Anna Hanau is the Associate Director of Food Programs at Hazon.
She was the Farm Manager at Adamahfor two years, managing a 4-acre organic farm and supplying the White Plains Hazon CSA. She is the co-author of Food for Thought, Hazon’s Sourcebook on Jews, Food and Contemporary Life, written during her previous stint at Hazon (2004-2007), which also included serving as the NY Ride Coordinator for the 2005 and 2006 Rides.
She is a graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary and Barnard College, and is originally from Vancouver, B.C. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Naftali Hanau.
Anna Hanau's Website »
Just got back from Feast in the Field, where we were treated to a veritable feast cooked with produce from the Adamah harvest, served to us in a beautiful tent right in the field where the vegetables grew.
One Adamahnik, Rachel English, exclaimed, “I never knew our vegetables could be cooked like this!” Indeed, the roasted red pepper coulis, eggplant caponata and fatoosh-roasted garlic flatbread chicps tossed with cucumbers, tomatoes, feta and mint in a lemon-sumac citronette dressing are hardly your standard hippie stirfry. The meal also featured egg tarts, asian chopped salad with nappa cabbage, carrots and scallions, and platters of “the freshest tomatoes of the season, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and dusted with sea salt and fresh herbs.”
I moved back to Brooklyn just under two months ago. Although formerly a city-dweller, three years at Adamah in the peaceful countryside of Lichtfield County had gotten me used to a few things. Quiet, for one. Also unlimited farm-fresh eggs, as orange as the sun. And the possibility that at any moment, I might have to shlep compost.
What’s in the bag?!
Hazon is now accepting applications from communities looking to start a CSA for the 2011 season. Hazon’s Community-Supported Agriculture Project is a great way to bring your community together: fresh, local, organic food delivered to your synagogue or community center every week; potluck dinners and thoughtful programming to explore the connections between being Jewish, the food we eat, and the world we live in.
If you’d like to find out more, read about Starting a Hazon CSA or Hazon’s CSA Vision & Impact. Applications can be downloaded here and are due September 7th.
By Ronit Treatman, published in the Philadelphia Jewish Voice July 11, 2010.
When Abraham and Sarah embarked on their journey from Ur to Canaan, what snacks did they bring along? It is safe to imagine that Sarah packed some roasted, ground locusts in a leather bag. Locust powder was the ancient energy food of the Near East, and the tradition of eating locusts remains in the Yemenite Jewish community. If you are brave and adventurous enough, it is possible to reach back to the origins of our Jewish tradition, and taste the original protein energy food. Full Article >
Field Report: A Michigan Teen Farms Her Backyard
By CHRISTINE MUHLKE, Published: July 12, 2010, NY Times
Lawn mowing and baby-sitting are standard summer jobs for the enterprising teenager. Alexandra Reau, who is 14, combines a little bit of each: last year, she asked her dad to dig up a half acre of their lawn in rural Petersburg, Mich., so she could farm. Now in its second season, her Garden to Go C.S.A. (community-supported agriculture) grows for 14 members, who pay $100 to $175 for two months of just-picked vegetables and herbs. While her peers are hanging out at Molly’s Mystic Freeze and working out the moves to that Miley Cyrus video, she’s flicking potato-beetle larvae off of leaves in her V-neck T-shirt and denim capris, a barrette keeping her hair out of her demurely made-up eyes. Who says the face of American farming is a 57-year-old man with a John Deere cap? Full Article
Grow and Behold
A New Line of Kosher Chicken Launches A Conversation Around Jewish Food Ethics
by Leah Koenig; Published June 28, 2010, issue of July 09, 2010. The Forward.
When Naftali Hanau graduated from New York University with an economics degree, he left prepared for a career in banking or investing. But the Rochester, N.Y., native chose a different path: one that likely includes more feathers and trucks than those of his fellow alumni.
Applications are now available for the 2011 Hazon CSA season.
Hazon’s CSA program is the first ongoing effort in the American Jewish community to support local, sustainable agriculture. CSA stands for Community-Supported Agriculture, a partnership where a community commits to purchase an entire season of produce from an organic family farm.
Our 2010 season is in full swing, with sites all across the country enjoying local, sustainable produce delivered right from the farm. Read reports from some of our sites here and here.
If you want to bring Hazon CSA to your community, download an application.
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.
Adamahniks helping with the sweet potato harvest at Chubby Bunny Farm in Falls Village, CT. Photo by Julia Gazdag.
As we put the fields to bed here at Adamah, we’re looking ahead to next season. We have several staff positions we are seeking to fill. If you’re looking for farm work that feeds the soil and the soul, Adamah is the place for you!
Field Manager: This is an ideal position for someone with 1-2 years farm experience looking for a manager position in an educational environment. The Field Manager will manage vegetable production on the 5-acre Adamah farm, which grows for a 50-share CSA, for the dining hall at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Falls Village, CT, and for our value-added products business (pickles, sauerkraut and jam). For complete job description and info on how to apply contact Anna Hanau at anna@isabellafreedman.org.
Flowering zucchini amidst flooded paths
It’s been cold and rainy at Adamah for quite some time now, and on Thursday we started getting worried about the river. I went down to look at the field around 2 — it was high, higher than I’d ever seen, but still about 2 feet below the banks. Dark, brown, quickly moving water, surging down the channel. Mesmerizing to look at. Difficult to believe that this flowing source of life could turn so destructive. But maybe…it wouldn’t rise any higher?
By evening, though, the water had risen to within 6″ of the banks. Where we usually scramble down four or five feet or so to hop in the river, you could practically step right in. So we assembled a crew, and moved the irrigation pump (which perches on the edge of the river) and the row cover from the fields, because if the field flooded the fabric would clothesline all the plants in its path, and collected stray buckets and plastic chairs that could float away if the river spilled over its banks and across the field.
Hi friends! Wanted to remind you all about the ADAMAH BLOG. Adamah is a a three-month leadership training program for Jewish young adults in their 20s that integrates organic farming, sustainable living, Jewish learning, community building and contemplative spiritual practice. Bookmark our blog to keep up with the goings on of a small, Jewish, organic farm. Share our pain as the cabbage in the greenhouse gets eaten, and our joy as steam from boiling maple sap turns into sweet sweet syrup once again. And join us, as we spring into farming….
Spring on the farm means we’re itching to get into the soil: spread compost and nutrients, till in the cover crop, create a level, weed-free seed bed for early transplants. As we get into April, though, I’m remembering one of the things I love about farming and find most challenging: you’re in control and you’re absolutely out of control at the same time. I’m caught between my spreadsheets–which outline the schedule I am to follow if we are to deliver 60 shares of vegetables to the CSA, and cucumbers and cabbage galore for the Picklarium–and the weather, which is neither predictable nor obliging….
Nevertheless, we proceed as best we can.
One of my favorite quotes is: “You know you’re on the right track when your solution to one problem accidentally solves several others.” – Michael Corbett
So it was with glee that I learned about a spring cover crop, which is also a cash crop, which could ALSO — potentially — be used for karpas. One plant, solving three problems: soil erosion & nutrient loss, early spring revenue, and provision of a local/sustainable ritual food. Clearly, this is reason to get excited! However, the halacha must be consulted…
A friend just sent me the link to this picture. The caption reads: New York. October 13, 1909. The Federation of Jewish Farmers of America exhibit at the Educational Alliance building, East Broadway and Jefferson Street. 8×10 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection.
Anyone know anything about the Federation of Jewish Farmers, that was apparently active enough in 1909 to host an exhibit???
