Lost a bunch of links yesterday when I was playing catch up. Need to cull my feeds again. Also, sometimes when I’m composing a post I’m navigated away to a page with a 404 error (presumably when it’s auto-saving) so occasionally I lose stuff that way.
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Have you seen Google’s Earth Day logo? Ecorazzi has a cute Earth Day cartoon.
Yesterday, I came across a post on The Jew and the Carrot that directed people to The Portland Yiddish Hour‘s recent show called Jews, Food and Ethics (audio RSS feed and iTunes podcast available). A 50 minute show, I listened in chunks over a couple of days.
Well timed on Earth Day, which may or may not be a coincidence: This evening begins a six week series called Eating Jewishly – Eating Ethically: Exploring Judaism and Food in the 21st Century at one of my synagogues. Lead by my buddy Rabbi Aaron Levy, it’s a text-based study series examining six of our relationships with food: spiritual, ethical, communal, ecological, animal, and physical. Aaron told me about it months ago. Due to my own procrastination I almost missed it. I got the final spot.
That same synagogue is involved in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture program) with Everdale Farm. I participated two years ago during its inaugural year but opted out part way through because it wasn’t meeting my needs and I didn’t participate last year. I’m trying again this year and look forward to it. One of the challenges I encountered was finding the right size: With the small share recommended for single-person households, I would often run out of stuff then I’d have to decide whether to wait until the next CSA pick up, go to a farmer’s market, or buy at the grocery store. Pick up day used to be on Thursdays. This year it’s on Tuesdays. The closest farmer’s markets to me are on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I’ll see what happens. If I must I’ll upgrade to the medium share, which is recommended for families of 3 or 4. I could always share the product with friends.
Another challenge was our limited selection in Ontario (see Foodland Ontario’s Availability Guide for Ontario fruits and vegetables). This year I’m going to look at that as a fun challenge and even try kohlrabi again. I didn’t like it when I previously tried it. I look forward to the two-month asparagus season, which starts next month even though farmer’s markets don’t open until June. Strawberries are only in season during June and July so I think I’ll be buying a ton of them for freezing. Might even go strawberry picking this year.
I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to say about my enthusiasm for produce and farmer’s markets in future blog posts.
Before I end this post, an earth day tip that I got from a former neighbour. This works in the City of Toronto where we have the Green Bin Program and should work in cities with similar programs:
Even if you live in apartment building without a green bin, you CAN collect organic waste for compost. Collect scraps in a bag in the freezer and occasionally dump them in restaurant green bins. This might not be convenient to you if you don’t have any restaurants near by, but most people have restaurants near work or can get to one. I keep a container on my counter for scraps collected while I prepare meals and dump them in a bag. I live by a major street so I have many restaurant green bins near by. I try to remember to do it BEFORE pick up day because I feel a little odd dumping my bags into bins that have just been emptied by city collectors.
Happy earth day, and don’t forget to treat the earth well every day, not just today.
Peace out
(Or as my friend who authors the blog “In the Weeds” ends all of his posts, “A la prochaine”. I need a snappy sign off. On to the website “to do” list it goes.)
[I began this post at 5pm, had to abandon it unfinished at 6:47 to get my butt to seder that was to begin at 7 but didn't begin until 8, and finished after.]
[April 9, 3:10pm: Edited to make it a bit shorter.]
I apologize in advance for the length, because I generally don’t have the patience to read anything that’s this long.
Occasionally I read something that makes me smack my head with disbelief, as in, “I can’t believe he/she wrote that.” I wasn’t going to post about this. I wasn’t going to comment on Corey Mintz’s article in last Saturday’s Toronto Star about an unconventional passover seder. I first noticed it in Taste T.O.’s weekly Saturday feature In the Papers (April 4). I starred the Taste T.O. post in Google Reader, unsure if I wanted to read about it again, post about it, or go there in general. It seemed like an article I had to bookmark. So, I thought “Mintz, you ass.” and moved on. I wasn’t going to address it here.
Sometimes I begin comments in response to blog posts and find that that they’ve become opinion pieces or diatribes. Well, that sort of lead me to this post, except that I wasn’t commenting to a blog post.
Another fact about me (one was revealed on Monday): I briefly worked in radio a couple of years ago. While between careers around 2003 (?), and then on a casual part time basis through 2008, I worked for Rogers Broadcasting, which owns Jack FM, CHFI, 680 News and The Fan 590 in Toronto. One of the first people I met there was Maurie, who had been a producer on Jack FM’s morning show until the station went to a DJ-free format.
Maurie is my Facebook network. and today he posted audio of an interview that he did with Dave Trafford at CFRB 1010 earlier today, an interview which he was recruited to do in response to Corey’s article. A lot of Jews listen to Newstalk. I grew up listening to CFRB in the car when Andy Barrie was still on air there (now I listen to him every morning on CBC). The interview is not on CFRB’s website nor do I know if it will be. Maurie posted it as a video link. It may or may not be accessible to you. It may or may not be copyright infringement.
The interview with Maurie and CFRB’s Jessica Baker was good. Their messaging was basically, “The seder is mostly about family, we enjoy the family time and the festival meal, we don’t have the patience to read through the whole book beginning to end, we count the pages until the part that says we eat and then we’re done.” Pretty consistent with my experience and that of most people I know. One friend’s family reenacts the plagues with masks and toys, which I think is awesome, and tomorrow I’ll be at a seder hosted by two friends, one of whom is a rabbi, and I’ve been informed that there will be lots of discussion going late into the night. Lots of wine too.
So, Corey’s article…