Elephants in our refrigerator?

As we all prepare to reflect, renew and restore ourselves for the new year, here are some interesting articles to ponder. and a yummy sounding recipe from celebrity chef Michael Ciarello that is an interesting take on apples and honey (you could even substitute the frisee in the recipe for the arugula we are getting in our boxes : )

Shanah Tovah everyone! May this year bring us all health, happiness and sweet and sustainable lives : )

Box items this week: Tomatoes, Pac Choi, Peppers, Apples, Eggplant, Arugula, Delicata Squash, Muscadines Shelled Peas

ELEPHANTS IN OUR REFRIGERATOR
by Susan Bodnar Adapted from the Jew and the Carrot

Recently, Michael Pollan linked the reduction of medical costs to the even more controversial reformation of the food industry, what he calls the elephant in the national debate about the health care crisis. While Washington dukes out the legislative challenges to securing a healthier national environment, the country’s children have already returned to another school year and the Jewish New Year is upon us. Can we really wait for all this legislation to be enacted? Not me. I’m joining others who believe that change begins at the kitchen table. This year we are going to do a family food tashlich and symbolically cast away the elephants in our own refrigerators, the habitual bad food practices of everyday life.

1) Casting away disembodied eating

We’ll be taking more family expeditions to Farmer’s Markets or the local produce section of the grocery store. We’ll be talking to the kids about how food is grown and introducing them to more farmers who make cheese, grow food and milk cows or goats. Our most recent hero is the cheese guy from Olde Oak Farm in Orono Maine. Teaching children about food’s origins will help them respect eating it. It will also signal to our kids how much we care about them. Active concern about what goes into your kids’ bodies and foods sacred relationship to the earth, teaches them that their body really is a temple. A healthy regard for the physical self reflected by parental behavior helps children establish good personal boundaries. Good personal boundaries are the foundation of healthy eating and respect for limitations.

2) Casting away processed foods

When we journey to the river’s edge this Rosh Hashanah, we’ll take a pinch of processed food. This is to establish that sound eating is a spiritual goal as well as a health one. When healthy eating is only about rules it robs nutrition of its aesthetic merits. Eating healthy expresses a love for self, other, nature, pleasure, and, by extension, that which we know as God. While banning processed foods, we’ll be emphasizing sugar as a spare pleasure by home-baking with whole grains, unprocessed sugars, and sweetener substitutes like agave nectar.

3) Casting away disconnection

Not only are we going to eat together we are going to prepare meals together. Shabbat dinner is a great opportunity for this but not the only one. Even school lunches can become a fun family activity. Cooking with kids teaches responsibility, self-reliance and collaborative thinking. Dining together promotes relatedness and non-verbal emotional synergy. Eating healthy food together is almost countercultural, a shared family brand that can help your children stand up to the pressure of consumerist messaging.

There is no reason to wait for Washington to do something about our country’s health and food crisis. As Michael Pollan says, changed consumer patterns brought on by transformed eating patterns will send a message to congress, not to mention the food industry. Just by being part of a CSA you already helping to be a part of change!


New Kosher Food Certification May Be Most Detailed In the Industry
By Nathaniel Popper
Reprinted with permission of The Forward

This article is about one of Hazon’s partners, Magen Tzedek. It is an update on the new kosher certification that they are working to establish. A representative from Magen Tzedek will be joining us at the Food Conference again this year.

The Conservative movement has released detailed guidelines for what experts say could be one of the most comprehensive food certifications in existence.

The guidelines for the new Magen Tzedek food certification are intended to ensure that ethical standards are adhered to in kosher food production, and they delve into nearly every phase of the production process. A group of Conservative rabbis began developing the certification more than two years ago after a Forward article drew attention to the poor working conditions at what was then the world’s largest kosher slaughterhouse, Agriprocessors, in Postville, Iowa.

The Hekhsher Tzedek commission, which created the guidelines with the backing of the national bodies of Conservative Judaism, has previously released rough sketches of what the certification would encompass. But the rules released this week go on for 175 pages and delve into great detail on the standards companies will need to meet if they want to earn a Magen Tzedek certification. (Hekhsher Tzedek means certification of justice in Hebrew, while Magen Tzedek means seal of justice.) Those standards broadly break down into five areas: treatment of employees, animal welfare, consumer issues, corporate integrity and environmental impact.

Among the specific rules laid out in the draft is one stipulating that a company would have to pay its lowest paid employee at least 115% of the federal minimum wage (currently $7.25 an hour) and provide the same employee with health and other benefits that amount to at least 35% of his or her wages. These standards, and many others, would apply to workers who produce any ingredient that is at least 5% of the weight of the final product.

There are a number of certification programs that look at one or another of the specific categories that the Magen Tzedek is interested in — but industry experts say that there are almost no other food-certification systems that are as comprehensive and thorough as what the Conservative rabbis are proposing.

“The breadth is impressive,” said Scott Exo, director of the Food Alliance, which bills itself as the “most comprehensive third-party certification for the production, processing, and distribution of sustainable food.”

The guidelines are being offered for public comment, and the commission is hoping to have an application and a beta test of the program done by the end of this year — with the program starting next year. The Hekhsher Tzedek commission is in talks with an independent auditing company that would conduct the actual certifying audits.

To read the full length article, please visit: www.forward.com/articles/113750/


Piadini with Apples, Honey, and Blue Cheese
From Food Network at www.foodnetwork.com

• 2 apples
• 2 to 3 heads frisee lettuce
• Olive oil
• 1 lemon, juiced, plus extra for sprinkling apples
• 5 tablespoons honey
• Grey salt
• Pepper
• 1 bag pre-made pizza dough (from deli counter)
• 4 ounces blue cheese

Directions
2 hours before the party: Core and slice the apples. If you’re not using immediately, squeeze lemon juice on them to prevent discoloration.

When your guests have arrived: Wash and roughly tear the frisee into a salad bowl. Add the apples. Drizzle with olive oil, the juice of 1 lemon, 1 tablespoon of the honey, salt and pepper. Set aside

Divide the pizza dough into 4 sections. On a floured board, stretch and roll the dough into thin disks with a rolling pin. The dough may also be stretched by hand, but rolling will give you a thinner crust. Coat the flattened dough with olive oil and place onto a very hot, preheated outdoor grill. (this can be done indoors on a cast iron stovetop grill pan. Set the burners to medium, medium-high and make sure to preheat the pan.) When you see bubbles rise to the surface, flip the dough. It should be slightly browned on the bottom.

Put 1 tablespoon of the honey and 1-ounce of blue cheese, to taste, on the top of the crust. Close down your grill and wait for the cheese to melt. When it is nice and gooey, take it off the grill and top with the cool salad and apples. Repeat with remaining dough and ingredients. Fold it over, eat and enjoy.