Sarah Rose
Sarah Rose is a writer living in New York. She is currently working on a non-fiction book, FOR ALL THE TEA IN CHINA, the story of a 19th Century botanist-turned-spy who stole the secrets of tea from Imperial China and brought tea plants to India as an undercover agent for the East India Company. To be published by Viking 2008 (Hutchison in the UK). Sarah has worked as a journalist for Reuters and the Miami Herald, and as a stringer and travel-writer based in Hong Kong. She was previously Managing Editor of Plenty Magazine, a lifestyle magazine for the “green” generation. She holds a bachelors degree from Harvard in English literature and a masters degree from the University of Chicago in humanities.
Earth Week begins
There’s a big party this week in celebration of Earth Day. To find events in your area, look here. New York City has a plethora of planetary parties to choose from.
1 Comment »Tuv Ha’Aretz in the house
Community Agri., Eco-Kashrut, News, Notable Press, Organic, Seasonality, Sustainability, Synagogues, Tuv Ha'Aretz, Vegetables
The first Jewish CSA, Tuv Ha’Aretz, gets a shoutout in PA’s Jewish Exponent:
Part of the process is “to examine our thoughts about food and examine what’s been taught in Judaism” on the subject, she said. [organizer Robin Rifkin, a nutritionist] The group plans to schedule discussions on conservation; what it means to say blessings before and after meals; and why organic and local foods are so crucial these days. The Jewish heritage of farming and Jewish agricultural holidays will be examined as well.
In addition, the role of charity and food will be explored. Jewish law is very specific about how much land and foodstuffs go to the poor, she noted. Kol Ami will be donating any extra or unused shares to the Mitzvah Food Pantry, a program run by the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.
Still, Kol Ami will face some real challenges. Learning to eat “seasonally” can be daunting for families, especially when they have never used exotic ingredients like dandelion greens and Swiss chard in cooking before. To help participants prepare meals with these new ingredients, Kol Ami will also be holding cooking classes.
The genius who invented cheese
The coolest home science experiment ever — no, really EVER — is the home cheesemaking kit. I am just dumbstruck at how nifty this is: A gallon of warm milk, citric acid, a rennet tablet (OU hecshered vegetarian rennet, actually) and poof! Cheese. Stringy gooey mozzarella. Or milky, creamy ricotta.
And it’s so ludicrously easy: perfect for kids since nothing gets warmer than tepid bathwater. They get to stretch and pull the mozzarella to make bocconcini or string cheese. It’s so much fun to play with your food. Milk magic in your kitchen.
National Day of Climate Action, April 14
This Saturday, join a grassroots event to stop the onward march of global climate change. Find the action in your area here.
“Two thousand seven is the year that global warming will become a marching issue; 2008 is the year it will become a voting issue,” said one organizer.
Baseless minhag: the standing chometz date
Never am I happier to see the back end of a holiday, never readier to assimilate forever, than when Passover passes over. I feel like 40 years in the desert were just performed in real time.
My girlfriends and I celebrate Passover’s passing with pizza and beer. When the chag is over, we return to chometz, and to the world, together. But like many traditions, it bears the burden of memory: where were we last year at this time? How many broken hearts have we nursed each other through since? How many happily ever afters? (not enough, thank you very much) Life landmarks?
The tally for the past year of dating my girlfriends:
1 rabbinical school matriculation
4 break-ups
2 apartments purchased
1 book written
various siblings were engaged, married, or reproduced
As they say, next year…
China and the 15,000 mile hechsher
If the Conservative movement is serious about the tzedek “justice” hechsher, it might also consider including kosher certified foods that have a low carbon footprint or that proactively offset their greenhouse gas liability. The Chicago Tribune takes a look at how
China’s seven masgiachs are exhausted. Factory owners don’t understand kosher (“I have to tell them, ‘There’s no way to make a pork dim sum kosher,” said Rabbi Amos Benjamin, a Shanghai-based Star-K inspector.) And there’s confusion as to what a rabbi is, as workers wait patiently for the “rabbit” to arrive.
The article betrays just how many food miles are in your kosher convenience foods, “Shipments of frozen fish from
As the crow flies, it’s about 6,000 miles from
Leftovers: the Passover table
- Winner of the first annual matzah scuplture contest: the Washington Square Arch. [NYSun]
- In 18 minutes, Joan Nathan answers your fermenting Passover questions, also writes about chometz-free Spanish deserts, pre-1492. [NYTimes]
- Newsday asks what makes wine kosher for Passover? [Newsday]
- “Inspector Rabbi” answers the same question about orange juice at the St. Pete Times. [SP Times]
- Like getting to Carnegie Hall, the secret to a perfect seder: practice, practice, practice. [AP]
- Let all who are hungry, come and eat gourmet. [NYMag]
- Police shutter the matzah bus. [NYTimes]
Breaking: Masgiach scandal at Le Marais
A Manhattan kosher bistro filed a $10 million defamation lawsuit against its former kashrut inspector.
The suit filed Monday by Le Marais in New York Supreme Court of Kings County charges that Isaac Bitton defamed it on 66 counts when he posted on his Web site and blog — amashgiachspeaksout.com/ — that the upscale restaurant’s chef, Mark Hennessy, deliberately sneaked non-kosher food into the kitchen and disobeyed other kashrut standards.
The important question of Pesadik pot
The Jerusalem Post asks, is marijuana kosher for passover?
Not for Ashkenazim.
The rabbis’ reasoning: it is thought of as kitniyot, or a legume.
What are they smoking?
Every Sunday school student knows Pessah for its ban on food that rises, but a growing number of Jews are asking whether the holiday also precludes them from getting high.
Hemp has increasingly been spotted on the list of kitniyot, or legumes, that Ashkenazi Jews abstain from eating during Pessah, according to several influential rabbinical Web sites, including kashrut.com. But not everyone agrees that hemp qualifies for the ban, and the debate has led many to question the definition of kitniyot.
Peter Berley’s Seder: seasonal and traditional
With a week to go, you’re finalizing the seder menu. There are the standbys, tried and true family favorites, but there is also the need to shake things up, to try something new and different — because it’s spring, because seasonality and local ingredients matter more than ever, and because the earth is finally turning toward the sun and it is a time for growth.
Peter Berley, jcarrot’s James Beard Award-winning chef-blogger and author of the forthcoming The Flexitarian Table, plans an elegant holiday dinner in which symbolic seder items such as bitter greens, horseradish and lamb shank are cleverly worked into the meal itself.
Peter Berley’s Passover Menu
Salad of Bitter Greens with Lemon-Mustard Vinaigrette
Poached Salmon with Horseradish and Crème Fraiche
Wine Braised Lamb Shanks with Orange and Figs
Roasted Asparagus with Garlic
Braised Carrots with Olives and Mint
Bittersweet Chocolate Cake
Shabbos at The New Yorker
Simon Rich’s “A Conversation at the Grownup Table, as Imagined at the Kids’ Table” from this week’s New Yorker:
MOM: Pass the wine, please. I want to become crazy.
DAD: O.K.
GRANDMOTHER: Did you see the politics? It made me angry.
DAD: Me, too. When it was over, I had sex.
UNCLE: I’m having sex right now.
DAD: We all are.
MOM: Let’s talk about which kid I like the best.
Ick: the environmental immersion memoir
There’s a spectacularly successful genre in publishing, the pilgrimage/immersion first person. My favorites, “I was a miserable 20-something and cooked my way through Julia Child” (Julie and Julia, by Julie Powell), and “I was a miserable divorcee and traveled the world.” (Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert) Variations include, reading the encyclopedia or living biblically, and the forthcoming “Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Man Alive” by this gorgeous genius.
I love a good quest. I have cooked entirely round meals. In every category of clothing - shirt, shoes, socks, etc. - I own at least one item that is crossing-guard orange. I think these narratives amount to a healthy kind of OCD. They can give shape to our lives.
In the past week, the NYTimes has treated us to two previews of the next addition to the library: my year of living locally and conscientiously. Sub-headlined “The Year Without Toilet Paper,” the book will soon be known as “No Impact,” from venerable publisher FSG.
Bleccch.
Lesser of two evils remains evil
SWEET NEWS: Zvi Spitzer yesterday shows the sugar-formula Coke at Central Market in Williamsburg.
March 19, 2007 — Why is this Coke different from all other Cokes?
It’s kosher for Passover.
And even non-Jews are thirsty for the limited batch of Coca-Cola because of a very special ingredient - it’s made with pure sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup.
Where to green out
Where should you go when you want to eat a healthy, local, sustainable, socially responsible meal in a restaurant?
The Green Restaurant Association certifies restaurants according to a strict set of environmental guidelines.
The Chefs Collaborative is a national network promoting local, artisinal, sustainable and socially responsible cusine amongst food professionals.
Prizes for the first kosher restaurant to make either list.
[Ed note: the prize is already awarded! Come May, some 200 Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf Co. shops, all kosher certified, will have met the standards for GRA certification.]
