Green Options » Passover

The Twelve Days of sustainablog: Email, Passover, and Water

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 01:19:34 +0000

Spring sprang with a vengeance in April, and despite the bouts of Spring fever, we took our laptops outside to enjoy the new season while keeping the posts flowing.

No foolishness here… just good stories from the wide world of sustainability. Here’s a few of our best…

April 2008

Kelli Best-Oliver introduced us to Readymade magazine’s new digital edition.
Tim Hurst looked forward to the ROTHBURY Music Festival, and the green practices that festival organizers were putting into place.
Bill Chameides from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment explained how renewable energy sources can help conserve water.

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Street Seders: Sacred Protest

Chad Crawford — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:57:24 +0000

Spiritual practices often make use of powerful symbols to stir people into action.

Earth Day fell during Passover this year causing Jews to reflect on how an important tradition offers some wisdom about environmental challenges. Rabbi Jeff Sultar, director of The Green Menorah Program at the Shalom Center, took the three necessary elements of the Passover Seder and used them to symbolize the struggle with personal, economic, or political “pharaohs” putting limitations on a healthy planet.

He advocates holding “street seders” this year during Passover. These seders are part religious observance, part political demonstration. Possible locations include regional E.P.A. offices to demand they allow states to raise emissions standards above federal standards, ExxonMobil offices around the country, and congressional offices to urge politicians to pass “America’s Climate Security Act.”

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Kosher (and Vegan) for Passover

Sharon Troy — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:01:36 +0000

I have to give a lot of respect to Jews that keep Kosher, because I know how difficult it can be to stick with a restricted diet. During Passover especially, that diet becomes so limited, that some of my Jewish friends recently asked me if I thought it was possible to stay vegan during Passover. At first I thought, “No leavened bread? No problem!” but then I realized that some keep rules far more strict than that.

I learned that Ashkenazi Jews also avoid a group of foods categorized as kitiniyot which includes rice, peas, lentils, beans, and corn. (Now I know what Meredith was referring to in her recent Passover foods post, when she mentioned becoming aware of so many corn additives!) So no legumes, eh? No soy products… no grains… Ok, that does in fact rule out a major chunk of my vegan diet.

But I wasn’t ready to back down from this challenge just yet…

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A Second Chance at Ice Cream

Meredith Melnick — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:16:08 +0000

One thing that I love about cooking the Passover Seder for my family is that I get two chances to make a memorable meal. While the menus always differ between the two nights of celebrations, I usually incorporate a few similar elements to try out twice.

I am never going to win with the traditional recipes from the old country - these would be inexpertly executed versions of my grandmother’s legendary matzo balls and kugel. Instead, I try to reimagine a dish I love within the dietary restrictions of the holiday: no leavened bread, no corn products, no rice or whole grains, no legumes. (Growing up with the yearly Passover semi-fast has been an education in corn additives, I will tell you, but that’s a story for a different post.)

This year, I focused on dessert. Several bakeries manage to make Kosher for Passover cakes and cookies from matzo crumbs, but these have the cardboard-y taste and alarmingly fake consistency of diet foods. Instead, I coopted this addictive matzo bark recipe from Apartment Therapy’s The Kitchn. But what should go with it? Why, ice cream of course!

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Green Passover: Now That’s Kosher!

Chad Crawford — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:44:15 +0000

As Jews prepare for Passover, there are a number of resources available to combine the traditional seder with concern for the environment. The Jew and the Carrot, a website that focuses on “Jews, food, and contemporary issues,” has a guide to a green seder. Suggestions include using organic cleaners for the ritual cleaning before Passover, local apples and fairly-traded pecans for the charoset, growing your own greens, free range eggs, organic meat, and ideas for vegetarian/vegan sedarim. There are even some choices for organic kosher wine.

The Passover seder is a ritual feast that includes symbolic foods telling the story of Israel’s exodus from slavery in Egypt. Meg Dickler-Taylor is the owner of Large Marge Sustainables, and she is catering “The Sustainable Seder” in Los Angeles.

Dickler-Taylor spoke to the Workmen’s Circle, the host of the seder, about ways to incorporate sustainability into their Passover celebration. Her tips included bringing their own bags to the supermarket, using durable plates instead of disposable, and making organic and local food choices.

“Passover is a celebration of a lot of things, primarily the freedom of the Jews [from] enslavement of Egypt. Every year, if we are to create a dynamic civilization, we have to reapply that concept of freedom to what we’re experiencing in our environment right now,” Dickler-Taylor said.

Photo credit: Flickr