To entertain you all, I shall post this lovely poem by Marge Piercy, which I find absolutely brilliant. I can hear my mother saying “you just do this, this and this” like it’s no big deal, as my eyes pop out of my head with uncomprehension (read the poem - you’ll get what I mean).
But in return, I ask for your assistance: Do we have instances in the Torah, Talmud or other esteemed texts of our tradition that contain RECIPES? I know there’s some stuff about taking various measures of flour to make cakes…but I wonder if y’all know about other instances? First responses get an apple cake (if I can make it right). Comment here or email me at anna@hazon.org.
Thanks!
Click here to read “My mother gives me her recipe,” by Marge Piercy: Read more »
I received an upsetting email yesterday from Houston’s Tuv Ha’Aretz coordinator, Jennifer Handy, sent on behalf of their CSA farm, Home Sweet Farm. The email said,
“On Feb. 6th we received a registered letter from the Washington County Appraisal District giving us a NOTICE OF DENIAL for 2007 Agriculture Exemption, stating that the reason our “Property does not meet the degree of intensity requirements as set out in the 2007 WCAD Guidelines for 1-d-1 Ag Use.”
What that means, is that Home Sweet Farm applied for a tax exemption for their organic, CSA-supported farm, by filing this form. They were denied, losing out on a crucial tax break that many small farmers rely on. As to the in-question, “intensity of their farm,” Home Sweet Farmer, Jenny Stufflebeam, wrote to members,
“If it were any more intense, Farmer Brad might kill himself working.”
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I’ve been working out a lot lately, and my body is doing that thing that it does when I actually use it: it wants to eat meat.
But of course, now, with all this food stuff going on, I have to think about it.
Like many people, I have a meat-eating history. I grew up eating it. Then I stopped at age 14 when I read “Diet for a New America” – but persisted in eating salmon because I was from Vancouver, and turkey on Thanksgiving because damn the house smelled good! Then was the phase where I was still a vegetarian but really wanted to eat meat – that was when I started playing rugby – my girlfriend would give me a bite of her hamburger only after she made me say out loud “I’m a vegetarian” and she found the whole thing pretty funny.
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Orthodox factions are slamming a Conversvative movement proposal to create an ethically motivated “justice” hecsher certifying workers rights and safety standards at kosher processing plants, the Forward reports.
In a column in The Jewish Press, R. Gershon Tannenbaum, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi affilliated with the Satmar sect, Hisachdus Horabbonim, denounced the social justice hechsher.
The Hisachdus kol koreh called upon all observant Jews to reject the introduction of any type of tsedek heckscher, something never previously heard of. The Hisachdus views the suggestion as an attempt by those outside the observant community to infiltrate and dilute the existing framework of kashrus certifications.
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At the opening plenary of this year’s Eco-Farm Conference held at Asilomar Beach, CA, which brings together farmers, environmental justice advocates and policy advisors, organic certifiers and buyers, academics, foodies, permies, and all around hamish people for four days of workshops, panels, and networking, an older gentleman and longtime organizer, welcomed the hundreds of attendees with a self-admitted, unusual gusto.
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“You don’t want this event that is supposed to start your life together to come at the expense of the environment or workers in another country,” says Ms. Harrison, 28, who’s wedding in October will use organic food at their celebration, and shuttle their guests in bio-fuelled busses.
This was a very sweet article in the NY Times today; apparently, green is the new white!
And that’s good news for the large-scale catered event coming to a synagogue near you, too. OK so you have to use disposable because they don’t have meat dishes. Make them out of corn! Or potato! And reduce your guilt as well as the crap going into landfills, when you take all your garbage to a compost afterwards.
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Written for Kol Zimrah’s Feb 2nd, 2007, Tu’Bishvat minyan:
Last week’s parsha featured the ten miracles and the ten doubts of the Israelites as they flee Egypt for the Holy Land. Ten times, the Israelites lose faith in Moses and God and ten times they return to God and Moses’ leadership after an appropriate miracle.
The people say to Moses, “Dude, we’re gonna die!” So Moses says to God, “Dude, gimme a trick!” And God says to Moses, “Here, try this.” Moses then turns to the people and displays a miracle, “Ta dah!” And the people say, “Whew, Moses that was close. We almost lost faith in you there. Thanks for the manna/water/victory/pillar of fire.”
Can I say that this is really stupid? We can all see it. This level of faith endurance is pretty shallow, this reliance on miracles. And I want to say that I don’t need miracles to be faithful. As a post-modern, post-Enlightenment, seriously spiritual but definitely down to earth guy, I’m not a fan of big miracles. When I set out to write this d’var, I was ready to be very condemnatory. But when I sat down to write this d’var, recent live events prevented me from being so:
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Not too long ago, my culinary program took us on a field trip to Three Stone Hearth. The place calls itself a Community Supported Kitchen, and is a model of what I think could be the CSA of the future. Think CSK in addition to CSA.
Three Stone was founded about six months ago by four women and one man — the man is the only Jew among them, and it says in his bio that he grew up in the North Bronx’s Amalgamated Cooperatives, where “socialized medicine, cooperative daycare, nursery schools and union organizing were all part of his original view of the world. Chicken soup and other wonderful Jewish Eastern European smells permeated the hallways and apartments” — all of whom had worked in the food industry for many years. They envisioned a new business model, where they do the cooking, and customers pay in advance for their food, just as with the CSA.
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“All the Jewish holidays come to remind us of something that we should be doing year round. We should always strive to be our best selves – but if we forget, Rosh Hashana comes to remind us. And we should always strive to get rid of the fluff and superfluity in our lives—but if we forget, the period between Purim and Pesach is a reminder. And Tu B’Shevat…the new year of the trees…what does it come to remind us of?”
“Tu B’Shevat, comes to remind us of our connection to the natural world. To the earth. To seasons. To the cycle of growing things. And also to our responsibility to care for those things.”
This was Leah Koenig, sharing words of wisdom via Shlomo Carlbach and Nigel Savage, at the 7th Annual Park Slope Tu B’Shevat Seder this past Monday. Read more »
This afternoon, a couple friends and I are making Shabbat dinner together. On the menu: roasted root vegetables (from the Union Square Greenmarket), sauteed kale with garlic, mushroom seitan bordelaise, homemade whole wheat challah, wine (combination of kosher, organic, and neither).
I’m pretty psyched about that menu, and about the group of people I’m sharing the evening with. But that’s not the purpose of this post… Read more »
While I was studying my business degree in undergrad, I had a fascinating marketing project which my friend and I really enjoyed doing. My teacher inherited several old issues of different magazines, dating back to the 1950’s-1970’s. The assignment was to pick a theme in the magazine and analyze its presence and development throughout the issues. One of the magazines offered was Family Circle, which was the one we chose for this assignment.
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…don’t eat it.
That was one of the latest set of recommendations from our fearless leader, Michael Pollan (Unhappy Meals, NY Times, Jan 28) of what and how we should eat in order to maintain our own health and the health of the planet.
Jewishly speaking, we could adopt a similar rule of thumb:
“If you’re not sure which bracha to make over a certain piece of food, (because it might or might not be from the earth, made of the five grains, be a type of cake, bread or something else entirely unrecognizable — such as “Go-Gurt”) — don’t eat it.”
Right on, rabbis!
The Boy and I speak in the subjunctive.
Me: In our fictional future home, I’ll frum up and keep a kosher kitchen, you’ll frum down and agree to ‘ingredient kosher’ as opposed to ‘certified kosher.’
Boy: I couldn’t have a home where my family can’t eat. Someday we’ll have a third set of dishes, a trayf set, just for you. Although, I don’t know what the theoretical kids would potentially think…
Picturing a life where my hypothetical children laugh at me eating artisinal cheese and exotic vinegar, alone in the corner, on my second class dishes, I burst into tears.
Boy: What just happened? Why are you crying?
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