Tu B’shevat dish
I’d previously created this Tu B’Shevat recipe and post for the Borough Market website.
Tu B’shevat, the Jewish “New Year for Trees” (Rosh HaShana L’Ilanot), begins Tuesday evening. It has become the Jewish “Earth Day” and it is increasingly common for people to host a Tu B’shevat seder. I relish this holiday because it is the ultimate farm-to-table holiday and an opportunity to plant trees, enjoy local produce, and get involved with environmental groups.
Underwood Family Farms, Culver City, CA Farmers Market
As you’re busy cleaning your house, shopping and cooking for Pesach, I thought you might want to read and reflect upon some of my posts for the holiday. Chag sameach!
Passover: Liberate Yourself From Industrial Food: A list of suggestions to make each part of your seder more sustainable.
Passover: Ending Slavery in Our Food Systems: The horrible enslavement of people in the production of food worldwide.
Nisan: Bless and Sustain: The ultimate Pesach food!-Quinoa and roasted fruit and vegetable recipe
Also, if you haven’t had a chance yet, check out the resources page on my website to find a wide range of wonderful groups working in both the secular and faith spaces to address hunger, agriculture, animal welfare and many other important issues.
Apples. Eastern Market. Washington, DC
Shana Tova! Last year at Rosh Hashana, I decided to start Neesh Noosh, without having a vision or plan. Just a desire to learn, cook and write. What a whirlwind and exciting journey it has been! I want to share an article, after the break, that I wrote for last week’s Jewish Journal about my journey writing Neesh Noosh.
In the coming year, instead of creating a dish for the weekly Torah portion, I will make a recipe for each Rosh Chodesh (new month). I am also working on turning the blog into a cookbook.
Thank you to everyone who reads Neesh Noosh. I am grateful for your support and encouragement! I hope you will continue to enjoy reading and cooking with me in the new year.
Wishing you a sweet, healthy new year!
Sarah
PS: If you want to read more about Rosh Hashana and food ethics, please check out an article I wrote for the Isareli paper, Haaretz: What do Jewish Morals Have to Say About Your Rosh Hashana Dinner?
Vayechi unified vegetables roast
Bereshit (Genesis) is fraught with familial fighting and divisions. Vayechi, the final parsha (Torah portion) in Bereshit, ends this strife as it is a story of unity and redemption of the 12 tribes of Israel before they begin their exile. Diane Bloomfield teaches that their patriarch Jacob, embodies the quality of emet (truth), even in Egypt, a world of constriction and exile. Jacob’s 17 years of living in Egypt prepared the Israelites for their exile: he passed the seeds of discernment to them to discover and reveal his world of emet and echad (oneness).
Underwood Family Farms, Culver City, CA Farmers Market
In Vayechi, Jacob gathers his 12 sons to his deathbed, and says “come together that I may tell you what is to befall you in days to come.” Chana Kroll writes on Chabad.org that at this moment, “the twelve individuals became one unified soul. They said the Shema prayer before their father Jacob, thus reassuring him that the principles of serving G‑d and recognizing His absolute Oneness would be lived and taught by them as well. One family, with one heart and one soul.”
Neesh Noosh 