The incredibly talented visual artist, Mat Tonti, created a beautiful rendition of the controversial goat schecting at last year’s Hazon Food Conference for PresenTense Magazine. It captures the event, the mood, and the whole experience perfectly. Kudos, Mat - and thanks :)

View the full image here.
For more about the schecting, click here.

Save the date: This year’s Food Conference is happening December 25-28 in Monterey, California. Registration opening SOON - check Hazon’s website for more details.

Last January, Hazon began an organizational soul-search to explore how we could model our values by sourcing and serving healthy and sustainable food at our meetings and events. Our ultimate goals are lofty - we want to serve food that is:

• sustainable to the highest extent possible (local, organic, fair trade, etc.)
• healthy (nourishing, whole foods)
• kosher (accessible to all participants across the kosher spectrum)
• delicious!

In other words, we want to nix the obligatory bagel, cream cheese and unseasonal fruit platter (like the one we served at January’s board meeting) in favor of something that looked more like the menu we served at our April board meeting…

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In last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine’s Green Issue, Michael Pollan asked the question that tugs at the anxious heartstrings of every environmentalist, “why bother?” “What’s the point of living green?” he asks - planting a garden, turning down the thermostat, and carrying a reusable mug if:

“I know full well that halfway around the world there lives my evil twin, some carbon-footprint doppelgänger in Shanghai or Chongqing who has just bought his first car (Chinese car ownership is where ours was back in 1918), is eager to swallow every bite of meat I forswear and who’s positively itching to replace every last pound of CO2 I’m struggling no longer to emit.”

Moreover, what good are these personal lifestyle choices if our businesses and governments continue to spew chemicals into rivers and give tax incentives to commodity crop farmers and SUV-makers? The answer, Pollan suggests (calling upon the infinite wisdom of farmer-activist, Wendell Berry) is: because together, we can change the world.

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I admit it - I live in a bubble. A tiny, insulated bubble within which everyone cares about eating ethically, and while some people eat meat and some don’t, just about everyone can agree about the merits of garlic-sauteed kale. Inside my cozy world, I forget that a whole other world exists out there - but this week, my trip over to Midtown Lunch reminded me.

Midtown Lunch - an entertaining (and eminently useful!) blog that seeks out the dining gems within the culinary wasteland that is Midtown Manhattan - profiles a different Midtown employee each week. It asks them questions like, “favorite/least favorite foods,” and “if you could work anywhere in New York (just because of lunch) where would it be and why?” This past week I was profiled. I was pleased to have the opportunity to give shout outs to Hazon and The Jew & The Carrot and excited to share my dietary habits with a bunch of related strangers.

Turns out, Midtown is not the most veggie or kosher friendly place on earth. Here’s a smattering of the comments my vegetarian and kosher focused profile received:

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I initially posted this recipe as a comment on the giant falafel bundt, because the same week that they posted, I had made a real bundt cake of my very own. I shared this cake with a couple of people who I work with, including Hazon’s Executive Director, Nigel Savage, who insisted that this lowly banana cake get its very own post and photo.

Nigel actually tried the cake when we were on our way from Manhattan to Long Island to a Jewish wedding. In retrospect, I suppose I see how silly I was to bring provisions for an hour-long car ride on the way to a Jewish simcha, but hey, there can never be too much food! And six hungry Jews in a car in NY traffic - what did I know? I’ve never been to Long Island - things could have gotten ugly.

I didn’t think there was a Jewish connection to my banana cake, but when doing a bit of research on the Wikipedia I found this:

“The Bundt pan (a registered trademark) was created in 1950 by H. David Dalquist, founder of Nordic Ware, at the request of members of the Hadassah Society’s chapter in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They were interested in a pan that could be used to make bundkuchen (sometimes called kugelhopf or Gugelhupf), a popular German and Austrian coffee cake. The old-world pans, made of delicate ceramic or heavy cast iron, were difficult to use. He modified some existing Scandinavian pan designs by introducing folds in the outer edge, and fashioned the pan out of aluminum.”

So that you never have to risk being hungry on the way to your next simcha, here’s the recipe for banana cake.

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The most recent issue of Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture includes an article I wrote called “Reaping the Faith.”

The article profiles Zaid and Haifa Kurdieh, two religious Muslims who combine their faith and farming (sounds familiar somehow…). It focuses on the concept of Tayyib, which some Muslims view as a mandate to eat sustainably and healthily, and compares Tayyib with the significantly more widespread Muslim eating mandate, Halal. It traces the history of faith and farming throughout other religious traditions including Judaism and Christianity. Additionally, it touches upon Zaid and Haifa’s struggles to secure visas for Muslim farm workers from Jordan and Egypt to work as apprentices on their farm. And, naturally, it gives a healthy shout out to Hazon’s Tuv Ha’Aretz program.

The extra exciting news is - the folks at Gastronomica are planning an evening of discussion around the article on Tuesday, May 13 at the beautiful new Astor Center in in NYC - check back here in the next couple of weeks for more information about the event.

Here are the first two paragraphs as a teaser (the article is unfortunately not available online). To purchase a copy or subscription, check out Gastronomica’s website.

Reaping the Faith
By: Leah Koenig
Gastronomica - Winter 2008

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Here’s the newest article about kosher, ethical meat…this one I wrote for American Jewish Life  (Those of you who read this blog religiously might already be well-versed on the subject - but for the non ethical food-obsessed Jews out there, it’s definitely still hot news.)

Conscious Carving
American Jewish Life
By: Leah Koenig
February 25, 2008

Early on a Friday morning this past December, 70 Jews gathered in a frost-covered field in rural Connecticut. Some of them huddled in small groups, talking in hushed tones and blowing on their frozen fingers. Others stood at a distance, quiet with thought. They were all there for one reason — to witness three goats being slaughtered for meat, in accordance with Jewish law.

No, these people were not part of some underground Jewish cult. They were attendees of a food conference hosted by the New York-based non-profit, Hazon (which, for full disclosure, is my employer). The purpose of the ritual slaughtering, was to “enable people to have a more direct understanding of where kosher meat comes from,” said Hazon’s Executive Director, Nigel Savage. In this case, it would be the same meat that many of the participants would eat that night for dinner.

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“If an idolator gives a banquet for his son and invites all the Jews in his town, then, even though they eat of their own and drink of their own and their own attendant waits on them, Scripture regards them as if they had eaten of the sacrifices to dead idols…” - Talmud Bavli, Avodah Zarah 8:1

All this recent talk on the blog about choice and continuity in Judaism got me thinking about the Talmudic text quoted above. (Before I front like I’m too cool for school, I readily admit that Hazon’s staff just read this text* during a staff meeting, which is why it’s at the front of my consciousness.)

In my eyes, this - along with a few similarly prohibitive verses - sits as one of the more distressing texts in Jewish tradition because it implies that Jews should not eat with “non-Jews” (in the non-Jew’s home), even if the food they’re eating in that home is otherwise kosher. Why? Because eating symbolizes so much more than filling our bellies - it’s social, it connects us to other people, and it could, as they say, lead to mixed dancing…

More thoughts and a cholent recipe below the jump.

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From this week’s New York Jewish Week:

Can You Be A Kosher Locavore?
by Sandee Brawarsky
Published on: Feb 5, 2008

‘Locavore” is 2007’s Word of the Year, as anointed by the Oxford American Dictionary. The word refers to someone who makes an effort to use locally grown ingredients. More than a word, it’s a collaborative movement, encouraging people to buy their food from farmers’ markets or grow their own, with the aim of eating healthier, supporting local farmers and avoiding the great costs of fuel in shipping foods long distance.   

Locavores — some of whom set a 100-mile radius to define local — may be environmentalists, food lovers who appreciate a challenge, health conscious cooks, novice and veteran farmers, for those with a spiritual bent who want to be aware of what they’re eating and where it comes from. But locavores who are both urban and kosher face particular challenges, especially in New York City in mid-winter.

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To all the Hebrew-speaking foodies out there - here’s a challenge for you.  Hazon is working with Jewish day schools in New York to create Min Ha’Aretz (”from the land”) - a family education program.  In short, Min Ha’Aretz uses food and Jewish learning as focal points to create an innovative curriculum for day school students, a related beit-midrash (learning group) for their parents, and all-school activities (farm trips, cooking demos, nutrition classes etc.) where kids and parents have the opportunity to learn together.  The program aims to strengthen intra-family conversations about eating, Jewish tradition, and the world around us.

Here’s where you come in.  Our first partner schools have successfully launched Min Ha’Aretz - meanwhile, we’re always striving to improve the curriculum.  Since most day schools encourage their students to be bi-lingual, we are in the process of translating the curriculum’s lesson titles into Hebrew.  The thing is, we’re kinda stumped on a couple of them.

The question: how do you translate ”whole foods” (the concept, not the health food chain-store!) and “food miles” into Hebrew in a way that does justice to their nuanced meanings, while still making sense?  Any brilliant suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Find out more about Hazon’s Min Ha’Aretz day school curriculum here.

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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I’ve already posted once today, so sorry for double-dipping, but this is worth posting ASAP:

From the JTS press release:

Dr. David Kraemer, the author of Jewish Eating and Identity Through the Ages [and 2006 Hazon Food Conference Keynote Speaker], will discuss “Jewish Eating and Jewish Identity” at The Jewish Theological Seminary’s Henry N. Rapaport Memorial Lecture at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, February 4, 2008. The event will take place at JTS, 3080 Broadway (at 122nd Street), New York City.

Jewish Eating and Identity Through the Ages is the first book ever to explore the history of Jewish eating practices from the Bible to the present, and the first to interpret Jewish eating practices throughout the ages as keys to understanding current Jewish identities.

Last Sunday Hazon hosted our annual BIG board meeting.  The board itself meets four times a year, but January’s meeting is the only time when the staff is invited and everyone is in the same place.  It’s kind of a big deal around here.

As with every business meeting these days, serving food is essential - Michael Pollan writes in In Defense of Food, “It is apparently considered gauche at a business meeting or conference if a spread of bagels, muffins, pastries and soft drinks is not provided at frequent intervals.” 

What Pollan doesn’t say is that, of all the aspects of a given meeting, food is probably the thing that attendees grumble about most.  Maybe the bagels were too hard, the muffins too sticky, and would it have killed them to have herbal tea with the coffee?  In the end, it seems getting the food “right” is almost as important as the meeting agenda. 

Unfortunately, finding the right food when your organization is committed to health, sustainability and inclusive Jewish community is not particularly straight forward. 

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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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