With America’s and the world’s financial markets going belly up, it will be interesting to see what happens to the carbon market. Smart CEOs will realize that a less carbon intensive business is better for the bottom line, as most companies can kick a lot of wasteful carbon habits, simply by doing a carbon audit. […]
Ever since returning from Italy, Ilana and I have fallen in love with Pesto! Pesto has many wonderful heath benefits. Basil, the main ingredient, contains flavonoids that protect cells from radiation and oxidative damage. It also contains potent volatile oils that are anti-bacterial and effective at warding off unwanted bacteria, as well as containing anti-inflammatory […]
Quinoa isn’t just for Passover anymore. Revered by the Incas as sacred, quinoa looks like a grain but is actually a plant related to beets, chard, and spinach. Its tiny seeds cook up into fluffy, nutty goodness in fifteen minutes, and can be used in any number of ways. Quinoa is fantastic for vegetarians and […]
As you may recall, we recently delved into the wonderful world of cheese-making. And when we did, we told you to save up all that leftover whey, as we’d be featuring it in a recipe sometime soon. Soon, dear cooks and bakers, has arrived. Now, what if you don’t happen to have embarked on the […]
What exactly does ricotta have to do with Sukkot? After all, Shavuot is the holiday that features dairy so prominently. In part it’s a question of ecology: meat is a high-impact food, and if we can all cut down a bit, the planet be much better off. In part it’s a question of health: with […]
It’s always exciting to get farm-fresh organic produce delivered to your door through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) scheme, which have proliferated wildly around Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. But when I tagged along with a friend to her Brooklyn CSA last weekend, I saw how nice it can be when farmers deliver their vegetables and […]
A friend of mine recently asked me with great concern about the water supply from his tap – is it going to disappear tomorrow? Next week? We hear reports about all of the contamination of our water supplies, and we see the public service announcements in which the lovely model’s skin turns to bark before […]
Back in January, I took a friend to the open food market in the Hatikva neighborhood of Tel Aviv, a run-down area near the Central Bus Station that used to be the home of Jews from Iraq and Yemen but of late has also seen a lot of Russian immigrants and foreign workers. We were […]
Last Friday, World Vision and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) celebrated the achievements of a three year project that has helped hundreds of Lebanese farmers grow organic agriculture in Lebanon. The project – called the Sustainable Agri-Business Initiative for Lebanon Project – directly helped 800 farmers and over 4500 people in total. […]
For most people the first steps to a more organic, greener lifestyle is often when we start to think about children. We start to look at our diets and lifestyles from a different persepective. What is healthy to eat, drink and do. This is when most poeple take the step to buy organic food but […]
It’s about this time of year that the air starts to change. Evenings cool off and breezes pick up. Put another way: it is a time to put some food by, as the old phrase goes, the season for trying to make freshly harvested vegetables last as long as they possibly can. We’ve already explored […]
The Israel Union for Environmental Defense (IUED) reported that yesterday (September 14) the Israeli government approved plans to place fish cages in the Ashdod harbor. This marine agriculture initiative was removed from the Eilat harbor after a controversy over whether they were harming the coral reefs in the Bay of Eilat/Aqaba. Without getting into the […]
There is something so profoundly compelling about a dish named buckle. Just think of it: buttery golden batter, giving way – buckling – under the weight of juicy, jammy, slightly caramelized hunks of fruit. A buckle is more exuberant than a plate of muffins, yet more modest than a cake. Serve it with coffee in […]
The shuk floor on a regular Friday in early August (photo: Daniella Cheslow) One of the best things about most major Israeli cities is the shuk, the giant outdoor food market where bright vegetables sit in precarious piles and entire alleyways are devoted to freshly butchered meat and refrigerated cases full of fish, sometimes even […]
Within the realm of cosmetics, Ahava certainly holds a certain respect. Founded in 1988, the Israeli company exports its skin-enriching products, infused with minerals from the Dead Sea, to over 30 countries around the world. On its website under the Environmental Responsibility tab, Ahava writes that “the Company’s activities are undertaken with a view towards preserving the […]
If you’re going to shell out the extra shekels for organic food, you’re want to be confident that you’re getting the real deal. Personally, I think the price of organic food is worth paying, whether you’re buying it for selfish reasons (taste, avoiding nasty chemicals and GMOs) or altruistic ones (treading lightly our small country) […]
Microwave ovens are an important cooking and food heating tool in many modern homes, especially here in Israel. Many people may not be aware, however, just how dangerous these gadgets are to human health. Recently, much attention has been given to microwaves, or “micro-gals” (as they are called by Israelis) in that they produce similar […]
For most people, fair trade means making sure South American and African farmers get paid a reasonable wage to grow coffee and chocolate. But in Israel, fair trade is much more local. Two companies have emerged in the last few years to provide a living wage for farmers in the region. The first, SAHA, is […]
Zucchini flowers, or squash blossoms (for culinary purposes these are interchangeable), are one of those off-the-supermarket-beaten-path ingredients you tend to find only at farmers’ markets or fancy restaurants. (Or Italy, though that doesn’t really help most of us all that much.) This elusiveness means that if you do come into a supply – either because […]
I’m a little embarrassed to admit it, but I didn’t know that cigarette butts were an environmental issue. I’m also not a smoker, so I never gave it much thought. But Hanan Shteingart – co-founder of “Eretz Lelo Bdalim” (Country Without Cigarette Butts) and anti-cigarette butt activist extraordinaire – recently brought our attention to this […]
The recent attention given by the news media and this blog concerning our water problems in general, and to the depleting the Kinneret in particular, reminds me of a poster I saw once in a surfing products shop that read: “The Next War in the Middle East Will be Over Water.” Although the poster really […]
Ful medames; ta’miyya; bissara — fava beans have given rise to iconic dishes across the Middle East. Egyptian cuisine is unimaginable without them. They’ve been a staple in the region for about eight thousand years, and were one of the first plants cultivated for food. Most often, they are used in their dried form: rehydrated […]
Fresh peas are delightful. They are bursts of green, garden-tasting goodness, immensely better the moment they are picked than even a day or two later. Peas can be snacked on raw out of the pod, simmered in cream, tossed with lemon zest and pasta, puréed with olive oil and ricotta and spooned on crostini. These […]
As a thirsty greenie living in Israel, I try to avoid buying bottled water, and instead have recently purchased a very cool stainless steel water bottle – made in the US by Klean Kanteen. But sometimes it’s difficult to avoid buying some water in plastic bottles – although after reading this story, I will think […]
Tel Aviv, for those who haven’t had the pleasure of visiting the city, is a city of coffee drinkers and cafes. (Some would say bums and people who don’t work in the middle of the day… but we say coffee drinkers and cafes.) It is not unusual to step out in the middle of a […]
