Check out this podcast interview with Val Yasner from the Hazon CSA in Cherry Hill. Val makes a great case for eating locally and sustainably — and she’s hard at work making sure the 2010 season is as strong as last year’s at Temple Beth Shalom. Val’s on at about minute 18 (how appropriate!). Gut shabbes, everyone.

Check out this post about the Jewish Food Movement on Civil Eats. It is great to learn about the Food Movement from two of Hazon’s core characters – Judith Belasco, Hazon’s director of food programs and Sue Carson, one of Hazon’s key lay-leaders in the food movement. Sue co-chaired the 2008 Hazon Food Conference and helped start a Hazon CSA program at her synagogue in Merion Station. The article includes these reflections from Sue about her experiences at the Conference:

As Shavuot approaches and we reflect on the significance of harvest festivals in contemporary (urban) times, the AJWS-AVODAH Partnership is hosting an interactive program on hunger in NYC and what you can do about it! If you are in the NYC area you should definitely check out this event.

Date: Wednesday, May 12^th

Time: Light dinner and registration at 6:30pm, program at 7pm sharp

Place: The Commons on Atlantic, in Downtown Brooklyn

Address: 388 Atlantic Ave (map)

To register: Click here

Speakers include:

This week, as Earth Day came and went and I attended a fair here or an Earth celebration there, it also donned on me that Spring is here!

So, beyond my environmental excursions, I also attended of variety of events held on my very own Columbia University. Yet, what I found was an inability to fully appreciate some of the events due to the ubiquity of plastic water bottles. Some may laugh, but I find myself becoming more and more annoyed with these obnoxious bottles that I suddenly see everywhere. As I have previously written about bottled water, my awakening began when seeing the movie “Blue Gold: World Water War’s” on instant play on Netflix. Then, I really became irked when seeing “The Story of Bottled Water,” which I posted on this blog.

If you haven’t had a chance to see Food, Inc., carpe diem! PBS recently aired it on POV, television’s oldest showcase for independent non-fiction films. POV has also put the entire film on their site for free viewing for a limited time. It’s only up until April 28, so check it out today!

(originally posted on EdibleTorah.com)

�I�m so glad you are here today,� the woman said to Pandora at her Weight Watchers meeting today. �Because you were the crazy lady.�

The woman speaking had just made her lifetime goal, and she was speaking in front of the whole group about her success. She took the opportunity to single out my wife for honorable mention.

�I always thought of you as the crazy lady,� she continued. �because nothing you said made sense to me. You were in a completely different place. But now that I�ve been following the program, everything you said when I first started fits together.�

Good news for all you justice-seeking java-lovers and chocoholics! AJWS has teamed up with Equal Exchange and formed Better Beans – � a new initiative to sell and distribute fairly traded, kosher coffee and chocolate. Better Beans products allow congregations, community organizations and individuals to order high-quality coffee and chocolate while supporting farmers and community cooperatives in the developing world.

(originally posted on GoingKosher)

In planning our new (improved?) kosher home, we looked at everything that went into our mouths � from dairy to diet soda; meat to mints, chocolate to cheese. One area I hadn�t thought about until Rabbi SpiceRock brought it up was wines.

I�m happy to say that I�m not hung up with the thought that �kosher wine� is synonymous with �diabetes-inducing sweetness�. So the wine needs a hekshur. OK.

�Uh, no there�s something else�. The good Rabbi offered. �It�s called mevushal, which just means �cooked� in Hebrew and��

We’ve just begun to distribute our Hazon CSA 2009 Season Report, and we figured that sharing it with our JCarrot readers might be fun for you all. Each of the carrots on the above map represents all of our CSAs for the 2010 season, but to learn more about what happened in 2009 in our longest standing food program, you can download the report. For instance, did you know the following?

In 2009:

• The Hazon CSA program grew to 32 communities in the United States and Canada, with forty-one partner organizations, including synagogues, day schools, Hillels and JCCs and twenty eight partner farms.

We are seeking a full-time Program Coordinator to manage the day-to-day scheduling of the Adamah Fellowship and other Adamah programs, to teach classes and lead morning prayer services, and provide general program support. Ideal start date is May 15, 2010. Staff housing is available if needed.

Download a complete job description here. To apply, please send cover letter and resume to Heidi Jacquier. Please include in your cover letter a description of why you are uniquely suited to this position.

This was a lovely video about Isabelle Farm, the farm for the two Hazon CSAs in Denver. I hope you enjoy! And, if you want to learn more about all of Hazon CSAs (in Colorado and across the country) click here.

For the past two years I have been flirting with the idea of vegetarianism. To eat meat or not to eat meat? I was comfortable asking myself this question, but my family was having a significantly harder time with it. My parents would ask: “Can you really give up a Steve’s hot turkey sandwich? Can you honestly not order the toasted Reuben? Are you sick? Do you need to see a doctor?”

On April 18, my co-steering committee member Sylvia Frankel and I were invited to speak to the congregation of St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Beaverton, Oregon, a nearby city most famous for being the home of Nike. It was an opportunity to address the congregation for one of a series of learning and study sessions; this one was called Food and Spirituality from a Jewish Perspective.

About 25 people attended, including Lead Pastor Mark Brocker and Associate Pastor Robyn Hartwig, and members of the St. Andrew Green Team, a group of congregants who work on sustainability issues within the St. Andrew community.

Check out this Cleveland Jewish News article about the new community garden just starting out at Beth El Congregation in Akron. Ellen Botnick and her friends were, in part, inspired by their connection to Hazon on the Israel Food Tour that we cosponsored with Heschel last Novemeber.  As Ellen says “Food connects us to the earth, to each other, and to something much larger than ourselves. We are building community through this garden.”