Field of (farm spa) dreams

For three Sundays in a row last month, my wife and I crossed paths at Union Market with a couple we know. Each time, they looked radiant and relaxed. “We just did the Field Spa,” they told us as we enjoyed pints in the afternoon sun.

Clearly, we’d been missing out.

As it turns out, the Field Spa is exactly what it sounds like—a spa, set up in a field about 10 minutes east of Church Hill proper in Varina, Virginia. Said field is a part of Celeste Farms; said 4.3-acre farm belongs to Ian Newell, the owner of Goatocado in The Fan. “I drew up the whole thing in about a month, and we designed and built it in a month,” Newell told The Lookout in a recent phone interview. It’s charming, not precious.

The result is a rustic outdoor oasis, set back a few hundred yards from Osborne Turnpike in the the shadow of the farm’s cavernous barn. The set-up includes a trio of Finnish-style barrel saunas made by the West Virginia manufacturer Almost Heaven, four cold-plunge tanks, and a wood-fired hot tub. Those amenities are all organized around a central firepit; wooden lounge chairs on the lawn beyond offer sunbathing opportunities. A soothing instrumental soundtrack pipes through tucked-away outdoor speakers.

Having visited the Field Spa a couple times, I can report the experience is dee-ightful. Not just the cleansing heat and bracing cold of the actual spa amenities, either. Soaking it all in under rural skies just so close to Church Hill is a novelty that inspires something like giddiness. Or maybe I just stayed in the cold plunge too long.

Either way, for Newell, the Field Spa’s accessibility from the city proper is core to Celeste Farms’ overall mission. “I went through some personal stuff and realized that, you know, wellness was really something that people needed, especially after Covid,” Newell said. “This farm was set up to be a space of primarily growing food, but also because of the proximity [to Richmond], doing events in a social, enterprising way.”

The Field Spa concept began as a series of ticketed “wellness parties” in the fall of 2024 that included yoga, music, and sauna access. Based on those events’ popularity, Newell retooled the concept in the intervening months to be a regular offering. Starting earlier this year, Celeste Farms began selling hour-long slots to the spa each Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $15-18 per person depending on the day, with discounts if you want to become an annual member. On each of my two visits, the spa was more or less at capacity throughout the hour, but I never felt like I was waiting an undue amount of time to use any of the facilities.

Field Spa is just one piece of a puzzle that Newell has been trying to fit together in Varina since he bought Celeste Farms six and a half years ago. The animating challenge: how to make a working farm in Henrico still work as the area feels the pressures of development and dislocation from greater Richmond’s boom. “An overarching thing the farm is about is showing, hopefully, that you can create a sustainable farm, not only through its growing practices, but also through its cash flow,” he said. “I'm trying to provide a way for small farms to to be lucrative in the future.”

Selling produce to local restaurants can be a good business, but it’s constrained by volume, demand, and the agriculture’s notorious vagaries. Hosting ticketed farm dinners, selling wildflower-cutting sessions, booking weddings—these are higher-ticket offerings that Newell hopes can even out and augment his and others’ traditional farm revenues. "I used to call it ‘playing Robin Hood’—creating [higher-end] experiences for those who have the type of income to be able to come and support us, and then in return, creating experiences that are more accessible financially, to get more people out here.”

Celeste Farms has hosted visits for Richmond schoolchildren, with a few more tours scheduled this year. “We like to do that for free, or at a really low price… and having those [other income streams] can help us fund that,” he said.

The next phase for Celeste Farms is to secure rule changes at the county level that would allow Newell to open up a proper restaurant on the property to accompany the Field Spa. The menu available for now is catered from Goatocado, a uniquely viable workaround because he owns both businesses. “Not every farm it is tied also to a restaurant,” so if Henrico County is to be “pro-small farm” in the future, he argued, crafting new rules to allow farmers to adapt to the new economic landscape is paramount. “That’s the big mission.”

It’s a big mission indeed, and a lot of work. Newell seems up to the task, but I’ll be doing my part too—showing up for a shvitz every now and again. No more missing out for me.

📜 Possum Poetry

Possum Poetry is original verse written exclusively for The Lookout by Penelope Poubelle, the Lookout’s litter critter-at-large. If you spot roadside trash you’d like her to immortalize in doggerel, email a photo to [email protected]. All submissions anonymous!

🛠️ The fix is in on Repair Cafe RVA’s Church Hill pop-up

Late last month, Repair Cafe RVA popped up in the Robinson Theater in Church Hill North for an afternoon of mutual aid. Due to a prior commitment, I was only able to stop by Robinson Theater on the day of the event, so I followed up after the fact with founder Jenny Kobayashi Malone to see how the workday went. She shared some stats:

• The event drew more than 80 visitors, who were assisted by 37 volunteers.

• Repairers were able to make more than 75 repairs, fully repairing approximately 75% of visitors’ items and partially repairing/advising on another 21.1%.

• All told, repairers were able to keep 259 pounds of stuff out of the landfill.

• The 5 most-requested items for repair were necklaces, bikes, earrings, jeans, and rings.

“This was the best turnout so far,” Malone told The Lookout in a brief email exchange. “We had even more visitors than our first event (which had a line out the door) but because the venue was so much bigger, we had space for everyone and then some.”

Repair Cafe RVA’s next event will be later this month at Studio Two Three in Manchester, with details soon to come via its Instagram account. And Malone shared that she’s eyeing a return to the Robinson Theater in June, “possibly with an additional repair category or two.” Stay tuned.

🗺️ How DPW tracks cobblestone streets

One loose end in The Lookout’s report last week on area residents’ concerns over whether the Richmond Department of Public Works would preserve Union Hill’s historic street features as it repaved streets in that neighborhood was how, exactly, it tracks the location of those features. Department spokesperson Paige Hairston told me that DPW always has a paving inspector on-site to liaise about the cobblestones, pavers, etc. with the city’s contracted work crews, but said I’d have to file a public-records request to see the system they use to flag those features. But after The Lookout’s report, the Director of Richmond’s Office of Strategic Communications, Ross Catrow, reached out with some additional materials:

• A GIS (Geographic Information System) application readout that pulls from the city’s database of road-surface information, above; and

• A breakdown of the total and unit costs of installing and maintaining these different types of road surfaces in the city, below.

As you can see—and as you’d probably surmise—cobblestones and bricks are extreeeeemely expensive compared to basically any other road surface in the city, and there are very few roads left made of the stuff. They’re outlined in red on the map; I’ve uploaded a copy of it here so you can zoom in at your leisure. Of note: while the city this particular readout doesn’t flag features like the cobblestone gutter pans that line many Union Hill streets, a feature that Union Hill Civic Association’s (UHCA) own block-by-block inventory does include.

It’s possible DPW stores that information in a different system, and regardless, Union Hill’s historic street features should be preserved in accordance with the UHCA’s wishes and the city’s own policy. But hopefully this sheds a little bit more light on how the pavement sausage (?) gets made.

📢 Happenings on The Hill

• 11th heaven: Celebrate a decade plus one (or a dozen minus one?) years of Triple Crossing Beer at an anniversary party from 12-5pm at its Fulton location. Falcon SMASH!

• Queer? Welcome here: Lonely Planet’s annually released LGBTQ+ Travel Guide this year highlighted Richmond, and Church Hill in particular, as safe destinations for queer travelers. The RTD has the write-up. 

• Zero-fare rolls on: Greater Richmond Transit Commission was able to find the $6.8 million needed to keep service gratis through June 2026, even though VCU hasn’t committed to kicking in $1.2 million like it did last year. Full story.

• Spin that vinyl: Tomorrow (4/12) is National Record Store Day. Stop by Records & Relics RVA on E. Marshal St. to get in the—wait for it—groove. Find out what the shop will be spinning.

Happenings on The Hill is a digital bulletin board for events, causes, and other items of interest to East Enders that don’t necessarily merit full editorial treatment. Got something for a future edition? Email the relevant details, links, etc. to [email protected] for consideration!

📸 A Very CHill Photo

Want to share your Very CHill Photo from the neighborhood? Email it to [email protected] with your name as you’d like it to appear for publication, and the camera you shot it on.