Frequent readers of ‘The Jew and the Carrot’ know that Hazon’s staff recently returned from a Cleanse on Fire Island with author Halé Sofia Schatz. It was, to say the least, a unique experience. Below is an excerpt from my post about it on Baking and Books :

… Now, I realize that when I say “food cleanse” you likely have no idea what I’m talking about and I know this because that was precisely my reaction when, two weeks ago, my boss told me that I would be organizing the entire event. A cleanse, you say? What could that mean? Bathing in fruit juices? Avocado face masks? I hadn’t a clue. But it turns out that a “food cleanse” - at least, one run by Halé Sofia Schatz - is all about eating healthfully and cleansing our bodies of the “toxins” we ingest every day. Sugar, caffeine, refined flour, chocolate, dairy - Halé believes that all these foods are not only difficult to digest but also put toxic substances into our systems…

… On June 14th the Cleanse experience officially began when I headed out to Fire Island with several heroic staff members. Our mission: to haul five days worth of organic produce to the beach house we’d be living in (no cars are allowed on Fire Island so this was done by hand-pulled wagon) and to kasher the kitchen. Phyllis Bieri, whose house we were using, wrote a fascinating post about the kashering process, as did my co-worker Leah Koenig, so I won’t go into that here, but suffice it to say that by evening we were knackered. Not only had we transported an incredible amount of food and thoroughly done over a kitchen, but we had done so while remaining faithful to our pre-Cleanse diets. This was a feat, especially when you consider how we passed Rachel’s Bakery on each trip to and from the boat dock. Behold the awesome power of peer pressure, by which I mean that, had I been making these trips alone, I would have been seriously tempted to duck into Rachel’s for a bite of contraband cookie. (Ok, I was tempted anyways, but I didn’t do it. Which is what matters. Ahem.)

Read the rest of this post by clicking here…