Sacred Nourishment: Practices for Connected Cooking and Eating

Join us for an intimate gathering to honor the summer solstice through mindful cooking and communal eating. As we stand at the peak of the sun's journey, we'll explore themes of abundance, celebration, and radiance through our connection with seasonal ingredients and the transformative power of fire.

This sacred cooking experience offers a unique opportunity to deepen three essential connections: to ourselves through mindful practice, to each other through shared stories and collaborative creation, and to the earth through intimate engagement with summer's bounty. As we work with the season's vibrant offerings, we'll attune ourselves to nature's rhythms and our own inner wisdom.

In this five-hour experiential workshop, we'll work together to transform fresh summer ingredients into a celebratory feast that honors the longest day of the year. Through mindful cooking practices, fire-tending, and shared stories, we'll deepen our relationship with food and dive into the art of pizza-making.

We’ll weave mindfulness and embodiment practices in with hands-on instruction in how to work with pizza dough, prepare toppings and load pizzas in and out of the oven. Together, we'll explore how working with food and fire can become a sacred practice that connects us to the sun's energy, the earth's abundance, and our collective wisdom.We’ll finish by sitting down together to enjoy the meal we prepared.

All experience levels welcome. Workshop includes dinner and recipes to take home.

About your Chef Facilitators:

Jonah Fertig-Burd

For the past two decades, I’ve been weaving together food, community, and transformation, co-creating spaces where nourishment—of both body and spirit—sparks deeper connections and lasting change. As a facilitator, consultant, farmer, cook, and cooperative builder, I’ve nurtured regenerative food systems, worker-owned enterprises, and grassroots movements that center shared power and liberation. I co-founded Local Sprouts Cooperative, a worker-owned café and catering business rooted in local and organic food, and I’m a worker-owner of Celebration Tree Farm & Wellness Center, where the land itself is part of the healing. Now, through my consulting, facilitation, and coaching practice, InterRooted, I support interconnected, transformative leaders, organizations, and communities rooted in love, nourishment, and cooperation. Whether through hands-on farming, teaching about cooking and community food systems, or guiding groups toward deeper collaboration, I believe food is a portal to resilience, culture, and joy. My work is guided by the wisdom of ecosystems and the belief that when we come together—with open hearts and shared vision—we can transform our communities from the ground up.

Sabra Saperstein

My relationship with food and cooking has been a profound journey spanning the last 15 years. It began in New York through weekly 'family dinners' with dear friends, which eventually led to co-founding Skytown – a restaurant serving nourishing bowls of soul food and fostering community with food as its centerpiece.

While my subsequent work in several New York restaurants expanded my culinary skills, it also exposed me to the industry's often toxic culture. This challenging experience led me to Insight Meditation Society in 2014, where I spent six transformative years as a cook. There, I discovered the true essence of why I'm drawn to cooking – something fundamentally different from the Western restaurant approach – and introduced me to the practice of mindful cooking and eating.

Since moving to Portland, Maine in 2020, I've served as 'Hearthholder' at both Good Medicine Collective and now Frith Farm, preparing community lunches that nurture connection and coherence. Through these experiences, I've come to understand food's profound potential as a technology for connection – to self and others, and also to nature and spirit.