(Originally published at A Life in Many Small Parts.)

�All around me are bee haters, spider killers, dirt phobics, and dandelion destroyers, which for some reason are detested on front lawns, but not in gourmet salads. � (excerpted from my article, �Earth Mother,� 1999, Holistic Living magazine)

I am an inveterate New Yorker. But for 14 years I lived with my family in a historic village (founded in 1701) in New Jersey, on a large tract of designated green acres�an area flanked by beautiful old family farms. It was a utopian world right out of a Norman Rockwell painting. In the time that we were there, we watched as fuel got cheaper, cars got bigger, highways expanded, and rapid development began to overtake the farmland, planting more strip malls and McMansions than produce in the Garden State. It was a land of sprawling front and backyards, open fields and public parks. Each spring as the first of the flowers appeared, simultaneously alongside them, bright yellow herbicide/pesticide flags began to crop up on lawns.

Bill Kaplan, Executive Director of the Shalom Institute and Lisa Friedman, President of the Lisa & Maury Friedman Foundation shared the following information with us about the upcoming event they’re hosting in California later this month. Read on for more details!

As a Jewish community we have the capacity and potential to create our own unique and genuine response to integrating environmental education into our family life. That�s why we are so excited to present this first-ever Los Angeles Jewish environmental seminar � �Framing the Environment Through a Jewish Lens�. Join us on Sunday, May 23rd, 1:30-6pm at the Shalom Institute in the beautiful Malibu Mountains.

We wanted to make sure that you all got the news that our friend Evonne Marzouk of Canfei Nesharim has just gotten a big grant from ROI to collaborate with 17 other ROI alumni to create Jewcology.com, a new web portal where Jewish-environmentalists can network and share program resources. The new site will be enriched with diverse Jewish-environmental content, and the team will hold organize Jewish Environmental Leadership Summits where participants can learn to use the site. The project is led by Evonne Marzouk, Executive Director of Canfei Nesharim, with participation from: Jesse Glickstein, Isaac Hametz, Emily Jane Freed, Sasha Perry, Baruch Rock, Eli Winkleman, Noga Zohar, Rafi Bratman, Rebecca Hailpern, Noam Dolgin, Yigal Deutscher, Brian Heimberg, Dafna Neiman, Hamutal Gillo, Vivian Lehrer, Micah Bergdale, Leah Jones — many of whom are also good friends of Hazon! Read the full press release after the jump.

The iridescent colors reflected off an oil slick are like a twisted and distorted rainbow.

There is a special correlation between this week�s Torah portion and the rainbow covenant of Noah�s time. And there is a foreboding contrast between the rainbow covenant and what�s happened in the Gulf of Mexico. The tension between these dynamic relationships in many ways defines the predicament of our time.

Check out this post about the Jewish Food Movement on Civil Eats. It is great to learn about the Food Movement from two of Hazon’s core characters – Judith Belasco, Hazon’s director of food programs and Sue Carson, one of Hazon’s key lay-leaders in the food movement. Sue co-chaired the 2008 Hazon Food Conference and helped start a Hazon CSA program at her synagogue in Merion Station. The article includes these reflections from Sue about her experiences at the Conference:

As Shavuot approaches and we reflect on the significance of harvest festivals in contemporary (urban) times, the AJWS-AVODAH Partnership is hosting an interactive program on hunger in NYC and what you can do about it! If you are in the NYC area you should definitely check out this event.

Date: Wednesday, May 12^th

Time: Light dinner and registration at 6:30pm, program at 7pm sharp

Place: The Commons on Atlantic, in Downtown Brooklyn

Address: 388 Atlantic Ave (map)

To register: Click here

Speakers include:

This week, as Earth Day came and went and I attended a fair here or an Earth celebration there, it also donned on me that Spring is here!

So, beyond my environmental excursions, I also attended of variety of events held on my very own Columbia University. Yet, what I found was an inability to fully appreciate some of the events due to the ubiquity of plastic water bottles. Some may laugh, but I find myself becoming more and more annoyed with these obnoxious bottles that I suddenly see everywhere. As I have previously written about bottled water, my awakening began when seeing the movie “Blue Gold: World Water War’s” on instant play on Netflix. Then, I really became irked when seeing “The Story of Bottled Water,” which I posted on this blog.

If you haven’t had a chance to see Food, Inc., carpe diem! PBS recently aired it on POV, television’s oldest showcase for independent non-fiction films. POV has also put the entire film on their site for free viewing for a limited time. It’s only up until April 28, so check it out today!

On April 18, my co-steering committee member Sylvia Frankel and I were invited to speak to the congregation of St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Beaverton, Oregon, a nearby city most famous for being the home of Nike. It was an opportunity to address the congregation for one of a series of learning and study sessions; this one was called Food and Spirituality from a Jewish Perspective.

About 25 people attended, including Lead Pastor Mark Brocker and Associate Pastor Robyn Hartwig, and members of the St. Andrew Green Team, a group of congregants who work on sustainability issues within the St. Andrew community.

Listen to our new PODCAST, Episode 5 by clicking here!

Co-Founder Julie Wolk sits down with me on the latest Hazon Podcast. Listen to what Wilderness Torah is doing to revitalize the American Jewish Community. Also, don’t forget you can subscribe on iTunes by searching “Hazon”.

Also, don’t forget that it is Earth Day this week, so check out all the options going on in your area. For a good listing, check this website out

They have a map where you can choose where you live and find out what is going on near you!

I have long harbored misgivings about soy.  It is highly estrogenic. It’s associated with many environmental concerns (fields are clear cut internationally to support it, most of the crop goes toward feeding animals on feedlots, etc.) It’s highly processed (and a non whole food) as milk, frozen entrees, and other products.  And honestly, and this is just my perspective, I don’t enjoy the taste. But I have always respected the fact that many people do not agree with me on all these points, and enjoy soy as a deliberate and integral part of their diet.  Most of these folks have countered my concerns with the fact that it is a healthy, non-animal protein that provides efficient calories at a low cost. 

So you promised your boss you would go to work 1/2 day Monday, but you haven’t finished your shopping for the big night.  It’s Chicago.  It’s winter.  OK technically it’s Spring, but we’re all still wearing parkas and fantasizing about the sun returning.  And most importantly, the farmers’ market season in Chicago doesn’t really being until April.

Or does it?

A little-known gem is thriving right under your L stop in downtown Chicago!  Chicago’s Downtown Farmstand, located at 66 E. Randolph Street, is practically under the Randolph/Wabash stop, across from the Millenium Metra Train station, and open 6 days a week ALL YEAR.

…during the winter

…on a day other than Saturday

Those of us organic, sustainable foodies in Chicago are keenly aware of the famous Green City Market which stays open year-round by moving into the Nature Museum November-April.  But for us who observe Shabbat, the Saturday-only schedule they keep in the in winter months is sad news indeed.

So I finally kvetched – kvweeted? – to all the Chicago farmers market Tweeps I follow about how Jews are blocked from farmers market goodness in the winter.

Zachary Agopian is a chef in Portland, OR and an intern working with an exciting project called Food-Hub: food-hub.org/. This project promotes the use of local foods by directly connecting local farmers and ranchers with local buyers. Thanks, Zachary, for sharing this project with us!

If you’re like me you’re always on the prowl for the freshest ingredients to nourish your body. Now, this may involve an assortment of ridiculous activities; from a full inspection of your milk aisle for the freshest carton, or the heated family “discussion” over your highly guarded mushroom foraging stash. My personal favorite, over-dosing on peaches until you can’t stand the sight of one until next summer, as to not give-in to the temptation, in the long winter months, of a well traveled piece of fruit.