With Hanukkah nearly upon us, it’s time to start prepping our latke recipes. The oil that we fry them in is more than just a nod to the Festival of Lights: It’s an essential ingredient as well, so it’s important to choose wisely. Different oils vary in flavor, nutritional value, and smoke points, and do you even know what Canola is? I’ve gone ahead and done some of the preliminary legwork to help you choose the right oil for your frying pan.

On the list you’ll find ideal oils for latke frying under the “Freedom Fry” heading, and oils to avoid on the “No Fry” list. Keep in mind that just because an oil appears on the “No Fry” list doesn’t mean that it’s unhealthy - for example, Flaxseed oil is rich in omega 3 fatty acids and can help lower cholesterol, but heat can destroy its omega 3 properties. Canola, on the other hand, has a higher smoke point, but those who wish to avoid GMOs and bioengineered products might want to stay away, as 80% of acres sown to canola are planted with genetically modified seed.

When doing your shopping, remember this: Many oils come from plants that are sprayed with fat-soluble pesticides. Those pesticides concentrate in the oil portion of the plant, so always buy organic when you can.

One last tip: Remember to change your oil out after every couple of batches. The longer an oil is heated, the more free fatty acids form, which lowers the smoke point and increases your chances of burning. Whatever oil you choose, I wish you a happy Hanukkah filled with luscious latkes and lots of love.

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YehuditBrachah reports on Jewschool about a new Nathan Cummings Foundation grant for Hechsher Tzedek. The budding Conservative movement initiative started by Rabbi Morris Allen. According to Allen’s blog, a group of Rabbis and lay leaders who have been working on the project will be presenting at the upcoming Conservative movement biennial convention in Orlando. Both the grant and the increasing momentum within the Conservative movement around the important issue of food justice in Kashrut should be exciting for both observers of kashrut and those concerned about food justice alike! (even better for those of us who fall into both categories!)

The beginnings of the Hechsher Tzedek originated with Allen’s first trip to the Agriprocessors’ kosher meat plant in Postville, IA–which produces meat under the label Rubashkin’s. Now a variety of potential ethical issues around the Agriprocessors’ plant have been coming to light– including the newest, which is a potential violation of precautions to prevent the spread of BSE, or Mad Cow Disease.

The Daily Forward continues its coverage of the UFCW campaign to bring Agriprocessors’ violations into the public eye. In conjunction with the Jewish Labor Committee, UFCW orchestrated a leafletting action outside Trader Joe’s that source Agriprocessors’ kosher meat last Wednesday. The UFCW leaflet included claims about violations of mad cow safety rules, a claim that was subsequently disputed by Sholom Rubashkin on the Agriprocessors’ website and in Yeshiva World News.

Also from Yeshiva World News: Osem has reportedly “recalled tens of thousands of bags of Bamba, Bissli, and Dubonim snacks” because of a small toy prize inside the package with 3.5 times the allowable level of lead. Maybe babies shouldn’t be fed Bamba anymore…

Stay tuned for updates on the UFCW campaign.

11.26.07 Update: The Jewish Advocate reports on last week’s leafletting action outside Trader Joe’s in Brookline, MA, organized by the Jewish Labor Committee.

Last Sunday, I attended Kosher Fest, the yearly gathering of kosher food and beverage purveyors and other food professionals (held in New York City, naturally). Kosher Fest is no informal synagogue social – it’s a two-day mega event that features the newest, best, and flashiest in kosher food. Page 11 of the 84-page Kosher Fest program guide displays some “impressive facts” including the dollar value of kosher produced goods in the US - $10,500,000,000. In other words, if you make kosher food you’re either at Kosher Fest, or you’re missing out.

Precisely because it’s the “see and be seen” event of the Jewish food year, Kosher Fest serves as an annual barometer of the kosher industry – its health, its growth, and its trends. More interestingly, as I ambled down the aisles of shiny displays, I began to notice how the state of kosher food uncannily mirrors the state of today’s Jewish community.

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Local or organic? Farmer’s Market or Supermarket? And what about the GMOs? There’s a lot of talk — and a lot of confusion — these days, about our food. Around the world, people are starting to grapple with the negative impact that large scale, industrial Agribusiness has had over the past half century. As its legacy of soil erosion, polluted groundwater, and chemically-laden fruits and vegetables becomes clear, more and more people are choosing to support organic and local farmers. Emily Freed is one of those farmers. As the Assistant Field Production Manager of Jacobs Farm in Northern California, she’s responsible for over 250-acres of organic farmland. She’s also a Jewish activist who was recently named as one of the Heeb 100 in the category of Food. Despite it being her busy season (she was in the midst of moving about 6,000 lbs of herbs out of the farms each day when we caught up with her), she found the time to discuss the organic movement, the future of food, the connection between agriculture and the environment, and how it’s all related to Judaism.

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As the logistics (and debate) of schecting a goat at Hazon’s Food Conference next month continue, Alexander Lane over at Chow, describes how he decided to “kill Thanksgiving dinner.” Lane writes:

“Here I am in Maine, having relocated in April after spending my first 34 years around major cities like New York and San Francisco. Strange things happen here, such as wild turkeys wandering out of the woods behind your apartment complex. Even stranger, you develop the desire to shoot and eat them...”

Lane then goes on to describe his choice to forego the shrink-wrapped, store-bought turkey, to have a go at killing and preparing a real live animal.

His food story fits into the newly emerging “do it yourself” genre, which has Brooklyn families running full-scale farms in their backyards, and former supermarket goers jumping at the chance to kill their own animals for meat. These, “how I decided to get in touch with the food system by….” stories seem to be a hybrid of post-Omnivore’s Dilemma” ethics and American’s obsession with reality TV.

Whether DIY foodism will become a mainstay of how American’s source their food, or stay sparse enough to continue being story worthy, remains to be seen. For now, check out Lane’s article, “Gobble, Gobble, Bang,” here.

As the saying goes: “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”  Well, in the case of one synagogue in Memphis, Tennesee, when life gave them BBQ, they made kosher BBQ.

Memphis is home to the annual World Champion Barbeque Cooking Contest, attracting over 100,000 attendees each year.  But with categories like “Patio Porkers” and “Whole Hog,” and more than 30 tons of pork cooked throughout the celebration, the event is far from kosher friendly.  Nearly two decades ago, the members of the Anshei Sphard – Beth El Emeth Congregation, asked the contest organizers if they might start a kosher barbeque section, and extend the festival one extra day, so Jewish BBQ aficionados could compete on Sunday instead of Saturday.

Undeterred when their request was rejected, they started their own BBQ contest in the shul parking lot, featuring kosher beef instead of pork.  This Sunday, they’ll celebrate the 19th annual Asbee/Kroger Kosher BBQ & Festival.

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So.  I’m in week one of kitchen tshuvah - my attempt to “return to my best self” through some serious reflection and reordering of my kitchen and all it symbolizes: family, overeating/under-eating, connection to the land, caring for others, care of myself, building community…

It’s all a bit daunting, especially since I haven’t spent more than 10 minutes in my kitchen for almost a week.  But with the Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat lineup (prayer, food, sleep, food, prayer, more food, a little more sleep and leftovers to bring home) finally over, I actually feel free to spend time reassessing my culinary situation. 

Glancing into my fridge this morning, I noticed a crisper of neglected (but remarkably still fresh) CSA vegetables and not much else….unless you count the nearly empty milk container and murky condiment jars.  So, I dusted off my granny cart and headed for the Park Slope Food Coop. 

I know - so I went shopping, big deal, right?  But I felt giddy strolling down the aisles - bagging bulk pasta, grinding coffee grounds and stocking up on bread, beans, and cheese.  My kitchen would have life again!  It would have potential and I, for a change, would feel settled there instead of bewildered and hungry.  I started dreaming up meals I could make for friends, reconnecting not only to my cutting boards, but to the people I love.

See below for more and a recipe for plum and nectarine cobbler…

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Cross-posted to the Kosher Blog
For many of you, having guests at a shabbat meal means often juggling various dietary restrictions preferences that guests may bring to the table. Michael Pollan makes the interesting point that the French consider it improper to impose your diet onto your host, and yet how many of you can recall meals in which you were left with virtually nothing to eat as a result of your kashrut/vege- pesce- ovo- lacto- tarianism/ or any possible allergies. Peter Berley’s The Flexitarian Table may hopefully solve at least some of the issues. Read more »

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).

In preparation for Rosh Hashanah I have been thinking about what I always seem to be thinking about …. namely food. This year I will be preparing meals for a yet to be determined number of family and friends (quite a feat in my tiny only semi-functional kitchen with a mini stove that has not worked properly in 2 years and burners that seem to go on strike every few weeks). As this New Year approaches, I’ve been mulling over the significance and symbolism of food in our tradition. For much of our collective history, Jews were an agricultural people, maintaining the delicate balance of give and take with the earth. They nurtured the land that sustained them and directly reaped the benefits of their labor. Even if you yourself were not a farmer, you likely knew your neighbor who was. Nothing was taken for granted, the rainfall, the fertility of the soil, the well preserved seeds passed down from generation to generation, the livestock, the fruit trees, and the grain - it was all very real to the Jews who came together to celebrate their feast days. Simply put, food was holy.

Needless to say, today our relationship with food is very different. We are much farther removed from our food sources. Even when we try to support local agriculture, we are not dependent upon it. We are part of a thriving global economy that makes almost anything available to us at anytime (at a price of course). So if there is a hailstorm in northern New York, or Pennsylvania, or New Jersey, and crops are decimated - most New Yorkers would not even notice. We have been conditioned to associate food with hermetically sealed plastic packaging instead of the soil, plants, and aimals that are the true sources of our sustenance (which is why I believe that so many people who do eat meat are sqeemish about witnessing an animal being slaughtered ala hazon’s schitah debate - or even making the mental association that their “cutlet” in all of its skinless boneless glory was once a living breathing bird)

What I have decided to do this Rosh Hashanah is to focus on the local and seasonal bounty and blend in the traditional foods symbolic of the goodness, sweetness, and fruitfulness we hope to be blessed with in the year to come. Read more »

By the numbers, from Time Magazine:

• 1.1 billion - people around the world that the U.N. estimates that lack safe drinking water, a number that could reach 5 billion by 2025
• 8.25 billion - gallons of bottled water Americans drank in 2006, a 9.5% increase from the year before.
• $10.8 billion - water sales last year — all for something you can get virtually free.
• 4,000 - tons of CO2 generated each year — the equivalent of the emissions of 700 cars — by importing bottled water from Fiji, France and Italy, three of the biggest suppliers to the U.S.
• Less than 25% - percent of water bottles recycled, leaving 2 billion lbs. a year to clog landfills.

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Since early spring, the foodie and business worlds have been all a-twitter about Whole Food’s proposed takeover of natural foods competitor, Wild Oats. The story just got even more interesting when the note Whole Foods was passing in class got intercepted by the teacher (aka, The AP). The New York Times reports:

“The Federal Trade Commission documents revealed that Whole Foods planned to close 30 or more Wild Oats stores, a move that the company believes would nearly double revenue for some Whole Foods stores…

Many of the details in the documents, which F.T.C. lawyers filed electronically, were not meant to be released publicly, but words intended to be inaccessible were actually just electronically shaded black. The words could be searched, copied, pasted and read in versions downloaded from court computer servers. Court officials realized the mistake and replaced the filing with a version using scanned pages of the edited documents. The Associated Press downloaded the document from the public server before it was replaced by an edited version.”

According to the document, Whole Foods set rules barring food suppliers from direct sales with Wal-Mart. Additionally, documents labled “Project Goldmine” predicted that the buy-out will send 80-90 percent of Wild Oats shoppers to Whole Foods. Shoppers will then be at the mercy of Whole Foods who, without competition, can drive up prices even more than they already have.

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Over the last few years I’ve noticed this strange phenomenon about going away on vacation - as soon as I get back, it feels like I never left.  No matter how relaxing the trip was, or how far out of my normal context I travelled, my life seems all too ready to greet me at baggage claim and fill me in on all the things I missed while I was away. Sometimes, though - if I’m lucky, the storm of emails and to do lists subsides long enough for me to briefly recall a memory of my former self, happy and on vacation. 

This most recent trip to San Francisco and Portland was especially lovely, filled with old friends, and new discoveries (especially the Shanghai Tunnels which, despite living in Oregon for two years, were a complete surprise).

One highlight, which came near the end of our trip, was a soggy hike up Lateral Falls just outside of Portland.  Actually, the highlight was not the falls themselves (there were two and they were both gorgeous), but the native flora that lined and dotted our path.  Everywhere I turned, I saw - food!  Redwood trunks split open to reveal crumbly, red velvet cake insides.  Intertwining vines formed a delicate lattice pie crust.  Water-smoothed birch branches twisted into the shank of a Pesach lamb bone. 

“You’re clearly in the right profession,” my friend Tyson said after about my tenth food reference on the trail.

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Since I seem to be cultivating a Whole Foods beat–

In the wake of the Mackey online pseudonym scandal, one fellow Cantabrigian advocates a boycott of the health food giant:

A big Whole Foods investor said it was sticking by Mackey and, as of midafternoon, the Whole Foods board hadn’t met to discuss the matter. Well, as the Whole Foods board sits in la-la land thinking that their shiitakes don’t stink, I offer myself as the first consequence. I am staging a one-man boycott. I will spend the rest of the summer procuring my vegetables from places other than Whole Foods, most preferably my local farmers market or co-op…

With Mackey mouthing off, there is no better time to strengthen local connections and sever our ties with Whole Foods until we hear that Mackey is disciplined or fired. He might be close to a monopoly on the freshest commercial grown food. It will never be as sweet as the strawberry from a farmer’s market.

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