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Land Banks Are the Future of Urban Gardening in Major Cities
Written by Tali Smookler, Repair the World Fellow-Philadelphia A major opportunity for urban garden growth lies in the estimated 40,000 vacant lots in Philadelphia. This has the area equivalent of 2,700 football fields. They attract crime, and make it harder to create healthier neighborhoods. Financially, vacant lots are costly, with the city spending $20 million on maintenance alone. Furthermore, the lots decrease home equity by $3.6 billion, ...
Constructing Imperfection
Blog post by Joshua Boydstun, Rabbinical Student at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College ------------------ My camping tent has seen its fair share of adventure: Caked in the red dust and baked in the summer sun of the Sonoran Desert. Encrusted with the frozen rain of a Yellowstone autumn. Rocked with rain, whipped with wind and sprayed by a skunk while the remains of Hurricane Ivan swept through Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Plateau. Yet ...
A Land of Milk But Not Honey
Blog post by Joshua Boydstun, Rabbinical Student at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College Bees have become front-page news. The cover story of Time magazine’s August 19 issue—entitled “A World Without Bees”—and similar articles from major news outlets like Mother Jones, The Atlantic and The New York Times are now reporting what beekeepers and environmentalists have been warning us about for years: The global honey-bee ...
Obama, Climate Change and the Magicians of Egypt
Blog post by Joshua Boydstun, Rabbinical Student at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College --------------------- On June 25, President Obama unveiled his new Climate Change Action Plan during a speech at Georgetown University. The plan comprises three distinct yet related efforts to prepare for—and to mitigate, whenever possible—the effects of global climate change. First, President Obama has vowed to pursue new industrial ...
Exponential Amounts of Newness
Blog post and photos by Avi Katzman, Farm Educator Apprentice ————————————————————— As a “still-feeling-semi-new” Farm Educator Apprentice here at Eden Village, I feel I’ve been learning exponential amounts of new. Post first week and a half orientation daze, I now feel I have a bit of a handle on ...
Spreading Our Roots on Shavuot
Blog post by Joshua Boydstun, Jewish Farm School Rabbinic Intern ----------------------------------------------------------- As a rabbinical student, I spend a lot of time thinking and talking about metaphorical “roots”: What is “the root of an idea”? Are texts and traditions “rooted” in a particular time or place? Is it dangerous to be “rootless”? And if so, how can we “get back to our ...
Rosh Chodesh Iyyar: Seeing Ourselves Among the Barley
Blog post by Josh Boydstun, Jewish Farm School Rabbinic Intern ——————————————————————————————- During the month of Iyyar (April 10-May 9, 2013), we traditionally engage in S’firat Ha’omer (“The Counting of the Omer”), which begins on the ...
Ritual Slaughter
Blog post by Jacob Siegel, Jewish Farm School Group Leader and rabbinical student ------------------------------------ On March 6th, we invited students on two Jewish Farm School trips in New Orleans to participate in a shechita, a ritual slaughter of chickens. Jewish tradition calls for all kosher meet to undergo a specific process of slaughter, always done in person by a trained and certified professional with a very sharp knife. All kosher ...
Ritual Slaughter
Blog post by Jacob Siegel, Jewish Farm School Group Leader and rabbinical student ------------------------------------ On March 6th, we invited students on two Jewish Farm School trips in New Orleans to participate in a shechita, a ritual slaughter of chickens. Jewish tradition calls for all kosher meet to undergo a specific process of slaughter, always done in person by a trained and certified professional with a very sharp knife. All kosher ...
The Festival of Freedom #Pesach #AltBreak
Post by Faryn Hart, Group Leader for #AltBreak 2013 in New Orleans ————————————————————————————————— March seems to be a busy time in New Orleans. The days are long and perfectly warm, the streets are full with beads and lawn chairs for the St. ...
The Rhythm of Nature and the Harmony of Tradition: Thoughts on Shabbat HaChodesh
Post by Joshua Boydstun, Jewish Farm School Rabbinic Intern Spring can be a dizzying time, particularly for those who travel. At my home in Philadelphia, we have barely seen any snow all Winter. Crocuses and other early bloomers are already starting to appear in my yard. In Western New York, however, where I was last weekend, the landscape is still blanketed in a foot of snow. And when I lead a Jewish Farm School Organic Farm Alternative Break in ...
What’s New in the World of Emergency Food? Part 2
Stockbox: Saving the Endangered Neighborhood Grocer Post by Karin Fleisch, an independent food security consultant and Dean’s Scholar at NYU Wagner. She is a Kol Tzedek Fellow at AJWS and serves on the board of Uri L’Tzedek. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you live in the US? Do you live more than one mile from a grocery store? Do you lack access to a vehicle? If you answered ...
What’s New In The World of Emergency Food? 3 Answers in 3 Weeks
Blog post by Karin Fleisch, Board Member for Uri l’Tzedek, master’s student at NYU’s Wagner School and speaker on behalf of American Jewish World Service. --------------------------------------------------------- After five years at the Food Bank for NYC, during which time I monitored over 400 food pantries and 200 soup kitchens, I thought I knew everything there was to know about local responses to hunger. Happily, It turns ...
Tu Bishvat: Seasonal Fruit and the New Year for Trees
The month of Sh’vat (January 11-February 10, 2013) includes the holiday of Tu Bishvat (January 25-26, 2013), which is a particularly significant day for contemporary Jews who are passionate about nature, ecology and farming. Today, this relatively minor holiday has become a key celebration of our sacred connection with fruit trees, food and the natural world. However, amidst our delight in this bounty, we would do well to reflect critically on ...
The Tevet Solstice: Interfaith Understanding and the Holiday Season
Post by Jewish Farm School Rabbinic Intern, Josh Boydstun - Reposted from Jewish Farmer's Almanac As Chanukah draws to a close, we enter the month of Tevet (December 13, 2012-January 11, 2013). For many American Jews, this is a challenging time of the year. Christmas may seem ubiquitous, whether framed as a specifically Christian holy day or as a secular, commercial, all-American holiday. While some American Jews celebrate Christmas with ...
FeastForward.org Releases a New Video with Sandor Katz
FeastFoward.org, an online web based video series powered by Jewish Farm School, released a new video today featuring fermentation revivalist Sandor Katz. Sandor shares his recipe for perfect sauerkraut, the favorite sustainable Jewish food used to preserve the winter vegetable harvest. Fermentation is more than just a preservation technique. It is a dance with micro-organisms that enables us to eat delicious, healthy, locally grown foods through...
Are We Really Stewards of Creation?
Post by Rabbi Jacob Fine, Let’s face it. Our Jewish communities are failing miserably to respond to the greatest threat that humanity has ever known. For a people that (rightfully) prides itself on the utmost value that our tradition places on the preservation of life, our unwillingness to respond collectively as a people in any significant way to the threat of global warming is as hypocritical as it is suicidal. With each new report that ...
The Danger of Miracles: Thoughts on Chanukah and Oil
Post by Jewish Farm School Rabbinic Intern, Josh Boydstun - Reposted from Jewish Farmer's Almanac Chanukah—the Festival of Lights—offers us a joyous, eight-day respite from the cold, dark month of Kislev (November 14-December 13, 2012). Beginning on 25 Kislev (sundown on December 8), Chanukah commemorates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem, following the successful Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd ...
Jewish Farm School Launches College Accredited Experiential Learning
The Jewish Farm School and Hebrew College are partnering to offer you a weeklong, intensive course exploring the intersection of Judaism, agriculture and contemporary food justice. In this week-long, service learning experience, participants will explore the relationship between Judaism, agriculture and contemporary food justice issues. This unique seminar will include farm work, text study and meetings with activists, community leaders, and ...