Fresh Air Retreat Recap

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.

Sharing all the details on the Fresh Air Retreat! This was an action-packed three day retreat with a handful of veteran food bloggers, hope you enjoy hearing all about it!

What the heck is the Fresh Air Retreat?

Having a career as a food blogger or “influencer” is the most wonderful yet bizarre job in the world. You get to be your own boss. You choose your hours and work from home. I get to turn my passion – cooking – into a JOB. It’s a dream come true.

However, there are no vacation days. No sick days and certainly no maternity leave. Your co-workers are non-existent. It can be quite isolating and lonely at times only having a computer or your 9-month-old baby be the only source of interaction in your day.

This is why I’m so grateful for events like the Fresh Air Retreat I attended a few weeks back. It was a super intimate retreat hosted by my gals Liz from The Lemon Bowl and Lauren from The Curious Plate. I was surrounded by like-minded women who are the only people that can actually understand what this job truly entails. We bounced ideas off of each other. We shared our knowledge. And most importantly, we ate, we drank and we had FUN.

The ladies!

Be sure to check out all these other talented ladies!

Krista – Joyful Healthy Eats

Isabel – Isabel Eats

Toni – Plant Based on a Budget

Ashley – Fit Mitten Kitchen

Liz – The Lemon Bowl

Lauren – The Curious Plate

Day 1

I want to give a big shoutout to Lauren and Liz for all their hard work in organizing this very luxurious, meticulously planned gem of a week. I also need to thank all the awesome sponsors that made it happen as well. Let’s dig in to the week!

First thing’s first, EVERY day was filled with copious amounts of delicious food, all made by Liz’s good friend and local Michigan chef, Chef Trimmel. He spared no detail when it came to his cooking and treated us to multi-course gourmet meals multiple times a day. (Including a very tasty cocktail hour.) The first night was all about lamb he sourced at the Park City Farmer’s Market. We had lamb meatballs, braised lamb ribs, and lamb stew – and while it’s nearly impossibly for me to choose a favorite the ribs were literally finger-licking.

Day 2

The next day we met with Kristi from Starr Ranch Growers who provided us with the most DELICIOUS crispy, tart, sweet Juci apples. Our entire breakfast was made with the their apples, highlights being a sweet apple chutney and homemade apple pop tarts.

For lunch, we headed downtown to High West Distillery and completed our tour of the menu with a tasting of their small batch whiskey. We finished off the afternoon with a fun day of shopping, sipping iced coffee and just enjoying the sights on Main Street in downtown Park City.

High West was also kind enough to supply us with enough whiskey to make cocktails throughout the week and to take some home. (Which I immediately used in my Crockpot Apple Cider.)

Later that night alongside a homemade Old Fashioned, Chef prepared another epic meal of whole red snapper, trout, an epic farmer’s market salad and for our vegan friends, an insanely delicious, chewy umami-packed drunken noodle dish.

We finished the night chatting about work, life and sipping cocktails fireside.

Day 3

The third day was seriously action-packed in the best way possible. We started off the day chatting with the folks over at Justin’s while indulging in what one can only describe as a dream toast bar with every single Justin’s spread and topping you can imagine. (See my masterpiece below.)

After we fueled up, we headed out with Melissa from Deer Valley Resort on a gorgeous guided hike through the mountains. We happened to be be there during the prime leaf color season, so the beauty was really showing off for us. And man, after all the eating and drinking, I sure did need a good stint of exercise.

Next up, more food. And the best kind of food – charcuterie!! Creminelli treated us to a cheeseboard making class where even this self-proclaimed cheese board “expert” learned a few new tips and tricks.

To cap off the trip, Deer Valley hosted us at Tupelo, a globally inspired farm-to-table restaurant in the heart of downtown Park City. The cocktails were next level and the food, oh my, so so delicious. I think we ordered one of every starter (biscuits, the best roasted carrots I’ve had in my life and the creamiest deviled eggs) and I had the scallops for my entree and they were HEAVEN.

Because every good meal needs an after-dinner cocktail, we headed over to Alpine Distillery for gin cocktails and homemade pie. Yup. Gin and pie. Who would have guessed this combo was a match made in heaven??