One of Hazon’s staff members had a baby last week (our first baby Hazonik!), which left us wondering, what do you get for a Jewish foodie baby? We thought this “Eat, Bless, & Be Satisfied” onesie from our Cafe Press account was just right. Get one for the foodie baby in your life here.
And below the jump: aprons, t-shirts, tote bags, note cards and more!
Thanks to Hannah Lee for this guest post.
There are cities with a holy stature (like Jerusalem), and there are cities with cultural eminence (like New York) - but my family just came home from a vacation to a place that holds my nomination for Paradise on Earth: Berkeley, California.
I already knew that Berkeley residents are required to collect their food waste for composting (with weekly pick-ups), but to see it operation, with ordinary citizens scraping their plates (and all food-related paper) into their home-sized composting bins was truly inspiring.
The NY Times Dining Section reported today about the havoc that summer camp food can wreak on kids’ health. Tara Parker-Pope wrote:
“[My 9-year old daughter’s] camp is typical of those around the country: days packed with archery, swimming and adventure climbing; menus packed with soft drinks, burgers, chicken nuggets and, once a week, cheese fries… ‘Camp food is terrible,’ said Susan B. Roberts, director of the energy metabolism laboratory at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. ‘The problem is that they are doing what is easiest — the lowest common denominator for what kids like, and on top of that usually it has to be not something that goes bad and is no work to prepare.’”
Meanwhile, although they will likely continue to offer grilled cheese and potato chips this summer, it seems that BBYO is not settling for the lowest common denominator when it comes to the meat served at their summer camps. The Jewish youth organization put out a statement urging camp partners to avoid using Agriprocessors products.
Read BBYO’s statement below:
Long time readers of The Jew & The Carrot might remember Margaret Hathaway and Karl Schatz as the couple who left their urban apartment in Brooklyn and traveled 40,000 miles around the country in search of a new lifestyle as goat farmers. (Margaret wrote a book about their experience called The Year of the Goat
These days, Karl and Margaret live on a farm outside of Portland with their two children, Charlotte and Beatrice, and their dairy goats. And I had the opportunity to write about their lives and how they merge their sustainable lifestyle and Jewish tradition for Jewish Living Magazine (think an eco-friendly, Martha Stewart Living with a Jewish twist!)
Read an excerpt of the article below the jump. Read more »
These days, Shabbat is a part of my weekly routine - a time I long for on those crazy weekday afternoons when I’m behind on my ever-growing to do list. A time I relish for the opportunity to relax with friends and eat amazing food. But that wasn’t always the case. Until a few years ago, Shabbat felt like something that I couldn’t quite get my head and hands around. The rituals seemed overwhelming and the weekly commitment felt onerous. Slowly, incrementally - I’ve found my way to Shabbat, and now that I’ve found it, I’m keeping it!
Meredith Jacobs new book The Modern Jewish Mom’s Guide to Shabbat was written by Jacobs - a busy mother herself! - to help other moms (and the advice would work equally as well for dads) connect themselves and their families to Shabbat. Offering one part enthusiastic encouragement and one part practical advice (e.g. how to bake challah, Torah-based discussion questions for the dinner table) ,The Modern Jewish Mom’s Guide to Shabbat helps families make Shabbat - and spending time with one another - a weekly family tradition.
Below the jump: An interview with Meredith Jacobs and a chance to win a copy of her book!
Thanks to Rebecca Bloomfield for this guest post. Rebecca is an alumni of the Adamah program and a garden teacher at The Edible Schoolyard, a program of the Chez Panisse Foundation and founded by Alice Waters.
The highlight of my week this week involved watching two of my students fight. Dodging the carefully-cultivated garden beds, one student ran after another. I hurdled over the strawberry patch to intercept the pursuer and was met by a stern pout that melted into a grin with the words, “she stole my snow peas.” I heard giggling and crunching behind me as the winded friend approached us both, handing us the peas. We snacked and returned to harvesting.
The Edible Schoolyard, in Berkeley, CA, is a force of healing and transformation for middle school students. As children turn soil, plant seeds, harvest produce, and build compost piles, they deepen their connection to food. As the garden transforms, so do the students. It is a space for things to change from that which is to that which can be: seed to sprout, compost to fertile soil, flower to fruit. Like the Mishkan that the Jews were commanded to build during the Exodus, the garden is a sacred space where a divine presence dwells. School gardens the nation over provide space for children to learn that they have choices when it comes to their food, their bodies, and their environment: things do not have to be the way they currently are.
Thanks to Devadeva Mirel for this guest post recounting her two and a half weeks surviving the mean girls and the dining hall food as a Jewish camper. Check out her blog and jam company Sabjimata Jam here.
My first time away from home (and in a setting without wall to wall carpet, mind you) was not one full of fond memories. It was the summer between fifth grade and puberty. My parents drove me into “The City” where I, along with the other suburban campers, rode the train from Grand Central Station to Albany. We then all climbed into a camp van which drove us even further away from home, to Young Judea’s “Tranquility Camp.”
My memories of camp are the stuff of ‘tween dramas: bodily insecurity, cruel cliques, and undergrad counselors with bandeaux tops, visible tan lines and a surprising disinterest in anything having to do with canoes or lanyards. For those two and a half weeks of my life, I felt the dull isolation of being disconnected from my friends, family and the soft cotton blankets at home.
Meal times were another source of displeasure. Comfort food for me had always meant onion bagels and Lay’s potato chips. Now comfort food basically meant anything that wasn’t beets from the dining hall. My camp had a policy where campers had to at least taste everything - a scary prospect for me. “Try it, you’ll like it” never sounded more cruel.
Thanks to Rabbi Mordechai Rackover for this guest post. Rabbi Rackover is Assistant Rabbi and Director of Education at Beth Sholom Congregation and Talmud Torah in Potomac, Maryland.
I live in kosher culinary limbo – a purgatory filled with memories of what once was, shattered by the brutal realities of my current state.
Having grown up without observing any Jewish dietary laws I have tasted “the other side.” Occasionally I find myself overwhelmed by memories of Italian sausage, shellfish, oyster sauce and exceptional all-you-can eat buffets where chicken and macaroni and cheese rub elbows and the shrimp scampi stretches as far as the eye can see. There are wistful moments when I recall the charcuteries, greasy spoons and hidden lunch counters in my hometown of Montreal, Quebec.
Aaah…the Greek food. The barbecue. The unrivaled smoked meat…I swoon.
Flash forward to today. Without regret, I am a Rabbi, a foodie and a father who is trying to introduce the best possible food practices into my family’s life and kitchen. Unfortunately, the neighborhood my family inhabits can not support our taste for delicious, healthy kosher food.
Cooking, Dinner parties, Family & Kids, Food Writing, Kosher, Personal Story, Photography, Recipes, Vegetarian, Women
If you’re a foodie, then (in addition to your collection of stinky cheese and expensive vinegar) it is crucial to have foodie friends - people you can completely “geek out” about food with. For example, my fiance may nod appreciatively when I gush on and on about the beautiful radishes I bought at the farmers market - but my foodie friends gush right back - and give me recipes.
Another benefit of having foodie friends is the amazing food field trips they invite you to - like the tortellini-making party I attended last Sunday. A friend of mine has a cousin (Carla) who grew up going to Italy every summer where she learned how to cook from her Italian family. Eager to share her passion for Italian food with others, Carla invited a group of us into her gorgeous kitchen for a cooking lesson.
Listening to Carla talk about the many Mediterranean summers she passed in her aunt’s kitchen made me a little wistful for my Jewish bubbe and my great-grandmother from Lithuania, neither of whom I never was fortunate enough to meet. But there was no time to be wallow that Sunday - there was too much pasta to make!
Photos and a recipe below the jump.
America, Family & Kids, Farmer's Markets, Farming, Featured, Food History, Food Justice, Food Safety, Jewish Orgs, News, Opinion, Politics
Thanks to Melissa Boteach for this Jewish look at The Farm Bill. Melissa is the Poverty Campaign Coordinator for the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. The views expressed here are her own, and do not represent the policy of JCPA.
Last week, both the House and Senate passed the 2007 Farm Bill by veto-proof majorities. This was the culmination of over a year and a half of work by the domestic anti-hunger community, who worked vigorously to ensure a robust nutrition title with improvements and increased funding to food stamps and emergency food assistance.
Some question whether its passage is a victory or a failure. After all, the Farm Bill is not a perfect piece of legislation. There has been an unending parade of opinion pieces written about its shortfalls. Among other things, its critics argue, it continues a system of payments to American farmers that distort world trade, undermine small farmers in developing countries, and frankly, just don’t make much policy sense. It has been denigrated as a scam, a testament to the way in which special interests dominate American politics.
But tell that to the millions of low-income Americans who will receive an increase in their food stamp benefit.
Cookbooks, Cooking, Family & Kids, Fresh Frum the Kitchen, Health, Jewish Culture, Kosher, Shabbos Meals, Women
Thanks to our guest poster, Chana Rubin, RD for this article on planning and serving healthy Shabbat meals. Chana is a registered dietitian who lives in Israel with her family. She’s the author of the new book Food for the Soul: Traditional Jewish Wisdom for Healthy Eating
Three Tips for Healthier Shabbat Meals
1. Lighten up You can plan a delicious Shabbat meal around traditional foods that have been adapted to reduce fat and sugar. For example, if your family traditionally enjoys eating chicken on Shabbat, try removing the skin before cooking. (Your butcher may be willing to do this for you.) You can retain some of its moisture by cooking it in a tasty sauce or rolling it first in beaten egg and then in seasoned crumbs before baking. Chicken or meat soups may be prepared in advance and refrigerated so that the hardened fat can be easily removed. Better yet, choose a soup based on vegetables or legumes.
I’m an avid cook, but I think in the past three months I’ve probably made a total of four meals. Menu planning, grocery shopping, and cooking elaborate meals—all activities I love—have been out of the question since March, when my mother was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer. We have spent so little time in the kitchen since the diagnosis that my mom, an enthusiastic and innovative chef in her own right, recently joked she had probably forgotten how to use a measuring cup.
Though I miss cooking and baking, spending time with my mom is my top priority these days, so I’m glad that our community has stepped in and set up an extensive network of people to bring us food so we don’t have to spend all day in the kitchen. We have gotten some truly amazing and delicious meals. Still, there have also been some pretty substantial bumps in the road.
Here are some tips to take into consideration if you’re called on to bring food to a family member or friend who’s ill, recovering from surgery, or dealing with a recent loss.
One of the strategies I use to make it through the eight long, flat, matzah-days of Passover is to fantasize about the challah I’m going to start baking as soon as the holiday is over.
I’ve made challah often enough in the past that even when I don’t bake for a while, I still have a strong sense-memory of what to do. But the week after Pesach—my first time back to baking challah in six months!—there was definitely an extra tingle in my fingertips when I plunged my hands into the warm, thick dough. I had to take a few extra breaths of the nutty-malty smell right at that moment when I add the sponge to the rest of the ingredients…It’s the smell of the anti-Pesach, the aroma of pure chametz, the yeast busy doing its magic, raising the roofs of a hundred (a thousand?) tiny bubbles in a bit of flour and water, sitting under the hot lights on my kitchen counter.
Singer-songwriter (and The Jew & The Carrot contributor) Jay Mankita recently teamed up with The NY Coalition for Healthy School Food to create Eat Like a Rainbow - a “rocking, funky, danceable collection of quirky kids songs about healthy food and sustainable living.”
Sounds great, but would kids actually listen to a CD about eating fruits and vegetables? Last weekend, I tested it out on the experts, my three daughters.
