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.

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(Hat tip to Jewschool .)

I believe in dinner plate feng shui.  There comes a time, right before dinner, when I take a few moments to select just the right plate or bowl on which to nestle the food I’ve made.**  (Since many of the dishes in my cupboard hail from Goodwill and/or roommates’ collections, I have any number of styles and patterns to choose from.)  

Now the folks at the decidedly non Jewish company, “Feed on the Word,” have added a whole different component into the mix of choices: Scripture Tableware.  As Danya at Jewschool wrote:

“…Several of the themed collections (at least “Praise,” “Psalms,” “Patriotic” and a few of the serving dishes) are comprised of all Old Testament pasukim, so maybe this could be a nice way to differentiate between milk and meat dishes.”

Here are the verses found on the “Praise” collection:

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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.

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Hazon’s Tu Bishvat seder was lots of fun - we sang, we kibbutzed, ate an amazing meal, and listened to some inspiring words by Dr. Eilon Schwartz of the Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership in Israel. *Note our take on sustainable centerpieces - fresh herbs in glass jars surrounded by pecans. It’s low-key, lovely and edible (after the seder you can make parsley pesto and pecan pie!). Who says you need cut flowers?

Last year, my Tu Bishvat wrap-up post dealt with the question of the mysterious end to the Tu Bishvat seder. After eating foods that are edible on the inside, then outside, then all the way through, the final section of the Tu Bishvat seder has us eating nothing at all. In explanation, I offered this quote from Maggid of Mezritch, the Chasidic master Dov Baer:

““Nothing in the world can change from one reality into another, unless it first turns into nothing, that is, into the reality of the between-stage. The moment when the egg is no more and the chick is not yet, is the level of Ayin, nothingness. It is the same with the sprouting seed. It does not begin to sprout until the seed disintegrates in the earth and the quality of seed-dom is destroyed in order that it may attain to nothingness which is the rung before creation.”

The reason there is no fruit at the end of the seder is because it exists only in the future - after we pick up where the seder left off and plant the seeds of tikkun olam in our community, and in our lives. To tangibly represent this point, this year we’re printing the last page of our seder on this paper. It contains actual wildflower seeds that will really grow if this page is planted in the ground following the seder! May all our work towards a sustainable world come to fruition this year.

Fermentation is the foundation of warm sourdough bread, crunchy pickles and cold micro-brewed beer. And Sandor Ellix Katz is, in our humble opinion, the rebbe of fermentation.

Two weeks ago, Naftali posted a review of Sandor’s book Wild Fermentation. Now, you can read the exclusive (and incredibly inspiring) interview with Sandor, and answer the following question for a chance to win a copy of his book: What is your all-time favorite fermented food?

Interview with Sandor Ellix Katz

Who is Sandorkraut?

Sandorkraut is an affectionate nickname I was given by friends thanks to my love of sauerkraut, my constant production of it, and more broadly my evangelical zeal about fermentation. My name is Sandor Ellix Katz. I’m a queer Jew born and raised in New York City who has been homesteading in rural Tennessee for the past 15 years.

My interest in fermentation developed out of overlapping interests in food, nutrition, and gardening. My book Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods has propelled me into a mission of what I call cultural revivalism, spreading fermentation skills and fermentation fervor.

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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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“You can trace the recent history of Tu B’shevat seders like branches on a tree.”  - Nigel Savage, Jerusalem Post, 2004

The Jew & The Carrot Presents: Healthy, Sustainable Tu B’shevat Resources

Click here to peruse The Jew & The Carrot’s Tu B’shevat Resource List, for helpful tips and ideas to create your own Tu B’shevat seder, or celebrate the holiday of the trees in sustainable style.  If you have any ideas or tips you’ve picked up from a Tu B’shevat past, please share them below.

(x-posted from Lilith)

We’ve made it to the final stretch of the “holiday season” (read: the inclusive euphemism for Christmas and New Year’s Eve). Despite Nigel’s insistence that, “no one says Merry Christmas in America” (he’s from England where supposedly everyone says Merry Christmas as if they have a tic), the holidays – and particularly Christmas – can literally be felt, regardless of one’s religious beliefs.

This phenomenon holds particularly true with food. No matter that Chanukah celebrations peaked half a month ago - holiday food is ubiquitous. From late November through New Year’s Eve, red-and-green wrapped chocolates seem to pop up out of nowhere. Alcohol, cookies, pie, and heavily salted snacks also take on “how-did-that-get-into-my-hand?” properties. And whether you spent Christmas dinner with friends or celebrated the “Jewish way” with Chinese food and a movie, holiday foods have a tendency to find their way, often in excess, into our mouths.

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12/10/07

The boots had been sitting in a bag for weeks. They’d been moved from front hall to bathroom to tub and outside as needed, and I didnt know what to do with them. I’d worn my galoshes when I’d gone to help slaughter 3 turkeys the Thursday before Thanksgiving at a farm in upstate NY. That powerful first for me went very calmly and cleanly and my boots remained unmarked. I was surprised, but pleasantly - I had worn the boots and my raincoat with the expectation that they would get covered in blood - ruined.  I wore them again that Monday when I went to help slaughter the 24 turkeys we (my ethical kosher meat venture, Kosher Conscience) would need for the holiday. I was out of my mind with details and satisfaction and fear, but also relieved that I’d had the warm up the week before so I knew what the process would look like, feel like. That day went very differently from everything I expected and my boots by days end had quite a bit of blood on them, as did my  clothes and my skin. My skin and my clothes needed to be washed, no question. If only for sanitary purposes if not for comfort as well. But the boots became less clear, for reasons I didn’t see coming.

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Below is the full text of Friday night’s keynote at The Hazon Food Conference.  The keynote was given by Nati Passow, co-founder of The Jewish Farm School.  It’s a long post, but definitely worth the read - even if you have to print it out (on recycled paper of course!) and take it home.

(Nati’s on the right, next to Simcha Schwartz.  Photo by Sabrina Malach.)

Hazon Food Conference
December 6-9, 2007
Keynote Address: Nati Passow 

Thank you Nigel. Shabbat Shalom and Chanukah Sameach. It is a great honor to be here with you all tonight. Nigel suggested that I begin by sharing my story with you, my connection and relationship to food, which I think is a great way to begin this talk, because one of the things I like most about food is that sitting down to a meal is a great excuse to spend time with friends and listen to each other’s stories. So here is a little bit of mine.

Seven years ago I took a Sabbatical. I left university for the year and traveled in Israel. I studied in yeshiva, toured the country and then settled into an apartment in Jerusalem. After having little success finding a job, I decided to enjoy my sabbatical for what it was time to just be present. This was when I discovered good coffee, which for any honorable coffee drinker is a moment you never forget. An older friend of mine sat me down and said that if I was going to drink coffee everyday, I should make it good. Buy whole beans, grind them myself and brew something delicious.

The coffee was my gateway drug to the world of slow food.

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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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This photograph was taken by Sabrina Malach at The Hazon Food Conference.  Aside from just being gorgeous, I think it perfectly captures the essence of the conference.  Note the snazzy glass mug every participant received when they arrived.  Also note the bicycle menorah.  Pretty rad.

In this post, Leah spoke about the shechting of the three goats.  Towards the end, she writes,  “I began to wonder at what point during the process did the beautiful goat transform into “meat?”  I am not sure that I can answer that question any more conclusively than Leah, but I want to pick up the story where she left off, as I had the privilege to witness the entire process needed to make the meat kosher, and how it was prepared for cooking.  I also was able to discover what happened to all of the parts that we did not eat for dinner - bones, skin, and the rest of the meat.

As one can imagine, this process involved a lot of work.  Many people asked me about the details, which I am happy to provide here.  At time however this description can be a bit graphic.  Continue below the jump for those that want to read on.

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