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.
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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.
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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.
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*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.
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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.
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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.
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Thanks to Rabbi Ian Pear (Rabbi of the Shir Hadash community in Israel) for this guest post. It’s funny how things come in twos and threes - Rabbi Pear’s post picks up on the theme of simcha and meat that Avi included in his most recent post about Chef Frankel.
Cross-posted from (Joyous Judaism)
For vegetarians, one Talmudic phrase is particularly bothersome: “There is no simcha (joy) without meat and wine.” The customary way to deal with this dictum — that is, if one is a vegetarian — is to argue that the Talmud was speaking subjectively not objectively — i.e., it did not believe meat and wine were objectively the only means by which simcha could be achieved, but rather the most likely catalyst for the majority of people. Or to put it another way: If one genuinely feels simcha by eating meat and drinking wine, then such a person certainly should not refrain from doing so when mandated to celebrate life — like at a wedding, brit mila, Shabbat meal, etc.. He must enjoy himself! A puritanical asceticism is not permitted; the simcha requires meat and wine. On the other hand, if a person does not feel simcha by eating meat and wine, then he is certainly not obligated to do so, but rather must find an alternative source of joy and pursue that course instead.
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Thanks to Hazon’s friend, Lindsey Paige Savoie, for this guest post.
I eat meat. When I first said those three little words to Sabrina, her response was, ‘whoa.’ She didn’t gasp because I eat meat. She could hear the fear in my voice when I said it. Why should I be ashamed to eat meat?
I grew up in Omaha, Nebraska – land of cows. We ate meat daily. Friday night was especially noteworthy as we gathered at my grandparents for the rarest of all meats. I don’t mean hard to find. I mean purple, raw, rare. Now I know why my dad preferred the end cuts.
Summer camp and youth group conventions opened my eyes to new ideas including the notion of becoming a vegetarian. I went through a teenage phase (as my parents called it) of not eating meat or fish. After a few years, I slowly and at times secretly went back to eating meat.
Years later, I still struggle with how, when and where to eat meat. Due to my work in Jewish environmental education and my petsitting business, eating meat is a challenge both socially and mentally. How do I preach environmental values and eat a hamburger? How do I care for animals on a daily basis and then prepare a different type of animal for dinner?
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Thanks to The Jew & The Carrot friend, Robbie Friedman, for this guest post.
Rectangular pizza, sloppy joes and canned corn — classic components of a school lunch. Many of our schools still spoon out such unwholesome foods, yet a growing number of them are turning the greasy corner.
Since New England born physicist Benjamin Thompson founded the Poor People’s Institute in Munich, Germany in the late 1700’s, providing daily staples such as potato soup, barley and peas to children during the course of their studies, our social institutions have constantly “sought to develop meals which would provide the best nutrition at the lowest possible cost.”
This approach has undoubtedly fed countless mouths, but it has also led to the deterioration of food quality. Today the struggle to nourish our children persists, due in part to school systems’ ailing budgets, parents pressed for time and our own lack of nutritional knowledge. However, a failure to deliver a wholesome source of vitamins, minerals, proteins and healthy fats to our children’s plates is a detriment to their development. People, including Jews, are beginning to take the matter into their own soiled hands.
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(Thanks to our friend at Gluten Free Bay for this guest post.)
Holidays are a challenging time to deal with food allergies and intolerances. For those of us who are Jewish, they are a time when we worry that we won’t be able to eat at our friends’ and families’ holiday tables, and that we will have to forego the traditional Jewish delicacies we grew up with.
Fortunately, people with gluten intolerance or celiac disease have more options than ever. Recipes abound, and with creative modification almost any recipe can be made gluten-free. I have posted a round-up of gluten-free ideas for Rosh Hashanah menus, including my honey cake (pictured at left).
I’ve done my best to represent a culturally-diverse wide range of recipes for meat eaters, vegetarians and vegans alike - all totally gluten-free. This is a useful tool for people who are gluten-free as well as anyone hosting an individual who is gluten intolerant at their holiday table.
Shana tovah!
(Thanks for this guest post from Jessica Schessler of SHI)
Slash and burn is one of the leading causes of rainforest destruction in Central America. Sustainable Harvest International is working to curb this destruction, while improving the lives of families living in these regions. I’ve been fortunate enough to intern with SHI for the summer and have learned a great deal about their work.
SHI has worked with more than 850 families in the past 10 years, and has saved tens of thousands of acres of tropical forests from slash-and-burn destruction. What is my favorite part of this effort? Not only does SHI save acres and acres, but they do it by teaching local farmers sustainable uses, such as “organic vegetable gardens, wood-conserving stoves, community loan funds and a host of other projects…” So not only is SHI helping out the environment, but they are improving the health and economic lives of the people living in it.
For the rest of the summer it’s easier than ever to support SHI, through Stonyfield Yogurt’s Bid With Your Lid campaign! Vote online and send in specially marked yogurt lids with your vote for SHI and help allocate a portion of $40,000 to SHI, while collecting cool prizes. For more information on SHI and how to vote, visit Stoneyfield.
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This is by Adamahnick Jackie Topol, x-posted from Heeb’N'Vegan.
Before I began my fellowship here at Adamah, I was beginning to make the transition to veganism. I have been a vegetarian for almost 7 years and decided that if I truly was against animal cruelty then I needed to not consume dairy and eggs anymore. When I was awarded the fellowship at Adamah, I knew that animal husbandry would be a part of the program but I didn’t really know what that meant until I came here. Moreover, I did not expect it to have such an impact on my final decision to go vegan.
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(Thanks to our friend, Michael Croland from Heeb n’ Vegan, for this guest post)
The other night, I walked around the Norfolk Tides’ minor league baseball stadium, ran out onto the field, and climbed on top of both dugouts. I danced the Macarena with young children, showed off my air guitar skills to a thousand or so spectators, and put ketchup on a veggie dog when I could barely peer out of my carrot costume’s eye holes. Prancing around as Chris P. Carrot is a lighthearted way to tell people to “Go Veg!” and “Eat Your Veggies, Not Your Friends,” as the placards on my costume’s torso read.
Every opportunity I get, I advocate vegetarianism through sports teams’ Mascot Mania events. In 2004, I made my less-than-kosher debut as PETA the Pig, joined by Ronald McDonald, the Chick-fil-A cow, and other unlikely comrades. PETA’s Chris P. Carrot was in Boston then to “campaign” for vegetarianism outside the Democratic National Convention, but ever since, I’ve been the go-to guy to be Chris P. Carrot at baseball, soccer, and hockey games in my hometown of Norfolk, Va.
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