Tops'l Farm

Make your wedding whatever the hell you want it to be. 👌

Planning. And dandelions.

Five Gotland wethers from @ingendahlacres came home to the farm yesterday. Curious eyes. Tightly curled fleece. Slowly acclimating to their new home and very playful! Anna & Eli raised them well. A lamb is mostly an exercise in attention. Water checked. Fences walked. But otherwise just time spent with them so we have an intimate understanding of their normal behaviors- and when something is off. An important skill when raising any living creature. To my mother, who started a homestead and raised 6 children. To my boys who taught me the miracle of pouring love into something without expectation gives so much more back. And to the mothers — biological, chosen, hooved, two-legged, all of them — thank you.

I didn’t realize how much I needed to slow down… until I got here. This episode of Makers of the USA is a special one for me. Not just because of the story, but because I lived it. Last summer, I spent a weekend at @topslfarm in Midcoast Maine. No noise. No distractions. Just space to think, breathe, and connect. The kind of space we don’t give ourselves enough of. I met incredible women. Had real conversations. And walked away with clarity I didn’t even know I was searching for. Sitting down with Sarah, the visionary behind Topsl, felt like coming full circle. We talked about what it means to create something with intention, to step away from hustle culture, and to reconnect with the land, with people, and with yourself. As someone who is always moving, building, creating… this was a reminder I needed. Sometimes the best thing you can do for your work… is pause. New episode is live now Go give it a listen #MakersOfTheUSA #TopslFarm #MaineMakers #CreativeLife #EntrepreneurLife SlowDown IntentionalLiving WomenWhoBuild Storytelling 🎙️ Edited by @northernattitudecreative

This is my brother Nate. Tops’l Farm exists in large part because of him…and a simple invitation to come pick and press some apples. Years ago, when I was living a different life far from Maine, Nate invited my family up to his farm in Edmunds Maine for a weekend of cider pressing. Foraging wild apples in abandoned orchards. Pressing them together. Cooking over the fire. Three generations working side by side. On the drive home I knew. I had to come back. A search for “farms for sale” led to 365 Bremen Road in Waldoboro about 45 minutes from where we grew up. Josh and I took the keys without a business plan. Just a deep knowing that a deeper connection to the land was necessary. That was ten years ago. Nate died by suicide in 2024, after twenty years with schizophrenia. He spent most of his adult life as a farmer in Washington County — outside, on the land, doing the quiet work that holds rural Maine together. The Outside/Inside Fund is a response to personal grief and a very real need here in Maine. A permanent fund built into Tops’l Farm — supporting mental health, wellness, and suicide prevention for Maine’s farming, fishing, and forestry communities. The outside work of hands and land. The inside work that makes it possible. 1% of every farm stay, every meal at our table, every jar of jam from the Farm Store — all of it going to the fund. We have created a page and are organizing ourselves around the groups here in Maine doing very important work. While we are about gathering people during the happiest of times - it's important that our work is deeper than these moments and supports the communities that make Maine so incredibly special. Two dinners this season anchor the launch: July 2 and October 24. Tickets live now at the link in bio. For Nate. The one who led me home. 📷 @the.singing.land

The welcome kit that greets you when you arrive. A property map. A poem. A list of pause suggestions — nap, read a book, put your bare feet on the earth. And all the snacks because you drove a while to get here and you’re hungry. No itinerary. No agenda. Just 83 acres and however long you’ve given yourself. Farm stays and Petite Pause retreats open Memorial Weekend. Link in bio. Come eat, rest and play. #TopslFarm #MaineFarmStay #PetitePause #MidcoastMaine #Season10

My love affair with green blueberries is going strong. Photography: @yourfriendleslie Planning: @causewecanevents Venue: @topslfarm . . . #stilllifeflowers #maineflorist #fineartflowers #modernbride #contemporaryflorals

Five baby Gotlands are coming to Tops’l in early May. They’re coming from Anna & Eli Ingendahl of @ingendahlacres in Wells — two of the new generation of farmers we admire most in this state. Anna raises her sheep the way good farmers do everything: with patience, real knowledge, and no shortcuts. These five are wethers — boys — and they are, objectively, among the most beautiful creatures on earth. Gotlands are a heritage breed from the Swedish island of Gotland. Vikings carried them on ships. Their fleece is prized by hand spinners worldwide. They arrive at the farm as lambs almost entirely black and slowly turn silver-grey through their first summer. What a joy to witness this life. This is what Season 10 looks like for us — deepening our commitment to sourcing from and supporting Maine farmers, one animal, one relationship at a time. We need your help! These black sheep need names. Five famous black sheep in history — send us your suggestions in the comments! We’ll announce the winners Memorial Weekend when we open our doors for farm stays. Early bird pricing available now if you would love to visit this summer for an immersive farm stay. Link in bio. #TopslFarm #GotlandSheep #MaineFarm #Farmstay

An extraordinary “rest as resistance” women’s retreat @topslfarm connecting, pausing, reflecting, nourishing ourselves with delicious meals, meditation, yoga, saunas, tarot readings and walks. As women, caretakers and caregivers, these times are precious and incredibly necessary for attempting to restore balance. I thought about my Mama a lot. The spiritual and healing experiences she cultivated in her own life and in mine, the wisdom she shared and the grief I feel from missing her guidance. I felt the juxtaposition between all that she’s taught me and everything Alzheimer’s has stolen. I can hear her telling me to trust and keep my heart open. Whenever I was scared, unsure, anguished, closed off, these were her reminders to me: trust & keep your heart open. I would often thrash about or resist, sigh or thumb my nose but somewhere deep inside I knew she was absolutely right. The precious time with these remarkable women, Jess @theartoflivingthislife gently guiding us back to ourselves, to our breath, to the pause…to my heart, to trust ✨ #grief #womensupportingwomen #alzheimers #caregiver

An old story goes: A man walks into a village and sees two men working hard and laying stone. He asks the first: what are you building here? He answers "A wall.” He asks the second the same question. “I'm building a cathedral.” We are hiring a few final positions for Season 10 at Tops’l Farm. And we are — not metaphorically — building something this year. A new structure going up on the property. A fund launching this summer for the mental health of Maine’s farming and fishing communities. Opening our doors once again for overnight guests who want to wake up on a farm, eat a good meal, maybe learn something, maybe not. There is a lot happening on these 83 acres. We need cathedral builders. Food & Beverage Director — you run the table, literally and operationally. Farm-to-table isn’t a tagline here. You will likely have your hands in the dirt at some point. We all do. Farm Steward — the land needs tending in all weather, all moods. Animals, growing season, the quiet discipline of showing up. Dishwasher / Kitchen Support — every meal we’re proud of ends here. We take this role seriously and we need you to as well. Floral Designer — wildflower fields, woodland settings, a greenhouse coming into its first full season. If your eye knows what to do with what’s already growing, we want to meet you to discuss 2 open dates for support. Competitive wages. Wellness commitments. A team that has been doing the hard work of building real culture — the kind that shows up in how we communicate, how we disagree, how we take care of each other — for the better part of 10 years. If you’ve been paying attention to the larger conversation in hospitality about what workplace culture can and should be, know that we’ve been having that conversation here quietly, seriously, and without an audience. We’re not the right fit for everyone. This is seasonal work and that brings with it lots of considerations. We’re the right fit for people who care how things are done — not just that they get done. I'd love to chat. Sarah 📍 Waldoboro, Maine · Season 10 DM us or email [email protected]

There’s something really special about a yurt dinner 🤍 The yurt sits nestled on the banks of the Medomak River & hosts intimate dinners & celebrations for our couples who feel adventurous & want to be tucked under the magic of the trees. I feel it every time I walk down the trail 🤍 📸 @gbristolphotography 🏕️ @topslfarm 🌺 @willavaughan

Anna from @ingendahlacres shared that three of our baby lambs were born this week. And it still shocks me that I was once a small girl standing in the middle of a family that never stopped moving — someone always coming in from the field, someone heading out, something always needing doing — hands on hips, stating to no one in particular: “I hate living on a farm in Maine. This is YOUR dream. Not mine.” Nobody even looked up. What I meant was: the mud. The chores that started before I was awake. The way we couldn’t just go anywhere because the animals didn’t care about our plans. The hard work of it all. What I didn’t know yet was there was so much there that I did love: the slam of the screen door. The starched linen curtains lifting in the summer breeze. The pie cooling on the counter that nobody announced because it was just Tuesday. I grew up on a farm in Maine and spent twenty years building a life that looked nothing like it. Nine seasons ago I took the keys to 83 acres here in Waldoboro. I have been building, slowly, the farm of my actual dreams — with all the quiet spaces and beauty and none of the trapped feeling. There is fresh pie. There are 18 screen doors to let the Maine summer air in. The animals we have here are part of why it works. They just live. No performance, no optimization, no interest in our agendas. Guests feel that the moment they arrive and can’t quite name it on the way home. I’ve stopped trying to explain it. It's a feeling that is felt deep somewhere and allows the exhales to be a bit longer. There is nothing else quite like this in Maine. Season 10 opens Memorial Weekend. 📷 @magicarrowphotography