FresherTogether

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Castanea immersions are a unique combination of playground and laboratory, spaces where leaders fine tune the balance of rigor and joy in their work. Immersions are the soft ground onto which fellows can collectively settle, take a deep breath, and find the rest needed to dream big and build boldly.

According to the Center for Creative Leadership, the most effective leaders are defined less by their individual brilliance and more by their ability to “connect, influence, adapt, and create the right conditions for others to thrive.” In other words, to lead is to build resilient communities and fashion new worlds.

Leadership already lives abundantly in the hands of our fellows. Yet under the current systems dehumanizing and destabilizing our communities, fellows are exhausted and stretched thin; distanced from their source of collective power.

Immersions are opportunities to renew and re-link. They rekindle fellows’ imagination toward what they can create together to replace a food and farm system that benefits only a wealthy few.

Fresher Together is hosting a Farmer Mobility and Muscle Recovery Workshop in partnership with JAH Hall and with space support from Chicago Food Policy Action Council in person this Friday June 5th from 1-4pm. RSVP is required as space is limited. https://events.humanitix.com/farmer-mobility

Join us on Friday June 5th from 1-4pm for a mobility workshop with JAH Hall, a personal trainer and healer who will guide us through releasing pain and healing injuries.

This is an approximate 3 hours in person, hands on workshop where we will work through ways to take care of your body and support injury prevention and recovery. Please bring a yoga mat if you have one and any therapy ball or foam roller. We will have some items for people to use as well.

Everyone will leave with a free gift of a lacrosse massage ball. And all attendees will be entered to win our door prize of JAH's Freedom Kit!

What to bring:

yoga mat (we will have a very limited amount to loan out)

water bottle

comfy clothes

Optional: Money or your digital payment - There will be a Freedom Kit Giveaway that all attendees are entered in as well as additional kits available for purchase on site. At a super special workshop only price!

Optional but suggested if you have : foam roller, therapy/massage balls, we will give you a lacrosse ball to keep and will have some loaner products.

Where: must register to get the room details.

Chicago Food Policy Action Council

231 S LaSalle St, Chicago, IL 60604, USA

RSVP Required! https://events.humanitix.com/farmer-mobility

Let's take care of our bodies this season!

🫛🫜Join us for our 2026 Beaverville Farm Community Work Days! Link in Bio

June 14th*, July 19th*, August 9th or September 27th*

*starred events = come camp on the farm the night before volunteering! Let us know if you plan to camp out in your RSVP.

Once you RSVP we’ll follow up with our exact Beaverville address. For planning purposes, we are 2 minutes away from Willow Slough Fish and Wildlife Area (https://maps.app.goo.gl/6VXJeeDSt9YPiwN68)

Check out the new shirts!! We made some awesome progress on bed clearing and potting up this weekend. Catch y’all at our next volunteer day on June 14th ✨🌀

Cover Crops and Climate! Join us for a hands-on workshop at the farm on all things Cover Crops. We’ll follow up in person after the virtual Cover Crops: Why and How? event on May 13th with an afternoon of presentations, farm tours, demo plantings, seed giveaways and more!

We’ll be joined by staff from the USDA to share resources on conservation funding that can cover crops on your farm.

will be distributing a soil health toolkit, that includes a cover crop zine, a thermal composting zine and a nutrient management guide.

This event is part of a collaboration called Deepening Relationships to Staple Crops with Fresher Together, and support of , FONDY, and MIFFS. Huge thank you to the Comer Crops Farm for hosting!

When: May 14th 2026 3:30pm - 7pm

Where: Comer Crops Farm 7200 S Ingleside Ave, Chicago IL 60619

Know before you go:

Bring a water bottle

Wear closed toed shoes/boots that can get muddy

There are bathrooms on site (while the youth center is open)

Check out the virtual event Cover Crops: Why and How? that AUA, Loyola, and The Comer Crops Farm are hosting on May 13th from 5 - 6:30pm

We’re Deepening Relationships to Staple Cropswith the support of FONDY, and MIFFS. The Staple Crop Growers Network is a project of Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, in partnership with Fresher Together, the Fondy Food Center, and Michigan Food and Farming Systems. This collaboration is supported by funding from the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

🫜Rooted in Resilience: Learning Circle for Farmers and Landowners

and invite you to join us for a full day learning circle to gather in community with farmers and landowners for discussions on farm viability, soil health, food systems, business and social challenges, and farmer wellness.

🫛Danie and Fresh Roberson own and operate Fresher Together, a diversified vegetable and grains operation with an inspiring land access and farm beginnings journey. While they host this learning circle on their farm, we will learn about strategies that have been successful in building their business along with an optional farm tour. This event is great for new/beginning and farmers of all ages and experience.

🔗Register through link in bio
🗓️Date: Friday, May 29th, 2026
⏰Time: 10AM - 3PM
📍Location: Fresher Together - Sauk Village, IL

Jon Kasza is an organic farmer producing vegetables, seed and grain on his farm, Home Farm, in the Hudson Valley of New York State. He is committed not only to growing food at scale to feed his community but also to cultivating seed sovereignty, where farming communities maintain control over the genetic futures of their staple crops.

He and his team are working to revive genetic diversity in staple crops for climate resilience—rice, wheat, rye, vegetables, buckwheat, and more—through population breeding. By stewarding regionally adapted, genetically diverse gene pools, they are aiming to cultivate regional resilience for small farms in the region.

Jon will be sharing his wisdom with us TOMORROW, Tuesday, April 14th, on our community call on growing sorghum for grain and syrup. All are welcome.

🗓️Tuesday, April 14th
🕰️5:30 PM – 7:00 PM CDT

Get the link at https://www.michaelfields.org/.../sorghum-community-call...

Can't make it live? Sign up anyways and we'll send you the recording!

Chelsea Askew grew up in Peavine, Georgia as the 5th generation on her family's farm, where her love of growing grits began. She has farmed numerous plots in Southern Appalachia over the years with heavy emphasis on growing regionally adapted, high calorie, and culturally significant varieties that have been handed down from dear family members and neighbors who share in the love of seed preservation.

Chelsea is also a wood-fired baker and is quite passionate about intercropping old varieties of grains and legumes for use on a small scale. Growing corn, beans, and squash, inspired by the Three Sisters tradition, is her first love. She currently grows for Truelove Seeds

Chelsea will be sharing her wisdom with us TOMORROW, Tuesday, April 14th, on our community call on growing sorghum for grain and syrup. All are welcome.

🗓️Tuesday, April 14th
🕰️5:30 PM – 7:00 PM CDT

Get the link at https://www.michaelfields.org/event-details/sorghum-community-call-with-the-staple-crop-growers-network

Can't make it live? Sign up anyways and we'll send you the recording!

Volunteer with us Sunday May 3rd 10:30am - 4pm!

Come out to the farm and get your hands in the soil! Once you RSVP we’ll follow up with our exact Beaverville address. For planning purposes, we are 2 minutes away from Willow Slough Fish and Wildlife Area

What to Bring:

💧water bottle for hydration

☀️sunscreen

🌤check the weather to see if you’ll want layers and please wear close toed shoes

🍎a snack or two is also suggested in case you need it and we’ll bring along some goodies as well

🧤gloves or garden tools if you want as well but not required

💕and anything else you need to take care of yourself. You can bring a chair if you would like, but it’s totally not necessary