GuestPost
If you are interested in learning more about guest posting on The Jew & The Carrot, contact editor at jcarrot dot org
CSA in Israel
Thanks to Michael of Green Prophet for this guest post. While the concept of Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) is firmly established in the United States, it hasn’t really taken off in Israel. Still, the farmer-consumer relationship that a CSA offers is beginning to percolate in Israeli consciousness. Find out more below…
1 Comment »Photo Essay: Wasted Food
Thanks to Jonathan Bloom for this series of photos. Jonathan is writing a book on wasted food in America. He became interested in the topic after a day volunteering at D.C. Central Kitchen. Seeing the truckloads of rescued food that would otherwise have gone to landfills made him wonder how much edible food does slip through the cracks.
As a journalist, Bloom set out to learn why and how Americans waste more than 40% of the food produced for consumption. He started a blog dedicated to the topic and worked at a grocery store, farm and catering company to better understand the problem.
The photos below depict the incredible amount of food wasted in America, and also some hopeful examples of food recovery.
Posterboy of The New Jewish Food Movement
Animal Care, Blessings, Cheese, Eco-Kashrut, Farming, Jewish Learning, Kosher, Milk, Seasonality, Spirituality
The Jew & The Carrot {hearts} Aitan and Adva Dairy. Thanks to Nextbook for producing a wonderful podcast and feature one of our favorite Jewish goat farmers - yes, there’s more than one!
“Goat Days”
Nextbook 2.25.08
By: Jesse Graham
(Listen to the podcast)
There’s a growing movement among environmentally conscious observant Jews to rethink kashrut. Its adherents place less emphasis on the official kosher stamp, and more on where their food comes from. They want locally and organically grown produce, and if they are meat-eaters, they want to know that the meat they’re eating comes from farms that treat animals humanely.
One devotee of this movement is an unassuming thirty-year-old named Aitan Mizrachi, founder of the AVDA Dairy, a small-scale goat dairy farm in northwestern Connecticut that produces organic, kosher raw milk yogurt and cheeses.
The Rabbi’s Reject Shackle and Hoist Methods
Last week The Jew & The Carrot posted an article about the ”shackle and hoist” scheitah (kosher slaughter) methods used to produce much of the kosher meat imported to Israel. Yesterday, YNet reported the response from The Israeli Chief Rabbinate and OU Chairman. Thanks to The Jew & The Carrot reader, Joshua, for bringing this article to our attention.
Rabbinate: Import Meat Only if ‘Morally Slaughtered’
YNet - 2.20.08
By: Neta Sela
PETA and the Torah? Following the lead of The Society for Prevention of Cruelty to animals, which has long protested against cruel “lift and bind” slaughter techniques practiced in many United States and South American slaughterhouses, the Israeli Chief Rabbinate has also decided to work to eliminate such techniques.
At a recent conference involving the Chief Rabbitate’s Kashrut Committee as well as Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, a decision was made to only sanction meat imported to Israel as having undergone a kosher shechita (ritual slaughter) if the animal was killed utilizing the relatively more humane “boxing” technique.
Yid.Dish: Dreaming of Shakshuka
Last summer, during the height of tomato season, The Jew & The Carrot blogger, Alix gave us this recipe for shakshuka. Unless you live in Mexico, the tomatoes are nowhere near in season these days - but we can dream. Thanks to the folks at Jewlicious for sharing their version of Shakshuka, from a bonafide Moroccan Mama. We love the complete disregard for measurments and clear instructions this recipe has. We also love the mere thought of perfect, ripe tomatoes - this receipe has us drooling for summer already…
Recipe for Jewlicious Shakshuka below the jump…
Glimpsing the Eternal
Animal Care, Blessings, Community Agri., Family & Kids, Food Conference, Hazon, Holidays, Jewish Learning, Judaism, Kosher, Meat, Milk, Personal Story, Spirituality, Women
Thanks to Maria Russakoff for this guest post, originally printed in the Arizona Jewish Post. It’s been a while since we’ve posted anything about Hazon’s Food Conference or the controversial goat schecting, but this piece is worth sharing.
The handwritten sign over the shiny percolator reads: “Chai tea - made lovingly with raw goat and cow milk, brewster honey, sadeh hot peppers, blackstrap molasses, black tea and ginger.” I haven’t the faintest idea where brewster honey comes from or what makes hot peppers “sadeh,” but I know from the first sip that I have come to a place that will nurture my stomach, mind and soul for the next three days. I breathe a contented sigh of relief, happy to have made it in one piece from sunny Arizona to the Connecticut Berkshires in the dead of winter, happy to be back at the Hazon Jewish Food Conference in its second year.
The Jew and The Pig - On Kibbutz
Animal Care, Farming, Featured, Food Safety, Food Writing, Health, Israel, Kosher, Meat, Neat Projects, Personal Story, Vegetarian
The Jew & The Carrot blogger, Jeff Yoskowitz, has been on hiatus from the blog for a little while - but he has a darn good excuse. He is currently living on a kibbutz in Israel. On the one hand, like many kibbutzim, internet access is spotty so posting frequently is a challenge. But Jeff’s situation is a little different. Jeff is currently researching the (painfully ironic) pork industry in Israel. His kibbutz happens to house an industrial pork feed-lot, which means he’s spending most of his time hanging out with animals he’d never personally eat.
The little bit of time Jeff’s not researching pigs, he’s logging in his experience at his personal blog The Wet Sprocket. And while we understand his need to prioritize his web time, his stories are just too interesting not to share. To find out more about Jeff’s extraordinary daily experiences check out his blog, and read a few key (and quite graphic) excerpts below:
Bread, Butter, and a Reusable Lunchbox
Thanks to Rhea Kennedy of the You are Delicious blog, for this guest post.
When I was a kid, my parents gave me weird food for lunch and packed it in weird ways. God bless them, they sent me off into the world with chunks of tempeh, entire raw portabellas, dark whole-grain bread with thick pieces of cheese inside. These treats were invariably wrapped in waxed paper, which my mother had deemed better for you than plastic baggies or packaging from a factory. As soon as I was old enough to notice this was different from the other kids’ cold cut sandwiches in neat Ziploc bags and individually-wrapped string cheeses, I became mortified.
Around the same time, I started attending Hebrew school in the evenings – something I approached mostly with dedication, although I occasionally dragged my feet about going. After all, it wasn’t the Christian kids’ religion class (which we all just referred to as Religion) that got them out of school early once a week. To me, those who went to Religion sat in the soft cloak of normalcy—and I didn’t.
Fast forward a few years. I now follow Jewish tradition with pleasure and am a zealous whole foods foodie. Although eating and religious study practices may be hard to take for an image-conscious little kid, I now understand eating whole foods, keeping kosher, saying brachot and other thoughtful ways of approaching food are central to my life. Indeed, I’d argue that observing these traditions - in combination - is rather revolutionary.
Food for the Jewish Soul on Tu Bishvat (or the day after)
Thanks to our friends at the amazing new Israeli environmental blog, Green Prophet for this guest post. Tu Bishvat may have been yesterday, but Hazon’s seder is tonight, so we’re still in a celebratory mood. Hag Sameach!
Although Israel has grown into a modern post-industrial economy, the country still has strong agrarian roots, most famously, the agricultural socialist community of the kibbutz.
So it’s no surprise that the relatively minor Jewish festival of Tu Bishvat, which starts tonight, has been growing in importance. In recent years Tu Bishvat, the New Year of the Trees, has taken on a more ecological significance and represents an opportunity to reflect on one of today’s key environmental questions – the impact of what we eat on our environment.
Two Cultures Separated at Birth?
Cooking, Dinner parties, Family & Kids, Food Writing, Holidays, Jewish Culture, Personal Story, Recipes
Thanks to Rhea Kennedy of the You are Delicious blog, for this guest post and two delicious recipes.
As yet another plate of lamb careened toward the table, the scene at my boyfriend’s aunt and uncle’s Shanghainese house started to feel very familiar. I’d already discovered that latke-like potato cakes are a staple street food in Shanghai. Now, as my boyfriend’s aunt’s chopsticks moved from serving plate to individual bowls, clunking down pieces of meat in front of the people she’d decided should eat them, I realized that eating Chinese food on Christmas is not the only thing that bonds Jewish folks with our friends in the Far East.
Seder for all Seasons
Thanks to Carly for this guest post. Carly is developing a program called “Seder for all Seasons,” which expands upon the traditional seder format for broader use throughout the year. Find out more on Carly’s website Peeling a Pomegranate.
Food has always played a large part in my life and in my understanding of Judaism. I’ve joked for years that the religion of my family is food and how we used to have to talk my dad out of going for pancakes on the way to Yom Kippur morning services. But, so many of my happy memories of my family and Judaism also revolve around food. Passover was always a huge thing in my house growing up. It was like Thanksgiving, just more organized. I have great memories of summer and lobster and clambakes with lots of fresh New England salt marsh corn! Yes, I’m aware that shellfish isn’t kosher, but I assure my family didn’t mind. Every holiday had some food association for me, as it does for so many people. It’s an easy way to connect to your family’s traditions.
But, my relationship with food hasn’t always been healthy. I was a very heavy child. I learned young that ice cream was “medicinal” and so we ate a lot of it. I actually didn’t understand what medicinal meant for years, I just thought it was an excuse to eat ice cream. Heart disease and type II diabetes runs rampant in parts of my family because of our love of food. I struggled with binge eating and body dismorphia problems through college, and still have the occasional relapse.
Factory Farming: A 2007 Retrospective
*Thanks to Michael Croland of Heeb N’ Vegan for this guest post.
In 2007, we witnessed the very beginnings of a revolution in the way farmed animals are treated. Thanks to a series of major announcements this year, the cruel confinement typical of factory-farming is, in several cases, on its way out.
In January, Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pig-meat producer, announced that it is phasing out gestation crates—which prevent pregnant sows from turning around—within 10 years. The announcement has already had a ripple effect in the pork industry, as Maple Leaf Foods (Canada’s leading pork producer) announced shortly afterward that it would phase out gestation crates and Cargill Foods said that it has stopped using gestation crates in half of its pig factory farms.
Shecting - A Personal Response
The personal responses to last Friday’s goat schecting were varied and intense. Thanks to Joti Levy for sharing her reflections in this guest post.
Friday morning I woke at my regular 6 am. The difference was that everyone else in the house also woke up, and more people were gathering. It felt like the cozy feeling of going on a road trip with people you love, except the road trip was down the block to the sadeh (field) to slaughter the goats.
Thoughts on becoming a shochet
Thanks to Andrew Kastner for this powerful guest post on his decision to train to be a shochet, a Jewish ritual slaughterer. It’s easy to talk in the abstract about getting in touch with one’s food, but significantly more difficult to actually take the responsibility of doing so into our own hands….
Earlier this year, I began training to be a shochet, a Jewish ritual slaughterer. As a rabbinical student who is passionate about culinary traditions, I felt that I was profoundly disconnected from the source of my food. Influenced by Maimondes’ dictum, which states, “Anyone who desires to eat meat must take the responsibility to procure it”, I felt that the challenge, though daunting, could help me relate to my food and the source of life in a more meaningful way.
After weeks of studying Jewish legal codes relating to schitah, the rabbi informed our small group that he would be bringing a few chickens to our next class. Later that week when we met, the rabbi opened the cardboard box holding three young birds.
