests may feed a handsome plumed rooster and his harem of several charming hens. If you wish, gather an egg or two to take to the chef to cook for breakfast.

Inspiring positive change

So, the resort’s name refers to an actual farm element — not a giant agricultural wasteland of a farm, but more of a subsistence, back to the land ideal. As the property developed after its fall 2022 opening, hens were brought in, and by this past spring plans for a vegetable garden were brought to fruition. The grand plan is for the six-acre organic farm to include mushroom, herb, vegetable, fruit and flower gardens.

According to Wildflower Farms’ manifesto, the resort’s aim is to “reforge the connection between humans and the nonhuman world and educate urban guests on how they can think and act differently to inspire positive change in their home environment.”

The room or rather cabin rate includes access to most facilities, including some classes, the Sprouts playground, and farm tours, including feeding the chickens.

Even if your new friend in the henhouse won't end up on the dinner table, there is plenty for meat eaters cooked up in Clay's kitchen. Here your carefully retrieved eggs may be turned into a mushroom omelet served with luscious toast and a crisp finely seasoned salad garnish. For dinner there’s salsify with kohlrabi, mustard greens and sweet Asian pear; spiced sweet potato with black garlic and red cabbage; blue oyster mushrooms with carrot, chili and scallions; much of it the bounty of the Hudson Valley and, now, with a little work, of Wildflower Farms itself.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to hunt, gather, forage or otherwise pick ingredients. Just sit back and enjoy in the convivial Clay, which has a big central hearth with a floor-to-ceiling chimney draped with rugs depicting the wild things we are amongst somewhere out there in the darkness outside Clay’s windows, which reflect the restaurant’s twinkling amber lights, as ethereal sounds play out: “Sounds of Silence” — not actual silence, but the Simon and Garfunkel epic, which is followed by Nick Drake’s musing “Pink Moon.”

Then, there it is: that relaxing thing. One of the beautiful things about winter is slowing down, relaxing, being in the stillness of a clean white slate.

Wildflower Farms, Auberge Resorts Collection is located at 2702 Main St., Gardiner, N.Y. Rates: from $1,000 per night. aubergeresorts.com/wildflower-farms

Exploring Gardiner 

The Gunks, more charmingly and officially known as the Shawangunk Mountains, is a low rocky ridge that frames one side of Gardiner, a small town in Ulster County, N.Y. Larger, artsy New Paltz is six miles north; New York City sits about 80 miles south.

Winter hiking and biking includes the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail, which starts in Shawangunk and ties into the Empire State Trail in New Paltz.

For spectacular views of the Hudson Valley, hike the Mohonk Preserve’s 8,000 unspoiled acres, which also offers ice climbing, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing in winter. The Minnewaska State Park Preserve has groomed cross-country skiing trails in the winter, too.

Gardiner’s Yard Owl Brewery (yardowlcraftbrewery.com) — known for its Belgian styled beers — can be tasted and bought at Mudd Puddle Cafe in New Paltz.

Gardiner is also home to what was New York State’s first legal distillery after Prohibition, Tuthilltown Spirits Distillery. Located on the charmingly monikered Grist Mill Lake, named for Selah Tuthill’s 1788 built mill, the distillery’s visitor center includes a tasting room and cocktail bar, and a shop displaying such goods as single-barrel bourbons, cask-finish whiskeys, liqueurs, bourbon barrel-seasoned maple syrup, bourbon-infused chocolate and a whiskey bottle candle collection (hudsonwhiskey.com).

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Winter at Wildflower Farms in Gardiner, NY, means plenty of hygge