Coffee has been a staple of my diet since I was 14, and as much as possible I like to buy certified fair trade and organic coffee. Yes, it’s usually pricier, but I’m willing to pay a little more to invest in something I really believe in.

A friend recently turned me on to a coffee that’s not only organic, kosher and free trade, but it’s grown by a cooperative of Jews, Christians and Muslims in Uganda. The co-op is called Mirembe Kawomera, which means Delicious Peace in Luganda. You can buy the coffee off their website, for $10.50 for 12 oz. which comes out to almost ten cents less per ounce than some blends at Starbucks. And if you can arrange a big order for your community (20 lbs or more), prices go down even further, to $8.00 for 12 oz. Coffee that saves me money, is free trade, organic, kosher, and part of a project that promotes peace and interfaith initiatives? The only way it could get any better would be if it found me a boyfriend and cleaned the cat litter. Read more »

An article in the food section of today’s San Francisco Chronicle features Nigel Walker, the farmer of Eatwell Farm.  Walker is “our” farmer at Tuv Ha’Aretz in Berkeley.  (San Francisco’s Tuv Ha’Aretz’s farm, Capay Valley, is also mentioned.)

While the article talks about how CSAs are becoming more and more popular, one of the more notable points indicated that many consumers are not ready to give up certain non-local fruits and vegetables:

While the true CSA model means only getting what is coming straight from the farm or neighboring farms, [home organic delivery services like] Farm Fresh to You also offer the additional option of receiving bananas from Mexico and apples from Washington.”People are drawn to CSAs for different reasons. Some are on the local-sustainable bandwagon,” says Moyra Barsotti of Farm Fresh to You. “There’s also the facet that finds it convenient.”Barsotti points to a survey of her customers that asked what was most important to them: Whether food was local, sustainable or organic. They answered local. Yet in a separate section asking what their favorite fruit and vegetable was, bananas were the top pick.

Interested to find out more about organic delivery services?  Click here.

I don’t mean join a CSA. I actually mean, hire someone to do it for you. In San Francisco, that someone is a business called MyFarm, whose employees will come over, design a garden in your backyard, and then do maintainence for it on weekly visits. You can read about it here.

I have to admit I am torn by this idea. By growing a garden in your own yard, of course you are much more connected to your food. But by paying others to maintain it for you, you introduce yet another middle-person.

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White Plains resident, David Elcott, recently ripped up his lawn. He is out to prove (to himself as much as others) that you do not need years of experience to grow your own food. All you need is dedication and a piece of fertile ground - like your lawn (or nearby community garden). Partnering with the COEJL blog, To Till & To Tend, we’re excited to bring you David’s first hand accounts, frustrations, and victories from the “front lines” of his lawn farm.

Operation Lawn Farm Part 2

I couldn’t write this past month. Too nervous.

The temperature dipped, I read up on all the pests and bugs and germs that could kill the seeds. The little seedlings looked so vulnerable. When it looked like the temperature would hit the low 40’s I panicked and ran out to Home Depot, bought some metal to make hoops and heavy plastic and actually hid my tomatoes, peppers and eggplants in their own private green houses. The days between Pesach and Shavuot are for counting the Omer – fifty days that according to tradition are anxiety producing because the dry winds or heavy rains could wipe out the crops and people would starve. I certainly identified with that anxiety even if I knew that the green grocer was open and waiting for my business. So, like I said, I could not write.

But now I can.

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So, we were on a conference call the other day. When I say “we,” I mean those of us who have the gargantuan task of menu-planning for Hazon’s 2008 Food Conference.

I am chairing this committee, along with Sue Carson, one of the co-chairs of the conference.  On this call, one person casually suggested a lox and bagels brunch. Lox and bagels were served last year at the conference. No surprise, as lox and bagels are often a staple at Jewish events.

But we most likely will have a lox-less conference.

Gasp. How could we take lox off the menu? Isn’t having a conference celebrating Jewish food without bagels and lox like holding a Japanese cultural celebration without sushi?

Exactly.

It’s sad to say, but both of these are cultural practices that need to be reconsidered.

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I’ll admit, I’m pretty neutral when it comes to the Rachael Ray divide. I’ve seen her show, sure, and have been annoyed by her “Yum-O!” as much as everyone else, but when you don’t have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen, I can think of a lot worse things than using pre-made ravioli in a recipe.

But today in the foodie blogosphere, I found this story, which warrants a post over here in Jewish food-dom, if for no other reason, than because it’s so absurd. Ray, a Food Network star, was tapped to do a television advertisement for Dunkin Donuts. (That right there should be disturbing enough, but wait - there’s more.) In said ad, she wore what looked to be a keffiyah, the black and white checkered scarf favored by Yasir Arafat and other Palestinians. (Some believe wearing a keffiyah signifies support for mass terrorism; I believe it is more a symbol of resistance. But that is neither here nor there). A right-wing commentator named Michelle Malkin complained about it and now Dunkin Donuts has pulled the ad.

America may “run on Dunkin,” but it certainly brought Ray’s ad to a dead halt. You can read about it here.

While visiting my sister in Virginia this past weekend, I had the chance to sample some fair food at her local Memorial Day festival. Keeping in mind that the motto of fairs seems to be a perverse Pollan paraphrase (Eat “Food.” Way too Much. Mostly Fried.) I feel lucky that my latest passion that I stumbled upon is something relatively (at least compared to fried oreos and coke) healthy: The Giant Turkey Leg. Vegetarian Spoiler Alert: I’m about to spend the next 350 words waxing rhapsodic about a big hunk of meat.

Before I relate how this deliriously-delicious drumstick brought a family and neighborhood closer together this Memorial Day weekend, let me first echo that sentiments of blogger Bobby McMahon: “One bite, and I knew that I had made a grand, delicious decision.” Tender, smoky, juicy, meaty. And that was just the first bite. If a pastrami sandwich from Katz’s Deli led a good and decent life, it would come back to Earth reincarnated as a State Fair turkey leg. It was that good.

But this turkey leg’s mere deliciousness is not why am I bothering my fellow Jewfoos (Jewish foodies) with this poultry panegyric. Let me tell you the rest of the story: Read more »

Yesterday’s Dining Section featured a fascinating article about saving endangered species, by serving them for dinner.  The marketplace is a powerful conservation tool, the article argues - if it’s being sold in the market, it’s not extinct.

One of the most interesting parts of the article was the accompanying interactive map that broke the country down into regions, by species (i.e. food).  New York City falls into the Clambake Nation (not the Whitefish Nation?).  Personally, I bioregionally identify a bit further north and west in the Maple Syrup Nation…

Click here (or on the map above) to find out about your region.

I just came across the most amazing story of the Ba’al Shem Tov (the charismatic founder of Chasidic judaism), which has been retold at a special festive meal at the end of Pesach for over 250 years!

The basic story is that the Ba’al Shem Tov is repeatedly thwarted in his attempts to sail to the land of Israel. Along the way, he is stranded on an island, attacked by pirates, and invents both the alphabet and matzah ball soup. OK, so I’m extrapolating a little bit with that last part, but even so, I would easily pay $10 to see Johnny Depp in this story at the local cinemaplex.

What’s most interesting to me as a Jewish food blogger is that this story, as shared by a poster on jewschool, is always accompanied by a meal featuring 31 matzah balls. Maybe it should be included as an addition to the Baskin (Robbins) haggadah?

Speaking of Jews and 31 flavors, today is Ben & Jerry’s annual free ice cream cone day! Ironically, even though these two boys met in gym class in Merrick, (pretty close to my congregation), there’s barely any scoop shops left on all of Long Island. I wonder if I would be attacked by pirates if I attempted an hour-long pilgrimage to the closest scoop shop…

Thanks to Liore Milgorm-Elcott at COEJL’s blog, To Till & To Tend for this guest post.

Last night I stayed up much past my goal bedtime because I was gardening. You may be asking yourself: “who gardens at midnight?” The simple answer which, admittedly, leads to more questions is: someone who lives in a 3rd floor NYC apartment. How does one garden in a NYC studio apartment? Instead of a shovel I use a large spoon, instead of lush gardens that flow into each other I have potted plants (in pots beautifully and lovingly made by my father), instead of a compost pile I have a mini bag of soil…. I think you get the point.

So there I was, past midnight, my fingers deep in soil and dirt all over the floor; throughout, an incredibly satisfied smile was planted on my face (sorry that I don’t have a picture for you).

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x-posted at Lilith

Amy Ephron at The Huffington Post has a theory: “In order to be First Lady you have to have a cookie recipe.” Ephron’s tone is (of course) tongue-in-cheek as she describes Martha Washington’s “jumbles,” (a pretzel/biscuit hybrid) Jackie Kennedy’s peanut brittle, and Nancy Reagan’s coconut macaroons. Still, she brings up several serious questions.

If Hillary Clinton gets elected President, what sort of “cookies” would Bill be required to make? In other words, how would a woman’s presidency change the traditional roles of first spouse? And, more importantly, how would it change the presidency itself?

What sort of expectations of traditional “feminine/motherly” conduct would be foisted on Clinton in the White House? How would she balance her necessary role as Commander-in-Chief with these expectations (or would she)? Would she be pressured - like former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir was - to serve a literal “steaming pot of tea and [homemade] cookies” to diplomats?

The answers to these questions remain to be seen - but if Tuesday’s primary in Pennsylvania has anything to do with it, Bill had better start perfecting his baking technique.

Golda Meir’s Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe here
Hillary Clinton’s Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe here.

Yes, folks, it’s serious. So serious that the Bay Area’s matzo shortage has made front page news. The woman behind me at Berkeley Bowl this morning was forced to buy a box of Sun-Dried Tomato Matzo. Who even knew they made such a thing? She said that since it wasn’t for seder, it was fine to use the rest of the week. Whatever. Call me a purist. I never got used to the idea of sun-dried tomato bagels, either. Just the idea of flavored matzo (besides chocolate-covered, mind you) gave me the willies, even though it might not be half bad. When I was buying my five-pounder two or so weeks ago, the guy behind me said “That’s a lot of crackers.” But after our family seder and traditional post-seder matzo brei brunch, I think I’ll have just enough to last me through the week. Phew.

This past weekend, our synagogue hosted a “Pesach University”: A community-wide day of Passover workshops, on everything from the anthropological roots of the seder, to how to “green” your Pesach.

But the true highlight of the event was a live Passover cooking demonstration by none other than Ellie Krieger - an adjunct professor in the New York University Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health, and star of the Food Network’s hit show, Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger. (She also happens to be the sister of one of our Tuv Ha’aretz CSA’s core group members, and a genuinely warm and funny person to boot.)

In honor of the occasion, Ellie chose to focus on two themes of the seder: dipping, and the tension between bitter and sweet in the story, and the food that accompanies it. Ellie made two delicious recipes, adapted from her new cookbook The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life, which she has graciously allowed me to share, after the jump: Read more »

A few weeks ago, I wondered if biofuels were actually the green mitzvah they were touted to be — an ethical alternative to greenhouse gas-belching fossil fuels — or if they were a mitzvah ha’ba b’aveirah, a “mitzvah” coming out of a sin, the sin of unchecked environmental havoc due to biofuels’ “non-toxic” by-products.

The new waves of global food riots, though, have made me much more concerned, and much more wary of entrenching myself in the pro-biofuel camp.

The 2007 “tortilla riots” in Mexico, where some 75,000 Mexicans protested the rising cost of tortillas in Mexico City, followed an astronomical increase in the price of corn — some 400% in a three month span. The cause for the price hike lay north of the border, farmers planting “industrial corn” to be processed into ethanol, replacing the lower-priced food staple relied upon by millions of Mexicans.

Cooking oil is also turning into the world’s “other” oil problem. In Mumbai, India, residents are forced “to ration every drop” of cooking oil, with the price of palm oil having risen 70 percent in the past year. One store in Chongqing, China saw three people killed in a stampede when it offered a “limited promotion” on cooking oil. Half of the increase in worldwide demand for vegetable oils, the New York Times says, is because of biofuel demand.
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