Devorah Brous is an urban homesteader, lifecycle ritualist, and green consultant. For seven years, she served as the Founding Executive Director of Netiya (grow) ~ advancing food sovereignty and multi-faith stewardship by converting unused congregational lands into food gardens to feed houseless people and build intersectional bridges. Prior, Devorah organized on the frontline of Israel/Palestine for 15 years as Founding Executive Director of Bustan (fruit orchard). The award-winning environmental justice NGO pioneered the eco-building of an elementary school with indigenous Jahalin Bedouin, as well as the solar-powered straw-bale Medwed medical clinic with El Azazme Bedouin. As a Permaculture designer with two master’s degrees from Hebrew University and Gutenberg University in land use and conflict transformation, she completed her research in critical ecologies. She and her family live on a thriving urban homestead in LA with a heap of happy hens and a school of hardworking fish that power an aquaponic herb garden!
Devorah Brous
By Devorah Brous
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Recipes The Jewish Herbal: Passionvine
The Jewish Herbal: Mystical Reflections on Food, Nature and Urban Farming” is a regular column by Devorah Brous charting the ways we can use Jewish wisdom, tradition and practice to reconnect with ourselves in harmony with nature. Devorah is an urban homesteader, lifecycle ritualist, and green consultant in Los Angeles. Find her her online offerings…
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Food The Jewish Herbal: Olive oil balm
Olive trees are historians, holding sacred memory from the turmoil and celebration witnessed for centuries. They possess medicinal leaves, divine fruits, gnarled trunks with deep roots and the wisdom that arrives with age. As you will read below, olive oil has uses that go far beyond cooking. I use it to make a healing balm…
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Food The Jewish Herbal: Pine
“See, a pine-tree with beautiful branches and thick growth, giving shade and very tall; and its top was among the clouds.” Ezekiel, 31:3 The fires have left their devastation. But among the trees that are most resilient in the landscape are mid-elevation pines. In general they have deep roots, grow quickly, and withstand both weather…
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Food The Jewish Herbal: Healing with pomegranate
“The Jewish Herbal: Mystical Reflections on Food, Nature and Urban Farming” is a regular column by Devorah Brous charting the ways we can reconnect with ourselves in harmony with nature. Devorah is an urban homesteader, lifecycle ritualist, and green consultant in Los Angeles. Find her at From Soil2Soul. Walk with me over to the pomegranate…
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Food From Soil2Soul: ‘Everything is fuel’
“From Soil2Soul: Meditations on Food, Nature and Urban Farming” is a regular column by Devorah Brous charting the ways we can reconnect with ourselves in harmony with nature. Devorah Brous is an urban homesteader, lifecycle ritualist, and green consultant in Los Angeles. The San Fernando Valley heat reached 121. That brought on the inevitable power…
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Food Can a Latke Crisis Teach Us Self-Restraint?
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons There are so many ways to make latkes. Some use canola or peanut oil to fry latkes. In my own feeble attempt to make latkes a bit healthier, I use olive oil. But I usually make them without thinking twice about whether there will be enough oil, or from where the oil…
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