Rabbi Rebecca Joseph is a conservative rabbi, a cultural anthropologist, and a Tuv Ha’Aretz member! Her blog, The Parve Baker is filled with delicious recipes and (equally delicious) words of Torah. This is her second installment of “Unboxed” - posts that demystify summer’s most seasonal produce.  See her first post on rhubarb.

There is something very special about the first pick-up of the Tuv HaAretz CSA season. Having invested in a farmer’s harvest-to-come in the cold dark of winter and then waited patiently through the spring, the initial sight of tables piled high with the first produce of the season is a delight in the midst of the densely built environment. No wonder our ancestors were enjoined to bring offerings of first fruits to the Temple in gratitude for the blessing of the earth’s bounty!

At Congregation Ansche Chesed in New York City last week, new and returning Tuv HaAretz members gathered shares of vegetables, fruit, flowers, and eggs from Eve and Chris Kaplan-Walbrecht’s Garden of Eve farm. Early summer greens prevailed. Red lettuce, mesclun, and arugula went into bags and boxes of all shapes and sizes along with elegant asparagus spears, bunches of red radishes, and a single stalk of rhubarb each. Then there were the leeks. Sturdy and humble in appearance, these gangly onion and garlic cousins fit awkwardly among the leafy beauties.

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Thanks to Moshe Cohen for this guest post. Moshe is participating in Hillel’s Sustainable Agriculture Alternative Break at Kayam Farm in Maryland and sending in “reports from the field.” The alternative break is being led by the Jewish Farm School.

“I had a convo with my chi,” said Alison Fields, recently of Indiana University, leaning on her shovel during a work break in the shade.  After our first full day at Hillel and The Jewish Farm School’s Alternative Break at Kayam Farm, we have already taken a complete tour of the grounds, dined on white mulberries right off the tree, sampled new vegetables out of the garden like garlic scapes and kohlrabi and participated in a morning Chi Gong session (hence Alison’s “chi conversation”).

Every day we have three work blocks where we split into teams to tackle a variety of assignments, working and learning together with farm staff and trip organizers. The first major project we undertook was constructing a fence to keep the deer out of the lettuce, reminding us that our food cycle intersects with other living things, as well. Some of us picked leafy greens from the garden and snuck away from the hot sun to “kasher the harvest” in the kitchen.

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One of the primary differences between shopping at a supermarket and joining a CSA is that, in the latter model, customers benefit along with their partner farmer when the weather is good, and share the burden when the weather is excessively hot, wet, or dry, and the crops fail. The farmer does not suffer alone, and the customers are more deeply connected to the seasonal shifts that impact their food source.

The following guest post, by farmer Vicki Westerhoff who farms at Genesis Growers with her family in St. Anne Illinois, is a pair of letters she wrote to Tuv Ha’Aretz CSA members about the recent flooding across the Midwest. In response to the flood damage, Tuv Ha’Aretz members will head out to Genesis Farms this month to help them replant their fields.

Friday, June 7

We are flooded. On Wednesday night last week we had a furious storm roll through the farm. It pummeled us with five and 1/4 inches of driving rain. The wind gusts exceeded 60 mph. The devastation I suppose could be worse, but what happened is bad.

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Thanks to Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster for this guest post.  Rabbi Kahn-Troster is Director of Education and Outreach for Rabbis for Human Rights North America.

Growing up, Shavuot for me meant lasagna - a delicious, cheesy creation that my mother would make for the one Jewish holiday on which we did not eat meat. (Actually, I was an adult before I realized that non-kosher lasagna was made with meat). I loved the lasagna, and Shavuot wasn’t bad either. Special food, staying up late the first night with my friends- Shavuot was a hit, and I didn’t think about it more than that.

One synagogue I went to hosted a “bikkurim (first fruits) procession:” they had people bring in baskets of produce and leave them on the bimah. I’d never seen a community mark Shavuot through any way but through a Tikkun Leyl Shavuot (staying up all night to study) and by eating blintzes, and I didn’t really know what to make of it. It seemed a little pagan.

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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.

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So, we started planting in the sadeh (Adamah’s field) almost two months ago. Onions were first, tiny green shoots so thin you could barely see them against the soil, but a whole bed of the tiny starts had an unmistakable green haze of growth. Next were beets and chard, with tiny red-green leaves. Then spinach, with matchstick-sized pointy green shoots, and cucumbers, planted before their true leaves are out, with only two smooth oval cotoledons unfolded like tiny clamshells against the ground.

We know that these baby plants will eventually turn into vegetables… but when they are so small, it’s easy to forget.

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Shavuot is one of my favorite culinary holidays. It’s one of the few holidays where dairy dishes do not get pushed aside by meat (though I certainly have nothing against meat!) and get to be the star of the show. It’s also the celebration of Bikkurim (first fruits), which commemorates the bringing of the Seven Species of Israel (barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates) to the Temple in Jerusalem.

Strawberries are not technically one of the seven species, but they are definitely among the “first fruits” of the spring season here in America. In the recipe below, I’ve paired sweet roasted strawberries with medallions of fried goat cheese and a honey lavender vinaigrette. What could taste more like springtime than that?

Recipe below the jump. Read more »

When was the last time you ate a banana? This morning, sliced on your cereal? As a quick snack on the way to shul to tide you over until kiddush? According to an article in Plenty Magazine, finding a banana to eat might soon become a lot more difficult:

“Back in 2003, the magazine New Scientist ran a cover story declaring that the banana was on the brink of extinction. The problem, the article explained, was that commercial bananas were genetically bankrupt: sterile, seedless clones with no genetic diversity and no resistance to a new wave of virulent fungal diseases…Scientists say, the outlook is still pretty bleak for the banana. Commercial growers remain wedded to a single variety known as the Cavendish, the bright yellow fruit found on US supermarket shelves; meanwhile, a lethal and fungicide-resistant infection called Panama Disease has decimated plantations across Southeast Asia and is widely expected to spread into plantations in Latin America and Africa.”

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It’s true. As mentioned in a previous post, this summer corporate behemoth, Wal-Mart, is jumping on the “eat local” bandwagon. According to the state of Maine’s official website:

The Maine Potato Board, Wal-Mart Supercenters, Bushwick Potato Company, and Guerrette Farms have embarked on a campaign to bring the freshest tablestock potatoes to Maine consumers. Wal-Mart Supercenters across the state will feature ten-pound bags of potatoes with the “Get Real, Get Maine!” logo.

The irony of one of the largest, community-crushing corporations supporting local farmers is not lost on me. But over the last few years Walmart has made strides to clean up its act (or it’s bad image, which has at least some of the same impact as cleaning up its act) - donating money to charitable causes, and engaging in sustainability work. According to the Maine website, Wal-Mart’s Vice President of Produce, Ron McCormick could have been quoting a locavore activist when he said, “It’s important to Wal-Mart to support local growers…”

Maybe Wal-Mart has heard the siren call of the booming local foods movement, or maybe their head honchos’ hearts are in the right place. But do locavores really want Wal-Mart batting on their team?

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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.

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“What don’t you understand? When my clients fly their guests over your farm on the way to Vegas, they’d like to see the words ‘Mazel tov, Josh’ spelled out in your cornfield.”

This probably isn’t the first-ever Jewish food cartoon in the New Yorker (there must have been a bagel and lox one at some point), but it is very likely the first Jewish food and farm related one. As someone who just started planning my wedding (my boyfriend and I got engaged right before Passover!), this made me laugh, but also scared me a bit.

Here are two amazing opportunities for farming and Jewish learning this summer - with The Jewish Farm School:

Hillel Organic Farm Alternative Breaks
The Jewish Farm School, in partnership with Hillel, will provide a total of 60 college students the opportunity to participate in a weeklong farm-immersion experience. During the two programs, students will be volunteering on sustainable farms located on the East and West coasts. No previous experience is necessary. June 11-18 (Kayam Farm, MD) and June 24-July 1 (Oz Farm, CA). Cost $200 - details here.

Program Highlights:
Learn basic skills in sustainable agriculture, food preservation, natural building and herbal remedies.
Discuss issues of food justice, sustainability and Jewish tradition.
Work alongside other college students and enjoy delicious homegrown food.

JFS Seminar on Organic Agriculture and Eductional Gardening
June 2-5
Surprise Lake Camp, Cold Spring, NY

Join us for our 3rd annual seminar in Organic Agriculture and Educational Gardening. Run in partnership with the Teva Learning Center, this program is designed for educators seeking to incorporate gardening or farming into their work. Register here.

Seminar Highlights:
Experience an early morning harvest at an organic farm and learn how small-scale, sustainable agriculture operates - first hand.
Learn the skills to build your own Jewish garden.
Study traditional Jewish texts and contemporary scholarship.
Discuss garden-based curriculum and activities.

The Jewish Farm School is supported by Hazon.

Here are three tasty tidbits from the Jewish foodie world - btai avon!

Agriprocessors raided. The Des Moines Register reported that US Immigration officials raided the kosher meat-packaging plant, Agriprocessors with search warrants for aggravated identity theft and fraudulent Social Security numbers. This is not Agriprocessors’ year - my question is, how many lickings can they take and keep on ticking? Read the story here.

Gordon Ramsay wants his carrots local! Reuters reported that British Chef, Gordon Ramsay - the infamously pugnacious celebrity chef - stated that restaurants should be fined for neglecting to serve in-season fruits and veg. “‘I don’t want to see asparagus in the middle of December. I don’t want to see strawberries from Kenya in the middle of March. I want to see it home-grown,’ he said after raising his concerns with Prime Minister Gordon Brown.” Ramsay, who generally resembles other ego-maniacal chefs like Anthony Bourdain rather than ethical-eating chefs like Dan Barber (see below) is a strange champion for local food.  But, hey - we’ll take it.  Read the story here.

Dan Barber…um…also wants it local. The New York Times published an op-ed by local foods chef (and The Jew & The Carrot hero) Dan Barber calling for more local food from more local farmers: “Regional systems will work only if there is enough small-scale farming going on to make them viable…In order to move gracefully into a post-industrial agriculture economy, we also need to rethink how we educate [and support] the people who will grow our food. Read the story here.

Reminder: Tomorrow night’s Food, Faith & Farming panel in New York is a must-attend event for Jewish foodies and food lovers of all stripes. If you haven’t purchased your tickets yet - now is the time!

Join Gastronomica for a panel discussion on the role of faith in farming. Farmers Zaid Kurdieh and Anna Stevenson, and writer Leah Koenig join Gastronomica’s Editor-in-Chief Darra Goldstein to explore the concept of taking care of the land through farming as seen from both the Islamic (tayyib) and Jewish (eco-kosher) perspectives. This panel is part of The Gastronomica Forum - quarterly events featuring important articles from the journal as a platform for engaging in deeper conversations about food and culture.

When: Tuesday, May 13 - 6:30pm
Where: New York City’s Astor Center for Wine and Food Experiences
Cost: $20 - ticket price includes a taste of Middle Eastern foods and farm-fresh products.

Purchase tickets here.