Earlier this week, The Jew & The Carrot posted about the raid of Agriprocessors kosher meat processing plant. Thanks to Josh Frankel for this guest post (originally on Jewschool) and an opportunity to help.

The Rubashkin’s raid made big news earlier in the week, and we were angry. We were furious, filled with righteous indignation, ready to destroy the kosher meat industry, to throw out kashrut, to bash Orthodoxy until the last black hat disappeared from Iowa. But, now, it’s time to help.

With hundreds of worker’s arrested, thousands of their family members are now in limbo. They have no money, no income, and no resources. They are frightened to apply for work, frightened to go shopping, and their kids aren’t going to school. Charities in Postville are pitching and do what they can to help these people, and unfortunately not-surprisingly, Agriprocessors isn’t helping out. I don’t often ask people to give tzedakah, and if I do, it’s a casual request. This is different. Anyone who has ever eaten kosher meat in this country has benefited from the hard, poorly compensated work these people have done, and now that they are in desperate need it is our turn to help.

Find out how below the jump.

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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.

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 on the Monterey Penninsula, Califorina. Registration opening SOON - check Hazon’s website for more details.

The Jew & The Carrot blogger, Tzimmes Maker, told me that a guy she knew in college wanted to start an organization called J-PETA: Jewish People for the Eating of Tasty Animals.  Well, Hannah and Phillip Schein would definitely identify as “J-PETA” members, but not in quite the same way as the carnivorous college kid.

Last week, The Forward profiled the Scheins, a kosher-keeping couple that was responsible for taking undercover videos of Agriprocessors‘ slaughter houses on behalf of the PETA.  Ever wondered how PETA and other animal-rights organizations get their hands on all that incriminating footage? Check out the article below the jump:

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This comic from Toothpaste for Dinner straddles the amazing/disturbing divide. Meanivore? Freegan? Cashivore? Where do you fall on the eating spectrum?

Two weeks ago, The Jew & The Carrot reported on the latest news in techno-foods, meat made in a test tube. It seems that the thought of “cruelty free” hamburgers and chicken wings, which are currently long-from available to the public, got PETA in a hungry tizzy. The vegetarian advocacy group announced that it will reward 1 million dollars to:

“The first scientist to produce and bring to market in vitro meat - by June 30, 2012.”

April Fools, right guys? No? Oh…

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In February and March I worked on an industrial pig farm in Israel, which was mentioned on Jcarrot back in February. In a way my time there was a bizarre, self-inflicted, extended identity crisis - but it was also a fascinating and challenging experience for me as both a kosher Jew and a believer in non-factory farmed meat.

I spent time on the “other” side and just recently wrote an article in The Forward, called “On Israel’s Only Jewish-Run Pig Farm, It’s the Swine That Bring Home the Bacon,” which expresses and reflects my own experiences on the farm, the many contradictions of this particular kibbutz, as well as the contradictions within myself.

You can read the full article here.

Spring can be a tough time for the seasonal chef. The winter vegetables are long gone (not that you could stomach another acorn squash if you found one in the back of the pantry). Meanwhile, summer’s show-off vegetables – sweet corn, ripe tomatoes and juicy cucumbers - are nothing more than little, hopeful seedlings.

But Dan Barber, chef of Blue Hill restaurant in New York City and Creative Director of Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture, doesn’t have time to lament over the lack of local greens. He’s got hungry customers to feed – so he focuses on maximizing the few flavors that are available at his back door.

Barber particularly swoons over ramps – an early-arriving member of the onion family that, with their neon pink stems, resemble a scallion’s punk rock older sister. “They’re the first sign of spring, and they’re so fleeting,” he told The Jew & The Carrot. I like to see them on every dish.”

More and a recipe for Chicken Liver Mousse with Spring Herbs below the jump. Read more »

x-posted from All Voices.

Scene from inside a fancy restaurant circa 2015:

Man: (scanning the menu) - What are you thinking of getting dear?
Woman: Hmmm…pasta looks good, but I think I’d actually prefer a steak.
Man: Do you know where the meat comes from?
Woman: Of course! I always inquire about the source of the meat I eat. It’s from vat 13 at Acme Labs!

This scene may sound like fodder for a science fiction novel, but according to Wired, test tube meat may end up on consumers’ plates in the not-too-distant future.

Grown in bioreactors, the in vitro meat would be created to mimic the texture and flavor or real meat, from to ground chuck to filet mignon. As of now, scientists say that they have a ways to go before reaching the desired results - but they’re making progress. Wired reported: “Researchers can currently grow small amounts of meat in the lab, and have even been able to get heart cells to beat in Petri dishes. Growing muscle cells on an industrial scale is the next step.”

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I’ve only had my copy of Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family for a few weeks, and already the book is stained and a bit worn. I think that’s a good sign.

As the title might suggest, this book is a family affair. Author Judy Bart Kancigor beautifully describes how the book came into existence, stemming from a desire to pass on her family’s food traditions. As a result, almost every recipe has a story, which can be a bit overwhelming at times, but ultimately brings the recipes to life. It’s not just a cookbook; you feel invited in, as though you’re taking part in the Rabinowitz family tradition by making this food. And the pictures are great – a time-capsule of American Jewish life opened to reveal many embarrassing hairstyles and equally embarrassing bar mitzvah pictures.

More and recipes for banana bread and sesame crusted chicken below the jump.

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After two months working on the pig farm and a few weeks of recuperation, I’m back to the The Jew & The Carrot blogging world, while living, cooking, eating, composting and blogging in Tel Aviv. Good to be back.

There’s an incredible magazine that I’ve been meaning to post about. It’s called Meatpaper and as its cover states, it is “your journal of meat culture.” And it really is. Meatpaper is a beautiful graphic art print magazine that documents the recent fleischgeist. It features incredible pictures and photo essays in addition to interesting, bizarre, and funny interviews and articles. Some of the issues the magazine covers are similar to ones discussed here on The Jew & The Carrot (debates about the moral consumption of meat) and others are certainly not (the importance of eating bull penis, and whether or not one should eat their spouse if deserted on an island together.)

In issue 3, there is an article on eating testicles in Tunisia, a meditation on why meat is so photogenic (and whether or not clown noses or tube socks, dressed similarly, could look as good), a photo series called “Acquaintances Holding My Plate of Meat,” and one great article called “Pork in the Promised Land,” that I may or may not have written. It’s a fun magazine and is a conversation starter and stopper. The print magazine and issue three is only available in stores, not on their website. It’s well worth it, if only for the sausage glamour shots.

Despite the shock value of my photos from a few days ago, Vietnam is a fascinating place to visit for the food obsessed. And while markets have always been one of my favorite places to wander through in developing countries, this was my first big trip abroad since I started thinking differently about food.

As I wrote previously, I wouldn’t recommend that people who keep kosher go there. It simply would be too hard to avoid the treyf. The default meat there is pork, and shrimp comes in a close second. It’s ironic too that one of the most common fish dishes, fish in a clay pot - a white fish coated in a delicious concoction of caramelized sugar, fish sauce, shallots, garlic, ginger and chiles, is made with catfish - once again, not kosher.
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The blogosphere has been buzzing with fake news stories for April Fool’s today (because we need more incorrect information on the internet?) including announcements that Al Gore announced his presidential bid, and Jewish philanthropist, Michael Steinhardt, started a network of kosher cannabis clubs.

Our friends over at Ethicurean really got us giggling with this gag:

Caca-Cola: The National Pork Producers Council and Coca-Cola have announced a joint venture to build facilities that will carbonate soft drinks using CAFO-sourced methane. The partners call the project “a dynamic, environmentally conscious approach to eliminating factory farming odors, which of course were never really a problem in the first place.” (CartelWatch.org)

Hmmm, well honey from bees (a treif insect) is kosher, but soda made fizzy with pig gas? Kosher-keeping Jews, and really everyone else, might decide the join the Pepsi generation after all.

But it sure is good to be home. For those readers who missed my series of posts about eating in Vietnam, here’s a reminder:

Dog. Cat. Porcupine. Deer.

The ‘Lonely Planet’ Guidebook describes the Vietnamese people as “fiercly omnivorous,” and I couldn’t think of a more apt description. We are not uploading photos so I can’t illustrate this post properly but today we took numerous photos of a skinned pig’s head, pig’s feet, live goats tied to a back of a motorbike, same with live chickens in a mesh cage, pigs tied in tortuous ways, the list goes on.

Greetings from Vietnam, the most unkosher place on the planet (kosher-keepers, never, ever come here, unless you plan on packing a month’s supply of canned tuna).

Below the jump, I’ve posted a few photos that give you a taste of our (for us) shocking food experiences in Viet Nam. Warning - they’re graphic, so look with caution.

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