We are seeking a full-time Program Coordinator to manage the day-to-day scheduling of the Adamah Fellowship and other Adamah programs, to teach classes and lead morning prayer services, and provide general program support. Ideal start date is May 15, 2010. Staff housing is available if needed.

Download a complete job description here. To apply, please send cover letter and resume to Heidi Jacquier. Please include in your cover letter a description of why you are uniquely suited to this position.

Nigel Savage, founder of Hazon, asked us two questions during his keynote speech last night at the Hazon Food Conference. It felt like the beginning of one of those Jewish parables, the ones where the wise rabbi asks or tells us something that means more than it seems on the surface, where you ponder on the teaching and the world opens up in a new way.

“Stand up if you eat meat, but you wouldn’t if you had to kill it yourself,” Nigel called out. A number of people in the packed hall rose from their seats. I applauded them for their self-awareness and honesty, while of course maintaining a certain degree of vegetarian smugness.

Then he asked us another question. “Stand up if you are vegetarian, but would eat meat if you killed it yourself.” This time fewer people stood up, but it was still a significant number.

Then Nigel told us the story of the goat.

Two years ago, while putting together the second annual Hazon Food Conference, the planners decided that one of the activities offered would be the opportunity to see a goat killed in a kosher manner. A shochet, or ritual slaughterer, and a rabbi explained the whole process as they performed it. The death by slitting of the throat was almost instantaneous, as kosher law requires. Then there were several more hours of cutting off the goat’s head, hanging its body to drain the blood, opening it up to inspect its organs.

That night the same goat was served for dinner, on a separate table from the rest of the meal, which was vegetarian, and everyone was invited to partake. Nigel asked those same two questions afterwards, but this time he asked who among the diners who normally ate meat had abstained. More than 40 people out of a few hundred stood up. Then he asked if any people who were normally vegetarians had eaten the goat. Around 20 people had, for their own numerous and varied reasons, made this choice.

When word got out before the conference that the ritual slaughter of a goat was to be part of the programming, this provoked some intense reactions. A Jewish vegetarian organization disavowed Hazon and called on others to do the same. For a more detailed look at the sentiments behind the reactions, check out this post and its comments section to read a dialogue which took place this year regarding Hazon’s intention to ritually slaughter chickens and serve them for Shabbat dinner.

I’m a vegetarian, so this doesn’t have much to do with me, right? I can pick a side based on my own principles, but those goats and chickens aren’t being killed and served up in my name.

Except for one thing.

That goat was my goat.

No, I don’t mean he was my own pet goat. I mean that goat was my responsibility. I brought him into this world. His fate was directly linked to me.

That year the Hazon conference was held at the Isabella Freeman Jewish Retreat Center, and the goat in question was from their farm, Adamah, part of Adamah’s “boy’s town.” “Boy’s town” is the separate pasture for all the male goats who are born to the herd of dairy goats Adamah raises to produce milk and cheese. In order to make milk, goats need to be lactating, and to lactate they must be pregnant and then give birth. According to the wonderful Abbe Turner of the Lucky Penny Farm, who answered my questions (during today’s panel of Jewish Female Farmers) with deep compassion and groundedness, around 56% of the kids born in her herd are male. None of these little guys will be producing milk any time soon. So what happens to them?

I imagine this answer is different for different goats. And then there also the even more numerous males born to dairy cows, and all the males born to laying hens. Some end up as featured delicacies in local gourmet restaurants, like Abbe Turner’s. Others are killed quickly and cleanly by a shochet and eaten by those who raised them, like the goats at Adamah. Most others I imagine go to central processing plants to become stew meat or pet food or veal calves or are even ground into livestock feed, like male laying chickens.

When I eat eggs and dairy, even from the most humane, sustainable, small-farmer-owned, organic, local farms, I am not only drinking this milk and noshing on this cheese. I am calling forth this male goat, this living animal who is brought into a world that has very few options for him. Farmers could keep these male animals and raise them – and Abbe Turner does send some off to live lengthy lives as 4H projects or grass shearers. But to keep all of these animals would be to make pets of them, and the strain this doubling of the herd would put on the resources of land and water and farmer would be enormous beyond justification.

In saying that, I’m not saying that the strain on resources of keeping these “extraneous” male animals alive is not justified by the saving of their lives; I’m saying that it’s not justified by the resources (i.e., money) that I’m willing to contribute to get myself a delicious chevre or some tasty yogurt. I’m not paying so much for my cheese that there’s money in there to fund a goat sanctuary as well. So, the goat goes off to the knife. Someone kills him, someone cooks him, someone eats him. It’s not me, though.

No, I’m a vegetarian.

As we put the fields to bed here at Adamah, we’re looking ahead to next season. We have several staff positions we are seeking to fill. If you’re looking for farm work that feeds the soil and the soul, Adamah is the place for you!

Field Manager: This is an ideal position for someone with 1-2 years farm experience looking for a manager position in an educational environment. The Field Manager will manage vegetable production on the 5-acre Adamah farm, which grows for a 50-share CSA, for the dining hall at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Falls Village, CT, and for our value-added products business (pickles, sauerkraut and jam). For complete job description and info on how to apply contact Anna Hanau at anna@isabellafreedman.org.

Apprentice Positions: We are looking for three independent, motivated folks to be the Field, Dairy and Pickle apprentice for 2010. These positions will be filled in February but if you’re interested, do let us know! Email anna@isabellafreedman.org.

The Adamah Fellowship is accepting applications for Summer and Fall 2010, and space is filling up quickly. If you’re considering spending a summer or fall at Adamah, apply now! Applications are available at www.adamah.org.

If you are looking for a Chanukah gift for a foodie (say… yourself!), or some new recipes for any of the Jewish holidays, then there’s a new book out that will be of help. Aviva Allen, author of the 2007 The Organic Kosher Cookbook, has just released a Holiday Edition. Ms. Allen provided me with a free copy for this interview and review.

Ms. Allen is a nutritionist in Toronto, CA, with a private practice. She also teaches private cooking lessons and Smart Food shopping. Smart Food shopping lessons introduces the client to new foods and how to prepare them, how to read labels, healthy substitutions, and more.

Ms. Allen’s interest in healthy cooking, eating, and education were originally piqued when she participated in the ADAMAH farming fellowship. She then went on to attend the Natural Gourment Institute in New York, followed by an internship back at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, cooking healthy, vegetarian food.

Ms. Allen wrote her first cookbook, because she felt that Jewish food was mostly “a lot of brown food” and utilized “a lot of margarine and Crisco to make the food pareve.” She explains that “there are a lot of so-called healthy kosher cookbooks out there but they have a lot of [those unhealthy ingredients].”

Ms. Allen’s new cookbook is broken down by holiday and what traditional foods are eaten at each one. She supplies recipes for healthier versions of these dishes. It is an ideal book for anyone who wants to keep kosher and also eat organic.

She explains, “There are so many different food sensitivities, preferences, and restrictions. A lot of the time you are making food for someone coming over and it’s helpful to look in the book and know what to make for them.” The book has symbols indicating for each recipe if it is vegetarian, gluten-free, passover-friendly, and if simple substitutions can be made to accommodate any of the above restrictions. There is also an index indicating all of the vegan recipes.

The cookbook includes organic, kosher chicken and fish recipes, but no beef. At this time, there is no kosher, organic beef available in Canada, where Ms. Allen is based.

Here is a recipe for Ms. Allen’s Spicy Potato Latkes, just in time for Chanukah preparations:

Spicy Potato Latkes (vegetarian)

Yield: 10-15 latkes

5 cups SHREDDED YUKON GOLD POTATO (2 lbs. potatoes)

3 Tbsp. GRATED ONION (1 small onion)

1 Tbsp. MINCED JALAPENO PEPPER (seeds removed)

3 EGGS

2 tsp. SEA SALT

2 tsp. CHILI POWDER

1/2 cup WHOLE WHEAT OR WHOLE SPELT FLOUR */**

EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL FOR FRYING

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

2. Place shredded potatoes in a towel, a little at a time, and ring out the liquid.

3. Place into a large bowl and mix together with all other ingredients (except the oil).

4. Heat 3 Tbsp. olive oil in a frying pan at a medium-high heat. Place a heaping tablespoon of mixture into your hands and flatten to form a disc while squeezing out excess liquid.

5. Fry latkes until golden brown onto both sides, adding more oil as necessary. Place latkes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for about 10-15 minutes.

6. Serve with Avocado Sour Cream. (If you want to know this recipe, you’ll need to check out the cook book! –Laura).

Notes

* Substitute 1/4 cup brown rice flour for gluten-free version.

** Substitute an equal amount of whole wheat matzah meal for Passover-friendly version.

Enjoy!

Book image and recipe reprinted with permission of the author.

The Mother Nature Network has released a list of the top farmers in the country under the age of 40, and Hazon’s Emily Jane Freed is recognized for her work, passion and commitment to sustainable farming practices and community outreach. Emily, who is the Assistant Production Manager for Jacobs Farms in Pescadero (northern California), comes in at #13 on the list, which, according to MNN, is compiled “with help from dozens of people in the farming industry — from farmers themselves to those who help them in the nonprofit sector to those in the media who cover them.”

Also on the list are former Hazon staffers Rachel Kaplan (#27) and Anna Stevenson (#36), who have continued their careers working to provide Americans with sustainable and healthy food choices.

Mazel Tov to Emily, Rachel, and Anna for being recognized for their work helping to improve food systems and sustainability throughout North America.

While most of us in the Northeast who are plugged in to local agriculture are reveling in our early CSA bounty, many of the producers of this bounty are worrying about the future of this year’s crop.

Laura, a friend in Cambridge, MA, who is a participant in this summer’s Adamah Fellowship in Falls Village, CT, writes on her blog that the Adamah CSA, which delivered its first share this week, is in danger of losing its crop due to the high volume of rain received by the Northeast US in the past few weeks. This amount of rain, combined with the fact that the rain is predicted to continue for several more days at least, and the fact that the farm is located next to a river, mean that it could cost them the viability of many crops, especially so early in the season.

At the end of her post she asks for readers to pray–presumably for NOT rain. An ironic twist on the traditional Geshem prayer said on Sh’mini Atzeret at the end of the Sukkot harvest holiday in the fall. For those of us with a stake in New England and Mid-Atlantic agriculture, we may want to create a new ritual to account for these rare cases of too much rain.

While the prayer for rain, T’fillat Geshem, also references the planting of a tree next to a stream by Abraham, similarly to the placement of the Adamah fields, it takes note of the complicated role rain has played in Jewish tradition, saying:

For a blessing and not for a curse, Amen.

For life and not for death, Amen.

For abundance and not for famine, Amen.

Whether or not this extreme weather pattern is due in part to climate change is unclear, but it seems likely that changes in climate will have myriad impacts on the relationships between Jewish ritual and the earth.

Flowering zucchini amidst flooded paths

It’s been cold and rainy at Adamah for quite some time now, and on Thursday we started getting worried about the river. I went down to look at the field around 2 — it was high, higher than I’d ever seen, but still about 2 feet below the banks. Dark, brown, quickly moving water, surging down the channel. Mesmerizing to look at. Difficult to believe that this flowing source of life could turn so destructive. But maybe…it wouldn’t rise any higher?

By evening, though, the water had risen to within 6″ of the banks. Where we usually scramble down four or five feet or so to hop in the river, you could practically step right in. So we assembled a crew, and moved the irrigation pump (which perches on the edge of the river) and the row cover from the fields, because if the field flooded the fabric would clothesline all the plants in its path, and collected stray buckets and plastic chairs that could float away if the river spilled over its banks and across the field.

And then…that was it. There wasn’t any thing else we could do. We harvested a little, in case we couldn’t get down there the next day to harvest for Shabbat. And looking out at our field, I saw:

I realized that I hadn’t fully grasped the severity of climate change — if it means more extreme weather events that destroy our food, or prevent us from growing it as we now know how, we have a serious problem. And how could we appreciate that, unless we can see firsthand the effects of a flood on a field, could be in the position of helplessness in the face of the power of nature?

I realized how grateful I was for CSA, because our shareholders are willing to take the risks of farming with us. For so many farmers, a flooded field means no income. And why should the farmers take the biggest fall, for a freak of nature that is not their fault? It’s not like we did anything wrong. This isn’t a case of malpractice. Crops (and by extension, farmers, families, communities) destroyed by floods or droughts just isn’t fair. It’s really really upsetting, and scary to think about as it (nearly) happened to us.

Ironically, it’s a great argument for NOT eating locally. It’s a triumph of our food system — if it floods somewhere, we don’t all starve, because we can eat food from somewhere else. I think this is a good thing, I don’t think people should starve. But I do think we still need to pay attention. In the case of flooding, there may not be anything we can do. It may simply be a lot of rain. But it might also be a question of development, watersheds, run off, erosion, changes to the natural world that we can influence, or, more broadly, a question of global warming, something we can and must work to minimize. Extreme weather events affect our ability to feed ourselves. At some point, we won’t be able to just get food from somewhere else.

So far, the river hasn’t flooded, though there are parts of the field under water simply from all the rain. Roots suffocate when water on the surface of the soil prevents them from access to air. How much damage we sustain will depend on how long that water stays on the field. But we’ll recover, we’ll move forward. The sun will come out and dry up all the rain and the eensy weensy farmers will pick up their hoes, and return to the land with gratitude and respect.

Tuv Ha’Aretz in White Plains has a few shares still available – get yours in time for the first pick-up. This pick-up will include the sale of pickle products, goat cheese and yogurt from Adamah and cheeses from Five Spoke Creamery. They’re even providing wine!

The first pick-up begins THIS WEEK! Wed, June 17 at Temple Israel Center (in the auditorium) from 4 to 8 p.m.
Share: 22 weeks/$605
June 17, 2009 to November, 11, 2009

This comes to about $27 per week for beautiful, fresh, healthy, local, organic vegetables from Adamah Farm and Chubby Bunny Farm.

What is Tuv Ha’Aretz?
Tuv Ha’Aretz members buy shares in Chubby Bunny and Adamah farms and get weekly deliveries of healthy, local, mostly organic produce at competitive prices, while supporting a farmer and building community. Tuv Ha’Aretz expands our understanding of what it means for food to be kosher—not only “fit” for us, but “fit” for the Earth as well.

Why should I join?
Tuv Ha’Aretz puts purchasing power behind local farmers. In 2008, 1300 households in 19 sites across the U.S. and Canada contributed over $500,000 to their local farmers incomes. The program also educates the Jewish community around issues of sustainable agriculture, and inspires Jews to think more deeply and broadly about their food choices. Tuv Ha’Aretz sites host education programs for adults and families such as cooking demos, farm trips, and Beit Midrash study sessions.
Click here to learn more about Tuv Ha’Aretz in White Plains.

Thanks to Rachel Kriger for this guest post, one of a regular monthly series. Rachel was raised on organic food and in Jewish day school. At Wesleyan University, she studied religion and sociology, and then found the most practical career to combine the two as an organic farming apprentice.  In the ADAMAH fellowship, she was able to merge her love of small scale farming and Judaism, and she became the farm manager for the following year. Currently, she in her clinical year as a Five Element Acupuncturist at the Tai Sophia Institute in Maryland. In the Calendar Garden at the Pearlstone Center, she is making more connections between plants, seasons, Jewish wisdom and body awareness.

When Birkat HaChammah arrived a week ago, a group of people from the Washington area marked the morning in a very D.C. way—by converging on the National Mall. The spot the organizers chose—at the Lincoln Memorial, in sight of the Washington Monument and the reflecting pool—is a place folks from this city and around the nation have gathered for thousands of events spanning our parents’, grandparents, and great-great-grandparents’ lives. The historic spot seemed fitting for a holiday that comes once every 28 years, or once a generation. (And the Washington Post seemed to like the choice of venue and celebration enough to write and video about it).

This gathering was done in a way unique to the 20- and 30-somethings who formed the majority of the small crowd, but it was not entirely ours. Yes, we gave it our own generational spin with a yoga warm-up and discussion of alternative energy; and no doubt many of us were considering that the sun provides the food we eat and how we raise that bounty, with a fervent awareness of agricultural practices that could only come from this young, Adamah alumni-infused group. But we showed the influence of our baby boomer parents with renditions of The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” and “Morning Has Broken,” made popular by Cat Stevens.

Then, as we turned toward the eastern sky at 6:42 a.m. and saw the sun sliding over the horizon, generational distinctions melted away. When we said the blessing reserved for this moment, and for any majestic space that inspires gratitude for the work of creation, and as our voices sang El Adon and our feet grapevined like crazy, it could have been any time and place.

After the event, I walked away with a new friend, and again our thoughts focused on the generations. The two of us chatted about familiar things as we ambled through the downtown D.C. morning, through streets and trees showered with sun. We talked about climate change legislation, and wondered what we might be doing in 2037, the next time Birkat HaChammah rolls around. We wondered what our children, who aren’t yet born but we trust will be along soon, might be up to.

I don’t know what our world will look like, or how we will approach farming or transportation or energy. I just hope as that morning breaks, my kids will be dancing and singing and eating good food.