(x-posted from The Wet Sprocket)

A new award has been developed by the Seedling Projects in San Francisco designed to support food producers who put as much thought into how they produce their foods as they do to what they are producing.  For sustainably minded, small-scale, artisanal and craft producers, this should be your thing.

According to the Seedling Projects, “Winners will receive a Good Food Awards seal to place on their product, an invitation to participate in the ceremony and marketplace tasting, and connections to a network of national buyers who seek out foods that meet the holistic Good Food Awards Criteria.”

The deli has been in the spotlight these days thanks to the work of  David Sax.  You  may have read Joan Nathan’s piece in the New York Times about David’s upcoming book, Save the Deli, a call to action to revive deli culture.  Deli has been in most newspapers and on the radio now and is  the talk of the town in a way it hasn’t been since its golden years thanks to one man with a mission.

Early on for the Jew and the Carrot Leah Koenig wrote a post about David’s deli zeal during David’s journey to eat at delis around the world (which he also chronicled on his blog), and now the Jew and the Carrot is eager to announce a deli contest in the book’s honor. The winner will receive a free copy of Save the Deli.

Just leave us a comment on this post about your most memorable deli meal or experience and your name could be drawn to win a copy of his book.  Last day to leave a comment is Thursday October 22nd and the winner will be contacted the next day.

And while we’re on the subject, the Save the Deli book launch will be held this Monday at Ben’s Kosher Delicatessen.  It will be a great time with remarkable deli kitsch.

(Originally Published by The Atlantic)

photo by Sophie Barbasch

Pickle festivals rarely take themselves too seriously–they aim to celebrate the joy and the absurdity that go along with the age-old craft of food preservation. The Ninth Annual New York City International Pickle Day, held this past Sunday on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, was far more ambitious than most other pickle festivals.

Planned by the New York Food museum and co-sponsored by the Lower East Side Business Improvement District, the pickle festival had three important objectives: to recognize the Lower East Side’s pickle heritage, to promote the “rebirth” of the Lower East Side, and, of course, to showcase local producers in what is becoming a more and more crowded artisanal foods marketplace each year.

Come to the Lower East Side Sunday morning for a one of a kind event celebrating both fermented and vinegar pickles, in addition to the legacy of the pickle in the Lower East Side.  The event takes place from 11:30 am to 4:30 pm in the parking lot at Essex and Broome streets.  Costumes are encouraged.  There will be many free pickle samples, as well as cheap pickles for purchase (pickles on a stick stand out in my  memory).

Your friends from Adamah will be there too, so make sure to stop by and say hi and maybe pick up a few jars of some of your favorite products.  Hope to see you there.

(cross-posted from The Wet Sprocket)

Until a friend recently told me about his foraging experience last week somewhere in a Bronx “forest,” I had never before heard of ramps. Ramps, also known as wild leeks, are a springtime treat on the East Coast. Ramps cannot be cultivated; they need to be foraged. That’s why they’re so expensive, so valued among New York City gourmands. My foraging friend harvested so many that he bartered a portion of his harvest for a meal at a nice restaurant, which featured the foraged treats.

Two days after hearing this story I began selling ramps at the farm stand in Brooklyn where I work. I talked them up all day long to those who hadn’t heard of them (before I even tasted them), but lots of folks were actually waiting all year long for them and ran up to the stand, usually exclaiming, “finally, you have them.”

One of the perks of operating a farm stand is that at the end of the day you get to take some extra stuff home.

Cross-posted from The Wet Sprocket

Since pig is forbidden, and ultra-Orthodox Israelis want secular Israelis to refrain from eating the animal, wouldn’t the outbreak of “swine flu” be welcome news?  It could build the negative association between worldwide pandemics and swine, and make pig-breeding really unpopular, right?

This new Israeli government didn’t quite see it that way.  Instead the swine flu outbreak was just another opportunity to politicize eating in Israel.

A new article of mine appears today in The Atlantic called “A Seder Different From All Other Seders,” exploring the tragic demise of Barton’s, the iconic Jewish chocolate company.

In typical recession-era corporate fashion, in the late winter of 2009 a Barton’s Candy salesman, planning his annual Passover sales, had heard about a round of layoffs at the company. The news was followed by a more jarring discovery: the chocolate company had canceled its production for its most important time of the year, Passover. The salesman called Menachem Lubinsky–kosher industry insider and editor of the Kosher Today newsletter–in tears, lamenting his professional fate as well as that of the iconic chocolate company.

I just wrote a new post on beekeeping in New York and local honeys for The Vine. While it’s illegal to keep bees in New York, beekeeping persists and there’s plenty of delicious local honey to prove it.  At a local honey tasting in SOHO some of the local honeys stole the show, and reflected the tastes and intricacies of New York itself.

And for a great video on the topic, Wendy Cohen and the Meerkat Media Arts Collective made a wonderful film on Colony Collapse Disorder and rooftop beekeeping on the East Coast, including in New York City.

I have a new post on The New Republic’s eco-blog, The Vine, on the state of recycling in the recession.  As we open our Mishloach Manot this Purim, most likely filled with foods packaged in cardboard, glass and plastic, we will no doubt add our share of wastes to the recycling.  In this economy, though, even recycling is taking a hit.  The prices of recycled aluminum and cardboard have dropped precipitously, and big manufacturers like China have had to slow down their purchasing because of their own slow down in manufacturing.

Here at Jcarrot there’s been plenty of talk of Adamah, whether about its pickles, its delivery truck that runs on used vegetable grease, or its role in the food conference.  

Now Adamah staff members, as well as summer and fall fellows, are keeping  a blog of their own to update about the Adamah experience.  Right now it’s especially interesting to learn how Northeast farmers spend their winter months. Watching their progress from now until the planting and growing season should be especially fascinating.   You may see some familiar faces from the Food Conference and recognize at least a few writers from Jcarrot.  

Israeli elections begin in one day and what’s a big ticket item that’s poised to shake things up? It’s pork. Well, it’s actually the identity politics that comes with the issue and symbolism of pork in Israel; Heathenish to some and a form of political protest to others. I’ll be keeping tabs on this issue on my blog, The Wet Sprocket. Below is a brief summary of the political situation.

Likud‘s supposed dominance in this election has been threatened by none other than the issue of Russian identity rights, a hand played brilliantly by Avigdor Lieberman, chairman of the Yisrael Beiteinu party whose platform focuses on Russian immigrant rights and taking a hard-lined stance on the question of Palestine.

Likud is, of course, the right wing party whose hawkishness appeals to much of the country, especially after a war, including many Russian immigrants. Likud is also notorious for its partnerships over the years with the religious parties, whether Agudath Israel or Shas, who have enabled Likud to build coalition governments in return for helping make religious interests a priority; this partnership has kept civil marriage from becoming legal, upheld the sanctity of Shabbat, and has threatened to completely ban pork (and came very close in 1990-1).

I’ve obviously been one to think about the Jewish connection to pork…a lot.  Many of my musings have focused specifically on bacon.  I’ve found that among many Jews there’s both a visceral reaction to its physical form, as well as a subconscious, more intellectual reaction to the breakfast meat.  Friends have confessed to feeling queasy in diners when they smell it.  Formerly religious folks on the outs with Judaism have told me about “Treyf Tuesdays,” when they meet up with others in a similar boat and eat the “forbidden” greasy spoon favorite.  In some ways it has become the ultimate symbol of the Jewish tension between secular Americana and Jewish insularity.  

While there is certainly a kosher meat crisis on our hands and many families are struggling to feed their families meat, it was still disconcerting to read the January 20th KosherToday report, especially the section titled “Agriprocessors Limps Back to Life.”   

According to the weekly kosher news report written and distributed by Menachem Lubinsky of Lubicom Industries, there are rumors that “the bankrupt Agriprocessors will soon begin the kosher slaughter of turkeys and that it is only a matter of time that the plant will also resume the shechita (kosher slaughter) of calves.” 

(cross posted from www.greenprophet.com)

I went to see Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s documentary film, “The Garden,” at Tribeca Cinemas in Manhattan, part of docs on the shortlist for the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund. I went with a group of farmers living in New York, some of whom work on urban farming projects in and around the City.

The film tells the tragic story of the largest community garden in the United States in South Central Los Angeles. The garden, a full-fledged 14 acre farm in a blighted neighborhood, was created in response to the LA riots in an effort to heal the city. Lower income residents tended the garden. As the demographics of the area changed, more Latin Americans moved to the area and soon made up a majority of the farmers.

The film shows stunning images of corn and tomatoes growing amidst and industrial backdrop. In fact, the viewer sees countless helicopter images of this impressive green square in the middle of Los Angeles sprawl, demonstrating the stark contrast between sunflowers and concrete, verdancy and the pallor of urban industry. The importance of the garden to many of the gardeners is most inspiring, as many relied on the garden to feed their families and had been looking for empowering work to do in the city that would allow them to feed their families hearty and healthy meals.

The story, however, takes a dreadful turn as we see the end result of a failure of government. Without notice the farmers arrive one day to see a letter of eviction, signed by a developer whose name the farmers did not recognize. The mostly immigrant farmers were left asking, who is this developer, and isn’t this government land?