Way back in April, I attended and sang in Northampton, MA, at one of the many ‘Step it Up’ rallies going on across the country, and across the world, to bring attention to the realities of climate change. The sound system was powered by veggie oil from my van’s engine running through an inverter, and a good time was had by all. You can see my van, the ‘Veggie Voyager’, near the top right of the photo. Ironically, the weather was perfect! Here is a broadcast from WAMC radio that sums up the event pretty nicely.

Click here to listen!
This past weekend, another series of Step it Up rallies were called across the country - hundreds in all. I played at the rally in Kingston, NY, organized by the teachers and students of Kingston High School. This time though, the weather was cold and wet - making it harder to think about global warming! Activists of all stripes were there, and the mood was festive. Congressman Maurice Hinchey came to support the event, and he spoke after the music. Check out ‘Step it Up’ to see how you might get involved next time!

Hat tip to Jewschooler and NY Ride alumnus Josh Frankel:

After the tremendous success of its first beit medrash, Uri L’tzedek, the organization dedicated to engaging the Orthodox community in social justice, is back for more. “Ethical Kashrut, Workers’ Rights, the Kosher Meat Industry” is the title for this week’s program, and the word on the street is that Rubashkin’s should take cover. Monday night, 7:30 - 9:00 PM, at the Mount Sinai Jewish Center, 135 Bennet Ave, in NYC.

For more information, check out Uri L’tzedek’s new facebook group.

Margaret Hathaway’s new book, The Year of the Goat, tells the story of the 40,000 miles she and her partner (now husband), Karl Schatz, traveled in search of the perfect goat cheese - and a new way of life.

Before embarking on their year-long journey, Hathaway was a freelance writer who managed Magnolia Bakery in New York City, and Schatz worked as a photo editor for Time Magazine’s website. Together, they lived in Brooklyn, shopped at the Greenmarkets, and generally enjoyed city life - but they craved something more than the five boroughs could offer. So, they set off on a year-long journey to discover if farming - and particularly working with goats - held the secrets of the next chapter of their lives.

Along the way, Hathaway and Schatz met what they call, a “vivid cast of characters,” including a myriad of goat cheese and meat enthusiasts, a Texas-born Muslim living in Maine and helping the local Somali community in Lewiston acquire fitting goats for their religious festivals, and a Messianic Jew who keeps Shabbat as well as a herd of goats.

I spoke with Margaret and Karl last week about goats (naturally), their adventures in homesteading, the connection between farming and Jewish tradition, and their upcoming event in NYC, the Goatstravaganza (Nov. 8).

Interview continues below the jump…

Read more »

This past Shabbat, my boyfriend and I walked from Park Slope to Red Hook, Brooklyn (an hour each way - no, not uphill) to the Red Hook Harvest Festival.  He’d heard me yammer on for a while about the ”real life FARM” in the middle of Brooklyn, but as we passed the many corner stores and high rises that typify the borough, I think he started to doubt that such a place could really exist.  Until we arrived.

In the middle of a once dilapidated asphalt playground, 2.75 acres of earth and plants now thrive.  Brooklyn has a rich farming history - as late as the 19th century, Brooklyn was the second most productive agricultural county in the United States, second only to Queens.  But today, growing anything more than what fits in a window box or on a stoop seems nothing short of a miracle.    

The Red Hook farm was started by Ian Marvey, founder of an organization called Added Value, which empowers neighborhood kids and teens to learn farming and business skills (through farmer’s markets and sales to local restaurants), while strengthening the local community.  According to Added-Value’s website:  

“Twice in the past three years Red Hook’s only full-service grocery store closed, forcing residents to walk three miles and cross an eight lane road or take a $10 cab if they want to shop there. Red Hook was a textbook example of a broken food system and its effects on a community.  Now, we are becoming a model of how residents, businesses, social service agencies and religious institutions can begin to rebuild a food system that promotes social interaction and economic activity while nurturing our health and improving the environment.” 

Folks in the neighborhood know the farm.  Lost in an unfamiliar part of town, I asked a passing teenager if he knew where the corner of Columbia and Sigourney street was (unlike most rural farms, this one has an intersection).  He didn’t know.

“Um, do you know where the, uh, farm is?” I asked sheepishly.

“Oh yeah - the farm’s that way” he said, pointing us on. 

Read more »

Today is the kick off of the Globesity Festival in NYC - a week long series of performances that confront the “beastly grind” of over-consumption.  Each of the participating artists engaged in a juice-fast before the festival, during which they “conceived a theatrical performance in response to consumerism,” that will be showcased at the festival.

Journalists, writers, and documentary film makers serve an obvious purpose in the food movement - researching our society’s eating patterns and reflecting them back in an accessible (ahem, digestible) format.  But what about the performance artist, the dancer, the sculpter?  Find out by checking out the performances at Globesity Fest, here.

Last month, I had a great time at the Alternative Energy Festival run by the Beacon Sloop Club, an affiliate of the Clearwater organization. The club has done wonders in rehabilitating the waterfront area, and bringing environmental education and progressive culture to the city.

Pete Seeger himself has been a hard-working member of the club from the beginning, and his commitment to the Hudson river has been remarkable and unwavering over many years, and it is always a delight to see him there. I came to sing, and to demonstrate the ‘Veggie Voyager’, my vegetable oil-powered van.

After my concert, I wandered around the well organized, dockside Beacon Farmer’s Market (with lots of sustainably grown food) that runs there every Sunday.

There I met Seth Aaron, a student from the Newburgh Free Academy, and part of the winning team in the 12th annual Dell-Winston School Solar Car Challenge, a national competition. They drove from Texas to NY in July, and tied for first place with a team from Missouri. That qualifies them to go on to the world championship in Australia. The car itself, dubbed the ‘Sol Machine’, is actually made of Kevlar, a welded titanium frame and solar panels that charge the battery. It can go up to 50 mph. The car’s parts total more than $50,000.

In my next post, I’ll be talking with Seth about his culinary experience on the trip.

Chef Peter Berley will share the love, and his skills, at the JCC in Manhattan on Wed, Oct 10 at a Hazon co-sponsored cooking demonstration. The blurb from the JCC says:

Join us for an exceptional guest chef demonstration with Chef Peter Berley, author of The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen (winner of both The IACP Cookbook Award and the James Beard Award) and the newly released Fresh Food Fast, which offers
mouthwatering recipes that are easy to make and designed to satisfy all kinds of appetites. Enjoy an interactive cooking demonstration while you sample flavorful, sophisticated fare including toasted millet pilaf, savory kale with cremini mushrooms, lemon-thyme roast chicken, lemon-rosemary tofu, and vegan spice cake with extra virgin olive oil. Co-sponsored by Hazon.

Wed, Oct 10
7:00 PM - 9:30 PM
$55.00 - Member
$65.00 - Non-Member

Your task at hand is fun and four-fold:

1. Register for the class at www.jcckitchen.org or by calling the JCC at 646.505.5708

2. Read The Jew & The Carrot review of Berley’s book The Flexitarian Table by R. Avi Finegold

3. Purchase The Flexitarian Table by clicking the book icon under the “Books we Love” section on this blog (see the left bar)

4. Check out Berley’s new “flexitarian” restaurant, Broadway East, opening October 15 in Manhattan’s Lower East Side

• Price of a Farm Aid Ticket: $52 (+ ticketmaster fees)

• Price of Fung Wah bus from Boston: $15

Standing among a crowd of New Yorkers, surrounded by equal parts marijuana haze, “Stop Factory Farms” t-shirts and average New Yorkers here to see Dave, Neil & the Allman brothers, listening to a Hasidic reggae artist talking about the taste of an unbelievable tomato and getting one’s hands back into the dirt to refresh the connection between humans and the earth: PRICELESS

For me, that was one of several exciting moments during yesterday’s Farm Aid concert, which, as the NYTimes noted, was u.nique in its ability to draw in average-Joe New Yorkers, just in it for the music, organic junkies, and farmers from across the country. Another was actually taking a photo with my co-workers in our new matching “Farmers Kick [Donkey]” t- shirts.

As a representative of a group who spent much of the concert inviting concert-goers to sign up for email action alerts about the Farm Bill, I think this was an amazing opportunity for the burgeoning food movement to move beyond its original supporters. What I told Max Fraser of The Nation yesterday, was that I hoped all of the excitement and publicity around Farm Aid would get concertgoers and other citizens more engaged with food policy i.e. the Farm Bill. My only wish is that I hadn’t seen the box of Sysco potatoes used to make the french fries I bought from one of the “all local, sustainable, organic” food vendors.

Update 09/19/07: Apparently Alice Waters also noticed the Sysco products (as well as the Silk, Chipotle and Horizon booths), and this yielded a panoply of comments on the NYTimes Diner’s Journal article on Farm Aid. Tuesday, Alice responded that she wasn’t intending to diss Farm Aid, but only to dream of how things could be in an “edible utopia.”

Leadership of the JCPA (Jewish Council for Public Affairs) will be participating in the now-famous Food Stamp Challenge during the Days of Awe period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (Sept. 14th-21st).

Executive Director Rabbi Steve Gutow and JCPA Chair Lois Frank will stick to the $1 per meal or $21/week budget of an average food stamp recipient, as part of the organization’s new Anti-Poverty Campaign, to highlight the connections between Jewish teachings surrounding poverty and the current Food Stamp reauthorization component of the Farm Bill.

JCRC leadership and Jewish communities around the country are being encouraged to also ”Take the Challenge,” coinciding with the Locavores’ September Local Food Challenge. Do any of us dare to take the double challenge? I think this would result in nearly an 11-day long Yom Kippur fast, or perhaps subsistance only on apples, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and the remains of nectarines and melon.

Ideally, an organized Jewish participation in the Food Stamp Challenge, including Rabbis and other national Jewish leaders, could have an impact on federal legislation, if it is publicized appropriately for advocacy. Hopefully, continued action surrounding Food Stamps will have an impact on the Farm Bill, which has yet to pass out of the Senate Agriculture Committee (expected in mid-October).

Get out your sustainable, local, affordable healthy food calendars, folks….

Because Farm Aid has released its lineup of HOMEGROWN Happenings surrounding Sun Sept 9th’s Farm Aid Concert on Randall’s Island in NY. The events, in partnership with many other local food and agriculture organizations, include a festival at Union Square from 10-4 on Sept 8th, and a week of farmfresh menu options at several NYC restaurants.

While the Farm Aid concert, for which tickets are still available, is the real peak of the homegrown happenings, don’t think it’s all over when the leaves drop from the trees- the festival will be culmniating with the theatrical debut of KING CORN, an amazing documentary about two twenty-somethings from Boston who decide to drive to Iowa and grow 1 acre of corn for 1 year, looking at the complexities of our food system in a nuanced and witty manner all the while their crop is growing. The film screening opens at Cinema Village on October 7 and runs for nearly 2 months.

Full Farm Aid NYC Calendar available here.

Hasidic reggae master  Matisyahu will be among the excellent line-up at the upcoming Farm Aid 2007 concert and festival at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island on Sunday Sept. 9th… and they say Jews don’t farm…

In addition to music, the actual Farm Aid festival will include fresh examples of New York’s sustainable & organic bounty, which will be collected on a caravan around the state leading up to the concert, as well as opportunities for education and action to improve our food system.

This year’s Farm Aid will be focusing on the New York City food system and the connections between urban and rural with a series of community and policy events leading up to the concert throughout New York City. Stay tuned for more specific information on this exciting series.

Hazon’s mission is to foster a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community as a step towards a healthier and more sustainable world for all.  Our programs are focused around two pillars: bikes (and physical health more broadly) and food. 

So I was very excited to find out about two upcoming bicycle rides that are focused entirely around food:

Tour de Blintz: Visit Greater Vancouver’s Jewish restaurants, delis and bakeries - by bicycle!  Guided tours available Aug 12, 19, and 26.  A self-guided version will be available Aug 31.  The August 12 and 19 tours will be all kosher.  More info / register here.

Tour d’Organics: Ride from one organic, family farm to the next, enjoying the beautiful scenery and delicious fresh produce along the way.  (What could be better than riding 25 miles to be greeted at a rest stop by a fresh, juicy peach?)  Rides include: Santa Cruz, Aug 25, Sebastopol, CA, Sept 16, and Portland, OR, Oct 6.  More info / register here.

If you know of any other food focused bike rides, comment below or send them to tips@jcarrot.org

In less than three weeks we will celebrate our son Shlomo’s Bar Mitzva, G-d willing. Those of you who have had the privilege of meeting him know that underneath the black hat, fringes and payos (sidecurls) he is one cool kid – into farming, animals (he raised the first flock of laying hens for Isabella Freedman/ADAMAH), woodworking, sustainable building and even a bit of WalMart and corporate America bashing once he gets going! Read more »

This Friday, DC’s rockin’ progressive havurah is taking on Jewish food issues!

Tikkun Leil Shabbat is a songful, soulful, Friday evening services featuring a teaching about a social justice issue and followed by a potluck vegetarian dinner. This Friday July 13, the “dvar tikkun” will be introduced by Hazon’s very own Laura Bellows and feature:

Aliza Wasserman (also one of our fabulous “The Jew & the Carrot” bloggers!), from Community Food Security Coalition, will talk about a progressive Jewish take on national food policy and the pending Farm Bill.

Melissa Byrne will talk about the benefits of eating locally grown food, and provide information about the DC-area farmers’ markets (and maybe a sweet taste-test of local berries!)

Services begin at 6:45 at the Religious Action Center at 2027 Massachusetts Ave NW (21st & P) near the Dupont Circle metro, North exit. Services will be accompanied by instruments; please bring a vegetarian entree or salad to share, and a percussion instrument if you’d like.

More information about how they’ve “greened” their potlucks, and other details about this metro-fabulous havurah, at www.tikkunleilshabbat.org.

(Thanks to Jo for this tip.)