Just 50 miles north of New York City, in Putnam Valley, the beautiful 248-acre Eden Village Camp is busy with preparations for the inaugural Festival of Eden. An expected hundreds of participants of all ages will gather on Sunday, September 25th to enjoy hands-on farming and green-living workshops, local organic food, live music, art, nature adventures, and Jewish environmental education, all made possible by the Saul Schottenstein Foundation B.

Eden Village is a new camp, fresh out of their second summer. The camp aims to be a living model of a thriving, inspired, sustainable Jewish community, grounded in social responsibility and a vibrant spiritual life. With a zero-waste goal and an emphasis on healthy, sustainable living it is no surprise that Eden Village takes food seriously. Organic vegetables and herbs are grown 72 feet from the Eden Village Kosher Kitchen, which will be providing kosher food options alongside other food vendors at the festival.

This camp takes farm-to-table cuisine to a new level, providing summer campers with farm fresh, organic food, homemade with love every day, four meals a day, including snacks. Eden Village is redefining the limits of institutional food by providing delicious, healthy food purchased from sustainable sources, and doing it all on a budget. Everything in the kitchen is organic, right down to the food staples like rolled oats, beans, and sugar. There aren’t many institutions that do organic or fair-trade to the level of Eden Village. “Serving seasonal produce allows us to receive high quality food and save money by buying what our local farmers have in abundance,” says Andrew Gurwitz, Operations and Sustainability Director at Eden Village. “Our menus change based on what is available, what our farmers harvest, and what leftover ingredients we have to work with,” he adds. With a food philosophy like that, the food at the Festival of Eden is bound to satisfy any foodie’s palette.

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The Eden Village Kosher Cafe will be providing full-plate options including Chimichurri Roasted Veggie Seitan Skewers with a choice of sides. The Beacon Bagel and Block Factory Tamales will set-up shop for the day, and the camp’s cob-oven, built last spring during the Jewish Farm School’s natural building intensive, is getting fired up to provide wood-fired pizza all day. Though they won’t be baking using the cob oven, Eden Village’s in-house baker will be kneading up a storm of delicious breads including baguettes, delicious slicing loaves, and muffins. As if that weren’t enough, food from Sprout Creek Farm Creamery, Adamah, Negev Nectars, and Food Should Taste Good will also be available. And when the gorgeous sun and good vibes leave you parched, gourmet popsicles and bike blender lemonade will be available to quench your thirst.

Aside from the incredible food, this event will allow participants to enact, celebrate and deepen their commitments to sustainable living, and it is a milestone in the entrance of faith-based environmentalism into mainstream culture.

Skill-building workshops include seed saving, sauerkraut- and cheese-making, “Super Sprowtz Super-Powered Vegucation”, converting generators to veggie oil, composting, fermenting, herbal medicine making, and tie-dye revolution. Outstanding live music all day includes performances from Soul Farm, Ta Shma Orchestra, Chana Rothman, The Shir Yaakov Band, and The Benjy Fox-Rosen Trio. All-day activities include boating on the lake, story telling, and face painting.

Tickets for the festival are on sale now. Group discounts are available by request. If you have any questions or comments, please contact Elana Havusha, Festival Coordinator, at (877) 397-EDEN or via e-mail.

Michelle Skolnik is the Festival of Eden Coordinator at Eden Village Camp.

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