Anna Stevenson is the Farm Manager at Adamah: The Jewish Environmental Fellowship. Anna has worked with Hazon since 2004 on curriculum materials about Jews and Food, and was the NY Ride Coordinator from 2005-2006. She was the co-chair of the 2007 Hazon Food Conference. Anna has a BA in Bible Studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary and a BA in Urban Studies from Barnard College ('04). She loves to bake bread, ride bikes, and grow vegetables. She grew up in Vancouver, BC.
Check out these amazing papercuts by April Greenberg, a Brooklyn-based artist whose painting, papercutting, drawing & sculpture is really stunning. April has also done Hazon’s NY Ride and is a stalwart member of Hazon’s webteam! See more of her work here.
These papercuts were inspired by Michael Pollan’s article in the New York Times “Unhappy Meals” (January 28, 2007). And - coming soon: Leah Koenig’s Exclusive Interview with Michael Pollan - stay tuned!
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So I’m trolling through the Talmud and I find this out: apparently, the Rabbis too had sweet cravings! And they too gave thought to effects of sugar on moods, and energy, and how our hunger is different at different times…so neat! And man — nothing like a cake of figs to get you going after a three-day fast…
Our Rabbis taught: If one was seized with a ravenous hunger, he is given to eat honey and all kinds of sweet things, for honey and very sweet food enlighten the eyes of man.
And although there is no proof for the matter, there is an intimation in this respect: See, I pray you how mine eyes are brightened. because I tasted a little of this honey.
What does ‘although there is no proof for the matter’ mean? Because there no ravenous hunger has seized him.
Abaye said: This applies only after a meal, but before the meal, it even increases one’s appetite, as it is written: And they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him, to David, and gave him, bread, and he did eat,’ and they gave him water to drink,’ and they gave him a piece of cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins,’ and when he had eaten, his spirit came back to him,’ for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, three days and three nights.
- Talmud Bavli, Masechet Yoma 83b
The neat thing about blogs is that people who leave comments often also do neat things themselves. Here are two bits about Purim worth sharing:
Carly from Peel a Pomegranate offers us a Mishloach Manot Swap:
In the spirit of the mitzvot of both giving gifts to the needy at Purim and also giving gifts to friends and acquaintances — I hereby dedicate the great Shalach Manot Swap of 5767. Read more
And Gluten-Free By the Bay offers us Gluten-free Hamentaschen
This is a recipe for gluten-free, cane-sugar-free hamantaschen. I was inspired partly by a recipe by user “debmidge” on Celiac.com, as well as by my own instincts as to what would taste right and work for my gluten-free, no cane sugar diet. Read more
Ok, so you can’t eat them. But you sure can enjoy them!
And there’s more: click here to drool over more omni-seasonal knitted food. Thanks to Dory Kornfeld for the link.
The Past, Present, and Future of Food
This event, even after having been moved to a larger auditorium, is compltely sold out (tho folks are looking for tickets on Craigslist). If you live in San Francisco, you can watch the discussion broadcast in the North Gate Hall Library at UC Berkeley. If you live anywhere else, you can watch the webcast here.
I, personally, shall be holed up in Brooklyn with buddies and a bowl of homeade popcorn, and hoping that our internet connection doesn’t die on us, and pondering the bizareness of cross-country real-time, which will have me listening to the discussion at 10pm EST. Oh well.
But why is this conversation so exciting?
I think it’s partly because we don’t often get to see change actually happen, and we’re dealing with two contestants in the sustainable foods debate who are eminently well placed to make that change happen–quickly. And they already have.
To entertain you all, I shall post this lovely poem by Marge Piercy, which I find absolutely brilliant. I can hear my mother saying “you just do this, this and this” like it’s no big deal, as my eyes pop out of my head with uncomprehension (read the poem - you’ll get what I mean).
But in return, I ask for your assistance: Do we have instances in the Torah, Talmud or other esteemed texts of our tradition that contain RECIPES? I know there’s some stuff about taking various measures of flour to make cakes…but I wonder if y’all know about other instances? First responses get an apple cake (if I can make it right). Comment here or email me at anna@hazon.org.
Thanks!
Click here to read “My mother gives me her recipe,” by Marge Piercy: Read more »
I’ve been working out a lot lately, and my body is doing that thing that it does when I actually use it: it wants to eat meat.
But of course, now, with all this food stuff going on, I have to think about it.
Like many people, I have a meat-eating history. I grew up eating it. Then I stopped at age 14 when I read “Diet for a New America” – but persisted in eating salmon because I was from Vancouver, and turkey on Thanksgiving because damn the house smelled good! Then was the phase where I was still a vegetarian but really wanted to eat meat – that was when I started playing rugby – my girlfriend would give me a bite of her hamburger only after she made me say out loud “I’m a vegetarian” and she found the whole thing pretty funny.
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“You don’t want this event that is supposed to start your life together to come at the expense of the environment or workers in another country,” says Ms. Harrison, 28, who’s wedding in October will use organic food at their celebration, and shuttle their guests in bio-fuelled busses.
This was a very sweet article in the NY Times today; apparently, green is the new white!
And that’s good news for the large-scale catered event coming to a synagogue near you, too. OK so you have to use disposable because they don’t have meat dishes. Make them out of corn! Or potato! And reduce your guilt as well as the crap going into landfills, when you take all your garbage to a compost afterwards.
“All the Jewish holidays come to remind us of something that we should be doing year round. We should always strive to be our best selves – but if we forget, Rosh Hashana comes to remind us. And we should always strive to get rid of the fluff and superfluity in our lives—but if we forget, the period between Purim and Pesach is a reminder. And Tu B’Shevat…the new year of the trees…what does it come to remind us of?”
“Tu B’Shevat, comes to remind us of our connection to the natural world. To the earth. To seasons. To the cycle of growing things. And also to our responsibility to care for those things.”
This was Leah Koenig, sharing words of wisdom via Shlomo Carlbach and Nigel Savage, at the 7th Annual Park Slope Tu B’Shevat Seder this past Monday. Read more »
…don’t eat it.
That was one of the latest set of recommendations from our fearless leader, Michael Pollan (Unhappy Meals, NY Times, Jan 28) of what and how we should eat in order to maintain our own health and the health of the planet.
Jewishly speaking, we could adopt a similar rule of thumb:
“If you’re not sure which bracha to make over a certain piece of food, (because it might or might not be from the earth, made of the five grains, be a type of cake, bread or something else entirely unrecognizable — such as “Go-Gurt”) — don’t eat it.”
Right on, rabbis!
Nigel Savage and Anna Stevenson on public radio, discussing Jews and food, keeping kosher (including kosher bacon?) and the challenges and opportunities that come with the choices we have about what to eat.
Interfaith Voices public radio show is syndicated on 44 stations across the country! Click the arrow to play the segment or listen to the whole show at interfaithradio.org
I asked last week: why do you keep kosher? I’ve gotten lots of responses, from here and from the post on Jewschool, and I’m really enjoying reading them - because there’s such a range, and because it seems that the experience of actually articulating one’s reasons for keeping kosher can be an interesting and enjoyable process. One person wrote me and said, “It got a little long - maybe I’ve been waiting for someone to ask me this question!”
Anyways, here are some highlights. I’ll continue to share pieces as they come in. Please, keep sending your answers in! To tell me why you keep kosher, how you define kosher, what kosher means in your life - email me at anna@hazon.org or comment to this post! Responses are being compiled as part of our curriculum on Jews, Food and Contemporary Life - much like on this blog, there’s lots to talk about.
“I do the no-pork-or-shellfish, no-cheeseburgers type of kosher, for now. Wasn’t brought up kosher, kept it strictly in the 1970’s (when I was in my 20’s), then stopped altogether. Re-upped last year. Why? It’s a spiritual discipline. Focuses my attention on what I’m eating, and when. More consciousness begets more consciousness.” - Bette
Nice work, New York.
New York City has hired a Food Policy Coordinator, the magnificent Ben Thomases, to “ensure that City agencies serving meals — like the Department for the Aging, the Administration for Children’s Services and the Department of Homeless Services — buy nutritious food” as well as “figure out ways to ensure that those eligible for food stamps are able to get them and oversee a plan to expand to 1,000 stores a program to encourage bodegas in low-income areas to offer healthier products like low-fat milk and fresh vegetables.”
Many of us at Jcarrot know and love Ben, congratulations New York.
From the ground up, and from the top down…we’re getting somewhere!
