A letter from CSA member Tara Broyhill

My kids and I had so much fun at Oxbow farm on Sunday I have to tell you about it. First off the farmer Adam is one of the most kind, generous and energetic people I know. I didn’t know him before introducing myself to him a couple of weeks ago at the Ballard farmer’s market, but now I feel like he’s a friend. After spending four hours at the farm learning about it from Adam, weeding the beets and cucumbers with Michele and my two sons, and eating produce right from the field – this is now my farm. I’m hooked.

It feels like the perfect place to be. It’s filled with love, friendship, respect for all life and natural beauty (not to mention really good food!). It was a mixture of hard work and calm relaxation that seemed just right. True, it was a beautiful day and that undoubtedly helped form my opinion, but that wasn’t all. It could have been a hot summer day spent weeding in a shadeless dirty field filled with bugs and sweat. It wasn’t.

Last Sunday, July 25, 15 people gathered at Oregon’s Museum of Science and Industry for Portland Tuv Ha’Aretz’s 2nd annual Jewish edible garden bike tour. Portland is laid out in grids, like Washington, D.C. Last year’s tour covered NE Portland; this year we set off to explore neighborhoods in SE.

Our ride leader, Tuv member Beth Hamon, is an old-school bike geek. Last year she created spoke cards for our ride (when you do something for the first time, it’s an innovation; twice is minhag) So of course she made a new one for this year’s ride. Here’s a picture:

Our route took us through the Sellwood, Mt. Tabor and Hawthorne neighborhoods. We started with a trip down the Springwater Corridor, a 40-mile multi-use trail that runs partway along the Willamette River and goes past some fantastic bird habitats.

We visited four gardens, ranging in size from a single raised bed to an urban micro-farm, complete with bees and a small orchard. All the gardeners talked about what they grew, how long they’d been growing food, and some offered perspectives on how their Judaism informs their gardening. For some, the conection is simply that they are Jewish and enjoy putting their hands in the dirt. Others talked about earth stewardship and one gardener deconstructed the Hebrew word pardes (orchard), as a way of explaining his approach: “Pardes begins with a Peh, which stands for p’shat, a simple explanation for things (what you see is what you get). The next letter, Reish, stands for remez, which means “hidden,” and suggests all that goes into making the plants grow: water, healthy soil, air, sunlight. Daled is drash, a commentary, and the final letter, Samech, stands for sod, which means “secret”, as in ‘The Secret Life of Plants,’ something you have to study and understand over a period of years.”

We ended our 14-mile loop with a picnic lunch at Sewallcrest Park, next to an enormous community garden. It’s worth mentioning that community gardens are very popular here; we have a three-year waiting list, with more than 1,000 people waiting for a plot.

Here’s a link to our Flickr page for more pictures of our ride. One rider used a nifty little GPS device he wore on his wrist like a watch to map our route. Here’s another link that shows where we went.

If you’d like to plan a similar event, please feel free to contact me for information.

Tuv Ha’aretz Reflections on Parshat Ekev, by Rabbi Marc Soloway

The intuition to make some kind of blessing or prayer before eating, either traditional or spontaneous, transcends religions and cultures.  Jews, Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and probably every religion has its version of making a spiritual connection to the food we are about to eat, whether an established formula or a moment of meditation.  The Talmud has a strong statement that anyone enjoying the physical pleasures of this world without first saying a bracha, is like someone who steals from the Temple! (Berachot 35a).

There are so many traditional blessings for the world of our senses; eating and drinking; seeing mountains, rainbows, oceans; smelling spices or fragrant fruits; hearing thunder.  These blessings affirm the majesty of creation and our appreciation of the great gifts of nature, by reciting these brachot as we see or smell, or before we eat anything. Being part of our Jewish CSA, Tuv Ha’aretz along with its weekly offerings of delicious, local produce has certainly heightened our sense of appreciation for the fruit of the land.  For vegetables, the traditional bracha is baruch atah HaShem elohaynu melech haolam borei p’ri ha’adamah – blessed are You Eternal One, sovereign of the universe, creator of the earth’s fruit.  For fruit, we say p’ri ha’etz, the tree’s fruit.

Making a blessing after we have eaten seems to be less intuitive and, to my knowledge, does not play such a major part in many religions.  Jewish law makes a distinction between halachot (laws) that are d’Oraita – derived directly from the Torah, and d’Rabbanan – coming from rabbinic law.  Clearly a mitzvah that is seen to be from the Torah has more weight and authority than one that comes from the rabbis.  Interestingly, birkat hamazon, grace after meals, is seen as d’Oraita and the myriad blessings before food are d’Rabbanan.  The proof text for this is from this week’s parsha, Ekev, and is a verse, which is included in these after food blessings, “V’achalta v’savata u’verachta… – you will eat, you will be satisfied and then you will bless…” (Deuteronomy 8:10)  The order in the Torah suggests that from that place of satisfaction comes the obligation to offer blessings of appreciation.  When we are full and sated after a wonderful meal, our instinct may be to go to sleep or lounge around on the couch too full to be grateful, yet it is exactly in this state that the Torah asks us to be mindful of gratitude rather than victims of complacency.

Those of us who are more inclined to make a blessing before we eat and tend to forget the blessings afterwards, could try to remember that the gratitude that we express after we are satisfied, rather than before we have tasted what lies in front of us, has a greater force. So much of the Torah’s power comes precisely from the fact that it is often contrary to our impulses or intuitions, demanding consciousness in those moments when we feel unconscious.  This is how the Torah helps us to refine our characters and reminds us that we are just a little lower than the angels. Either way, it has been a source of great pleasure and satisfaction to receive our weekly yield from the farmers’ hands and they deserve our blessings of appreciation along with our own personal way of thanking the ultimate source with whom we are in partnership!

Photos: Lauren Krohn

The last time I hosted a vegan Shabbat dinner for friends, I planned it a couple of weeks in advance. Although I only came up with the idea of hosting this past Friday’s dinner four days earlier, there was still an “agenda.” First, I wanted to rely chiefly on produce purchased at the Union Square farmers’ market earlier in the day. Second, I wanted to use some red, white, and blue foods, as Independence Day was just two days away.

The week before the dinner, I attended a “Cooking With Seasonal Vegetables” class at B’nai Jeshurun, a synagogue in Manhattan. Event organizer Melissa Tapper Goldman explained, “I wanted to help support the members of BJ’s new Hazorim CSA [community-supported agriculture program] to transition into CSA living: learning to cook flexibly with the bounty of the season. This is different from supermarket (or even farmers’ market) cooking because the variety and quantity are set by the land and the farm rather than by your preferences.” Victoria Sutton, who runs the company Catering by Victoria, led about 10 people in making a mixture of roasted and cubed red and golden beets, a dish involving the beet greens (the edible leafy greens that are on the end opposite the beet bottoms), and quinoa.

On Friday, I found that the greens from the two different types of beets were surprisingly different from each other in texture and color. I made a stir-fry that included both varieties of beet greens, seitan, green pepper, onions, and garlic. It was probably the centerpiece of the meal, and the leftovers have long since been devoured.

I had never cooked beets before, but the roasted beets came out great. I actually only thought of my red, white, and blue plan after I’d done my shopping, so I thought it’d be nice to present the beets over a bed of thinly sliced, baked “chips” made from blue potatoes. It turned out that the juice from the red beets interfered with the color scheme I had in mind, but the cubed beets and the chips still turned out well individually.

I thought the raspberries and blackberries would complement the red and white beets for the red, white, and blue collage pictured above. Of course, had I thought of the color scheme prior to shopping, I would’ve purchased blueberries instead of blackberries!

I also served dal (using lentils, onions, and garlic I still had left over from my friend’s Veggie Conquest 4 adventure), charoset (made legendary by my Veggie Conquest 3 adventure), carrot salad with scallion microgreens and parsley, and wild rice. I decided to use store-bought pita instead of homemade challah, as the latter just didn’t come out too great in my last few baking attempts.

I managed to make a scrumptious vegan Shabbat dinner that relied heavily on fresh produce from the farmers’ market, getting more mileage out of beets than I would’ve thought possible. It goes to show that vegan meals don’t need soy foods to get by. Why have “Killer Tofu” when The Beets rock so much?

Cross-posted to heebnvegan

In 2008 Maya and Zach Kassutto embarked on a father-daughter photo-documentary project of their Hazon Community Supported Agriculure project at Kol Ami in Elkins Park, PA.

As Zach says, �it was Maya�s bat mitzvah year, and she wanted to engage in a mitzvah project that was meaningful to her. Her bat mitzvah coincided with the harvest holiday of Succoth. Photographing the CSA seemed like the perfect project, especially since she also has a passion for vegetarianism, the environment and photography.�

As a result, they opened a gallery show at the host synagogue of the Hazon CSA, Kol Ami. You can see the photos they took together by clicking here. The show, entitled “A Season in the Sun: A father & daughter�s exploration of community supported agriculture” is a lovely chronicle of the CSA season.

Mark continues, �The photos in the exhibit aim to capture a myriad of connections and relationships; between individuals and food, between those who grow the food and those who eat it, between members of a caring community, and between people and the earth.�

As a part of their project, the Kassuttos visited a farm and farmer in Lancaster County, PA, and they followed the path of the food from the Lancaster County farm to the CSA in Elkins Park and documented the community that was created and enriched by the CSA process.

Enjoy their beautiful photos here � and for information about the Hazon CSA in Elkins Park, click here.

Check out this podcast interview with Val Yasner from the Hazon CSA in Cherry Hill. Val makes a great case for eating locally and sustainably — and she’s hard at work making sure the 2010 season is as strong as last year’s at Temple Beth Shalom. Val’s on at about minute 18 (how appropriate!). Gut shabbes, everyone.

�We learned about what we put in our mouths, why we put it in our mouths; we questioned the ethics and health of good eating. The conference really raised awareness and started conversations,� Carson muses. Back at home in suburban Marion, PA, she suggested that her synagogue start a CSA. At first, the idea was a tough sell.

�We didn�t have a lot of eating local and organic, people didn�t cook a lot, and �CSA� wasn�t a familiar term,� Carson explains of her community. �People weren�t aware of a growing season�at first, they were complaining that there were no tomatoes in their CSA box in May,� Carson remembers. �[CSA members] are now eating chard, beets, parsnips, turnips fresh from the farm�food they�ve never eaten before.�

Click here to read the full story!

We’ve just begun to distribute our Hazon CSA 2009 Season Report, and we figured that sharing it with our JCarrot readers might be fun for you all. Each of the carrots on the above map represents all of our CSAs for the 2010 season, but to learn more about what happened in 2009 in our longest standing food program, you can download the report. For instance, did you know the following?

In 2009:

• The Hazon CSA program grew to 32 communities in the United States and Canada, with forty-one partner organizations, including synagogues, day schools, Hillels and JCCs and twenty eight partner farms.
• Hazon CSAs brought an estimated 305,350 pounds of fresh, mostly organic, sustainable produce to about 6,100 people in over 2,500 member households!
• and Hazon CSAs put Jewish purchasing power – more than $950,000 – behind local farmers who are committed to sustainable agriculture.

As we link people and families more closely to the land on which their food grows and the farmers who grow it, we are also renewing a sense of connection with the rich Jewish traditions that surround eating and agriculture.� Last year, Hazon CSA communities hosted 120 innovative educational events.� There were many farm visits, including sukkah-building and gleaning on partner farms; at host institutions, programs included cooking demonstrations, text studies on brachot, and special events for Tu B’Shvat.

Hazon is deeply grateful to the dedicated farmers, the passionate volunteer leaders in every Hazon CSA community who plan pick-ups and education events, and the partner institutions that host and support Hazon CSAs. To learn more about the Hazon CSA program click here.

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This was a lovely video about Isabelle Farm, the farm for the two Hazon CSAs in Denver. I hope you enjoy! And, if you want to learn more about all of Hazon CSAs (in Colorado and across the country) click here.