I made mozzarella cheese last night. This is not a shechechiyanu moment - I’ve done it before, using this, highly recommended, cheese making kit. But every time I accomplish the feat of turning a gallon of milk into two fistfuls of salty, stretchy, kosher cheese, it feels rather profound.

It also feels a little wasteful, as in, “I go to the trouble of pouring a whole gallon of milk into a pot, heating it 88 degrees, and stirring in vegetable rennet, and this is the thanks I get? A bunch of wasted whey?” I know I could probably save the whey that separates from the cheese curds, and use it for a million different things (suggestions welcome). But aside from pouring about 1 cup worth into my grateful plants, I dumped the rest of it down the drain. I thought my roommates might not appreciate two large Tupperwares full of yellow cheese-water crowding up the fridge.

So why did I go to all this trouble to make my own cheese? Well, to impress my Shabbat guests, of course - and also to make an “Israeli caprese salad,” which is a simple tweak on the Italian classic of fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil, but might just be an entirely new creation.

Perhaps I should say a shechechiyanu afterall? Recipe below the jump.

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Even as we approach Tisha B’Av and the broken, darkness this time symbolizes, a bright light is shining in our food world.

Monsanto has finally admitted defeat in a 20-year struggle to gain acceptance of its genetically engineered milk hormone, rBGH (recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, or rBST, recombinant bovine somatropin - trade name Posilac). Yesterday, Monsanto publicly gave up in the ‘milk wars,” when it announced that it was “pursuing a divestiture of its dairy product, POSILAC(R) bovine somatotropin, in the upcoming months.”

In 1994, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of Monsanto’s controversial rBGH, but gave dairies the right to label milk produced without rBGH as rBGH-free. Since its approval in 1994, rBGH has been at the center of controversy.

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Tisha B’Av (the 9th day of the month of Av - an annual fast day in the Jewish tradition) can be a meditation on hunger, and even more so on thirst, coming as it does in the heat of summer. Though fasting is not famine, it brings us one small step closer in our bodies and imaginations to what it might have been like during the siege of Jerusalem, or even to what it is like now, whenever famine strikes the victims and refugees of war.

The book we read on Tisha B’Av, Lamentations or Eikhah, is filled with images of hunger and famine, along with all other kinds of tragedy. I first got into Eikhah in a special way. It was shortly after a break-up, and I was aching so much I could hardly stand it. I was doing anything I could to distract myself (even jogging, which is not exactly my thing), but on Tisha B’Av you’re not allowed to be distracted by music or movies, or even by regular Torah study, and exercise on a no-water summer fast isn’t a smart idea. So I decided I would try to translate Lamentations. That led me to many years of engagement with the text, and to composing a powerful translation that I now distribute through my website.

One of the truly difficult passages in Eikhah (4:10) describes cannibalism as a response to famine: Read more »

I first read Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld’s thoughts about Tisha B’Av and Agriprocessors (re-printed below) via email this morning.  My fiance’s dad is on a Jewish listserve where the article was forwarded as a d’var Torah, and he sent it along to me.  I was deeply touched by Rabbi Herzfeld’s words - both their emotional and spiritual resonance and also his coherent assessment of Agriprocessors’ rippling impact on the Jewish community. “Who was this Rabbi Herzfeld?” I wondered. More importantly, “Would he let me re-print his d’var Torah on The Jew & The Carrot, so I could share it more widely?”

Then I picked up (meaning read on my laptop) the New York Times - and there he was again!  This time, his words were in the form of an op-ed - slightly edited from the d’var - but equally powerful.  Yesterday, I mentioned hypocrisy on the blog, in the context of examining our own food ethics, and not always liking what we find.  Rabbi Herzfeld picks up on similar themes in his article.  Kol ha’kavod to him for his brave words.

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Rosh Hashanah is still more than a month away, but after reading Slate’s article on “The Great Vegan Honey Debate,” I’ve got the sweet stuff on the brain.

With so many other natural and delicious alternatives to honey available (maple syrup, agave nectar…), questioning whether or not a vegan should eat honey seems somewhat irrelevant. But author, Daniel Engber, posits that, “There is no more contentious question in the world of veganism than the one posed by honey.”

He says some vegans scoff at the very notion of indulging in a food that is most often produced in a “cruel and exploitative” manner, while others wonder if saying no to honey opens up a larger can of worms hive of bees. Engber writes:

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The concept of sustainable kosher meat has been swirling around the Jewish community for a couple of years now, but tracking down the real thing is about as tough as an undercooked brisket.

I have come to partly dread the semi-regular emails I receive from hopeful people asking if I can tell them where to find kosher organic chickens in Topeka or, heck, Berkeley. Same thing for the farmers who call and say they have the chickens, or cattle, or lamb and just need to find a shochet (kosher slaughterer), and can we help them with that? In some cases, the answer is yes, but overwhelmingly I find myself apologizing that, while the demand for such a thing is growing, supply - and especially willing schochtim - just haven’t quite caught up yet.

That’s why I was excited to hear that New York City resident, Dr. Maya Shetreat-Klein, is making it a little easier to eat one’s values, through a new sustainable kosher meat co-op: Mitzvah Meat.

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Hey Jcarrot Readers,

The Jew & The Carrot, Hazon’s award-winning blog, is quickly becoming the front-page for Jews, food, and sustainability on the web. And as we grow, we want to hear feedback from our community – you!

The survey below enables you to tell us what you like about the blog, provide suggestions and feedback that will help us make it stronger, and share with us the food issues and ideas you care most about. Whether you’re a first time visitor or dedicated reader, your answers will be enormously helpful. Filling it out should take about 10 minutes (less if you type really fast).

TAKE THE SURVEY HERE

To thank you for your time, we’ve got a little gift for you. Complete the survey before August 15th, and we will enter you into a raffle to win a copy of Hip Kosher by Ronnie Fein.

Thanks so much for your input!

First there was the locavore - the folks who lived and breathed (as well as ate and drank) locally grown food. They enthusiastically joined CSAs, left their jobs in the city to start a farm, and launched local-food experiments in their backyards or window boxes.

Then there was the lazyvore - the media-created, slothful twin sibling to the locavore. The people who want their food local, but don’t want to lift a finger, or a shovel, or even a CSA canvas bag.

Now, locavore and lazyvore seem to be welcoming in yet another cousin - the practicavore (yes, this “adding vore to other words” thing could go on for just about ever.) The Washington Post documented the emerging trend yesterday in an article about people who are - either fed up with or economically hampered by rising food costs - growing their own food. Unlike the locavore who plants mostly out of a desire to get back to the land, the practicavore plants because food at the grocery store is just too darn expensive:

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The JTA reported yesterday about a pair of kosher butcher brothers in Long Island who are causing a peculiar controversy: by petitioning the state of New York to stop enforcing its kosher laws.

The brothers’ shop, Commack Deli and Market, adheres to a Conservative definition of kashrut, which holds that some foods (like frozen vegetables) are inherently kosher, and therefore do not need kosher certification. But according to the JTA: “Under New York law, only products labeled as kosher can be sold as kosher. The store’s kosher supervisor – a Conservative Rabbi named William Berman – submitted an affidavit with a different point of view: “the state is infringing upon the religious freedom of the non-Orthodox denomination/sects of Judaism by compelling [them] to adhere to the law requiring labels on all kosher food products.”

On the one hand, I sympathize with the Yarmeisch brothers. I consider myself Orthodox, and I do purchase some foods without heksherim, beer, certain rice products (rice wine, vinegar in some cases), and frozen veggies. But I feel a bit like a hidden Jew - “If anyone finds out!”

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Have you ever had a meal that completely transcended the food - one that perhaps even bordered on a spiritual experience? What was it about that meal that blurred the lines between sacred and every day? Was it the beauty of the food itself? The fractal swirls of color and texture in a sliced onion or beet? Was it a meal where the food served as a ritual extension of a holiday, like dipping warm challah into salt or honey on Shabbat? Or was it the company and conversation that heightened the meal to the next level?

These are the questions asked in Alice Peck’s new interfaith food anthology, Bread, Body, Spirit.

As someone who majored in Environmental Studies with a focus on Religion (yay, Middlebury!), I’ve read more than my fair share of self-indulgent, eco-spiritual anthologies. Granted I *loved* them, but if I wasn’t entrenched in that world, they would have completely bored me. With an eye for emotion over academia and a collection of powerhouse contributors like Barbara Kingsolver, Wendell Berry, Thich Nhat Hahn, and Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalom, Bread, Body, Spirit offers a completely accessible and engaging set of short stories, poems, and religious texts that made me laugh and feel well equipped with “Torah” to bring to my own dinner table.

Below the jump: An excerpt from Bread, Body, Spirit and a chance to Win a Copy.

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