My philosophy professor at JTS, Dr. Neil Gilman, used to say, “If you need proof that God exists, look no further than a sliced red onion.”

I was reminded of him as I sliced into some chioggia beets this evening, from Hazelmere Farm. It doesn’t get more awesome than this.

The next time you pair a satisfying hunk of cheddar cheese with warm, crusty bread and wash it down with a cold micro-brew, give thanks.  Thanks to God, yes, but also thanks to micro-organisms.  Without these single-celled critters, these foods (as well as yogurt, wine, and chocolate) couldn’t exist.

Fermenting-Connoisseur and author of The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved, Sandor Katz, says: “I meet so many people who have a memory of a grandparent who had some sort of an annual fermentation ritual, whether it was making sauerkraut, making wine, making pickles. Really until 50 years ago, 75 years ago, it was really, really common at the household level for people to ferment some of their foods.”

Katz’s new book profiles fermenters, as well as other food activists (who also fall into the category of “little guys” who deserve some thanks),who are sowing the seeds of the movement against the food industry.

Read an interview with Sandor in Grist here.

Looking for the perfect gift for an eco-friendly, garden-obsessed (perhaps even going to Adamah?) graduate? Look no further! Food, gardening and dirt are *very* hot topics in the craft world these days.  Many beautiful options, like the one below, await you at www.etsy.com (search keywords: “garden” “farm” and “food” for great gift options)

1. Beautiful Tomato Print (great for decorating dorm rooms!)

* A ramp is a wild onion (Allium triccocum), found in eastern North America. It has flat leaves, and rounded clusters of white flowers. It can be eaten raw, or used in cooking. It is in season right now in the Northeast. Ramps are also referred to as wild leek.

I picked up a chocolate bar in the checkout line the other day. It had sleek packaging, and the offer of “dark chocolate with orange” was enticing. As was the Fair Trade symbol, which was prominently displayed on the front of the bar. Great, I thought, I’m sold.

Unwrapping the chocolate later (are you drooling yet? it was good, but I’m not going to elaborate on the taste, since I have a different bone to chew), I had the opportunity to peruse smiling faces of Latin American farmers, and read the careful literature on What Is Fair Trade and The Fair Trade Difference and Chocolate with a Smile, etc. etc. etc.

I give us as a society (and my local supermarket as a provider) points for valuing Fair Trade chocolate. But you know what would REALLY signify to me that we have ‘arrived’ in a new era of sustainable healthy global food supply?

If you didn’t need the description at all.

Think about it. You don’t see products with a hekhsher also sporting carefully worded literature on how this hekhschered product will enable you to keep a kosher home and raise a family of torah scholars!

Read more »

Like me, some of you may have pondered the significance of dairy on the festival of Shavuot. I have mixed feelings about the various explanations I have heard for this association:

• Since the rules about not mixing milk and meat had just been revealed at Sinai, there was no time for the Israelites to buy a second set of dishes so they had to have a dairy meal to celebrate the giving of the Law.
• Using gematria, the letters in the Hebrew word chalav (milk) add up to 40 - the amount of days the people waited at Sinai (or the number of years they wandered in the desert)
• As long as the Israelites followed the words of Torah, they would inherit the land flowing with milk (and honey)
• Just as Torah has been compared to water, so it has been compared to milk (i.e. “Milk and honey are under your tongue” (Song of Songs 4:11).

It’s this last idea on which I’d like to focus the remainder of this essay. When it comes to Torah as milk, the following Talmudic passages some up the values behind this metaphor nicely:

Read more »

“Animal Dreams” still ranks up there among my favorite novels, and I have read everything Barbara Kingsolver has written since (I think). So I was very excited to learn that her latest book was about an issue that has become so important to me.

Last night, she was in Berkeley on her book tour, but this reading was a benefit for both the Edible Schoolyard and the Ecology Center’s Farmers Markets. It didn’t get quite the same showing as the Michael Pollan-John Mackey debate, but considering tickets weren’t free, there were several hundred people. The church where I have attended High Holiday services for the past years was pretty close to full.

Kingsolver was accompanied by her husband, Steven L. Hopp, who has contributed to the book, but last night, he worked the computer slide show. Since her book, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” is about her family’s attempt to eat only local food for an entire year, growing and raising most of it themselves on a farm in Virginia, we saw numerous slides of their garden – and what a garden it was.

Read more »

I just finished reading this article in today’s Chronicle, and immediately had to post it. What a great idea to get urban kids interested not only in sustainable agriculture, but how they should be feeding themselves. Check it out.

I have been very fortunate to attend and organize several bridal showers for friends throughout the past few years. But to honest, they are all the same and somewhat… boring. Whether the bride is surprised or not, similar things happen. The same types of food are served - salads (while they are always quite delicious), pasta dishes, fruit, and cake - and we all watch as the bride opens all her gifts while she tries to look surprised (even though she’s the one that picked it out for her bridal registry and we bought her gifts from the registry!).
Read more »

Last night I threw a dinner party. Not a Shabbat meal, which I’ve grown happily accustom to attending or occasionally hosting on Friday nights. I picked a random Monday, invited some friends over, asked the friends to bring spicy red wine and caramel ice cream, baked and prepped most of Sunday afternoon, and came home from work to finish cooking, set out plates, and answer the door as my guests arrived.

There is a Hasidic folktale that says rebbes should be burried in a coffin made from the wood of their dining table. The connection is that one’s hospitality at the table will carry them into the World to Come. I think there is a lot of wisdom in this idea - hosting, afterall, is both a vulnerable and enjoyable experience, and I think we reveal much more about our true selves through inviting people into our homes, than we do in most other social contexts.

Read more »

That’s the title of Barbara Kingsolver’s (author of The Poisonwood Bible) new book.  Kingsolver and her family left their life of familiarity and convenience, for a year-long journey into the world of local eating.

The NYTimes review writes: ”This meant no snack foods, no processed ones, no cucumbers from warmer parts of the world. “Six eyes, all beloved to me, stared unblinking as I crossed the exotics off our shopping list, one by one,” Ms. Kingsolver writes about the family’s adjustment to these strictures. With the exceptions of olive oil, grains and spices, everything they ate was simple and in season.”

Read more »

“Do not wrong one another, and you shall fear your God; for I, The Eternal, am your God.” (Leviticus 25:17)

[This verse] forbids wronging others with words…And if you say: “Who knows if I had evil intentions?” For that reason the verse continues: “You shall fear your God”…[Regarding] anything which is a matter of conscience, known only to the person involved, [The Torah adds]: “You shall fear your G-d.” (Rashi on Lev. 25:17)

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” (Proverbs 28:21)

While researching for a d’var torah for this week’s parasha, I came across the following midrash, courtesy of a Union for Reform Judaism TableTalk by Barbara Binder Kadden:

Read more »

Corn.  Summer’s favorite vegetable, or demonic monster?  In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan portrays corn as the heavily-subsidized poster child of the food industry - linked to low wages for farmers and the nation’s obesity epidemic.  While he makes a distinction between industrial-grade corn, and sweet corn purchased at a farmer’s market, many earth conscious eaters are left wondering if they should boycott their butter-slathered cobs? 

Welcome to the world of food-choice anxiety.  Tom Philpott, of Grist, reports: 

“I’ve identified an insidious pattern in U.S. food culture: Take a perfectly wonderful foodstuff, industrialize its production and strip it of most nutrients, sell it in titanic quantities, create a health scare — and then demonize it. It’s the process through which what’s good for you becomes bad. ”

What is an eco or health-conscious eater to do?  Read the full story here.

The Jew and the Carrot flew through the first round of voting in the Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards.  Voting for the second (and final) round of voting is open until Wednesday, May 16.  Jcarrot is nominated for two categories:

Best Kosher Food/Recipe Blog -and-

Best New Blog

If you love the Jew and the Carrot - vote today in both categories, and spread the word.  Thanks for helping to make Jcarrot one of the best blogs of 2007!

Recently, a friend asked me if I was a foodie, a question which caught me thinking quite a while for an accurate response. “Well, I used to be” was the only thing I could think of. Reflecting back on that answer, I found myself questioning what and how I eat and how that differs from what one many think of when they think of a foodie.

Typically your average culinary fan tends to place a high value on taste and other palate-based pleasures. Different tastes and cuisines are prized and much is made of importance of the finest ingredients. Star chefs, award-winning cookbooks, and the finest tools become things to live for. But, I like food. I like to eat good food. What makes me feel that I am different that this? I pondered this and came to the conclusion that perspective was key.
Read more »