Sugar Sweet Farm
By Appointment Only
Elizabeth Sugarman, Owner
Encinitas, CA 92024
Elizabeth@SugarSweetFarm.com
858-264-6525
Sugar Sweet Farm is a family-run organic hobby farm in Encinitas, California. They specialize in making magical memories for families while connecting children with animals, their food, and the earth. Amazing things happen every day at Sugar Sweet Farm and you can be part of the magic by joining one of their Goat Yoga Events, booking a Private Family Farm Tour, or even signing your child up for one of their Farm Camp programs.
The events are run by Elizabeth and Sissy Sugarman, mother and daughter team! Her family is also part of the experiences and team.
Visits are by appointment only. BOOK HERE
Goat yoga has been on my bucket list for quite some time and I was so excited to spend the morning here, doing a fabulous yoga class and touring the magical farm!
After the year we all had in 2020, I decided to put my health, wellness, and dreams on the priority list! It was a tough year in many ways and I realized that I wanted to make time for the things that really set my soul on fire and make me happy.
Top of my list was yoga with baby goats!!!
I found Sugar Sweet Farm on instagram and was very excited to go check them out. It was very easy to book on line and they send you all the information you need to make it a safe, outdoor event! They only allow a certain number of attendees to the classes and everyone is socially distanced and 6 feet apart!
They instruct you on how to handle the goats on your back and make it very comfortable for you. Only the little goats jump up on your back or are placed on your back gently by a handler/staff member.
Baby and mamma goats roam around during yoga class kissing your toes, climbing on your downward dog, and cuddling up with you during savasana. It is literally PURE JOY!!!
Photo Credit: @MayaEdwards
The staff has a photographer who takes images of you for you to enjoy!
For $40.00 per person you get an hour of goat yoga, goat cuddles and selfies after class, a peek at the farm animals and a stroll through the organic orchard as you float away from your adventure in goat bliss.
(I sure did)
We need to talk about the two cute llamas they have on their farm! I personally was afraid of llamas and thought they were mean. I had NO idea how nurturing and protective they were.
During the class, the two llamas were let into the yoga area and were roaming around. Butterfly, one of the Llamas, came right up to me on my mat and stayed with me for 10 minutes.
It was as if Butterfly knew I needed some support from losing my Mom and dealing with all those emotions. She let me pet her and hold onto her! It was extraordinary!
Sugar Sweet Farm and LLAMA THERAPY:
Llamas are guardian animals: they instinctively recognize vulnerability in smaller animals and feel a duty to protect and guard. Because their llamas are highly socialized from constant positive human interaction, they extend their protective instinct to humans in need, in extraordinary ways. These stunning llamas have a beautiful capacity for connection and the response Sugar Sweet Farms has witnessed in these interactions is quite inspiring.
Their llamas (and handlers) especially enjoy visiting retirement homes, hospice patients, and disabled adults.
Elizabeth bombs our llama selfie
After the class, the team takes you on a great tour of the private farm and introduces you to all the animals they have here.
They have all types of animals including llamas, goats, miniature sheep, miniature horses, a miniature donkey, a miniature potbellied pig, rabbits, and chickens. The tour ends in our organic garden with a playground, turkeys, geese, and chickens. They even have a wild turkey named Tom who took a selfie with me!
It was such a magical day and I highly recommend it! They are hosting an amazing Valentines Day event and we are planning to go back for it!
It includes a kissing booth, and yummy food!!
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About Elizabeth:
As seen in Hobby Farms Magazine!
1. What originally inspired your interest in farming?
When I left my law practice to become a full time mother, I approached motherhood with a great deal of research about child development, parenting, and education. I wanted to create a magical childhood environment where my children and I would work and learn together doing real, purposeful work with our hands. Our little farm became our living classroom and our daily lessons provided instruction in compassion, empathy, problem solving, self discipline and independence along with an infinite amount of practical skills, far beyond what most children enjoy. Now my children are in college, though still helping at the farm when they are home. But those were the seeds from which all of our farming adventures blossomed, from our homeschool classroom to community service awards to successful businesses like Goat Yoga.
2. Why did you decide to make goats a focus of the farm?
As a 4-H family, my daugther, Sissy, wanted to raise dairy goats. I gave her 2 Oberhasli goats for her 10th birthday and she has bred, raised and showed them until she left for college this past year. Oberhaslis are an endangered breed of dairy goat from Switzerland. Sissy’s first goat, Heidi, is still the matriarch of our herd, and all of her daughters and granddaughters join us for Goat Yoga class, while Heidi stays behind in the barnyard. Even though we’ve had sold out classes for three years here at Sugar Sweet Farm, we still can’t convince Heidi that Goat Yoga is “a thing.”
Goats are a big part of our larger focus of making meaningful connections between animals and people, especially children. Animals teach us so much about empathy, compassion, kindness, spontaneity and innocence.
3. On a day to day basis, what are the goats like to be around?
The goats are pure joy and I am constantly in conversation with them as I work around the farm. They always want to be right in my business! They are spontaneous, kind, curious and affectionate and can instantly put a smile on your face. Goats are absolutely magical healers. And our goats love Goat Yoga Events, waiting eagerly at the gate when our team starts setting up for class. They run to the classroom from the barnyard and clearly enjoy the attention from all the visitors.
4. How would you describe the appeal of goat yoga to someone who’s never heard of it before?
One of my favorite aspects of this business is that it restores my faith in humanity. I considered myself more of an “animal person” than a “people person.” But the people who sign up for Goat Yoga are animal lovers and animal lovers are the best people. So now I have the best people coming to my farm to love on my animals, which makes everyone very happy (me, the animals, and the people). And I have learned that I am am a people person. I just really love people who love animals.
Goat Yoga Events at Sugar Sweet Farm are animal lovers’ nirvana. Our entire herd of gentle goats and 3 llamas come in and mill about the classroom and everyone smiles and laughs. Pretty soon, guests notice that they have smiled and laughed for an entire hour — goats are just that delightful. And the healing that comes from connecting with a baby goat or a goat that comes and cuddles up on your yoga mat, choosing your energy to share — I really can’t put that magic into words. But guests leave here often remarking this was the best days of their lives. And I feel so privileged to be a part of that.
