The unfailing response from people when I tell them I’m going to the Jewish farmers conference here, just outside San Diego, is a smile to see if I’m joking. Then, when it’s clear I’m serious, comes: “I didn’t know that there were any Jewish farmers.” There are. And the fact that they were holding their…
Frank Reese, owner of the Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch, only raises heritage birds. LINDSBORG, Kan. (JTA) – Thousands of birds strutted around like rambunctious kids at recess — six varieties of turkey and nearly 40 breeds of chicken, duck and geese. As soon as a stranger stepped into their dominion, a dozen of the largest…
We were having our Shabbat dinner at “the farm” when, after finishing the chicken soup with lockshen, the poultry dish arrived. My sister Lenore stabbed what she thought was the weekly roast chicken and screamed out, “Henrietta!” Henrietta was our pet duck. Ours was not a working New Jersey farm, but a summer vacation spot…
(JTA) — There’s not much to see yet at the site of this city’s new Jewish community center, just some trailers and earth-moving equipment covered in snow. But the first inhabitants already are on site living in a pair of sheds. Though it’s cold, they don’t complain much. That’s because they’re goats and chickens. With…
In the burgeoning U.S. economy of the 19th century, pioneering merchants ventured West to target the ambitious fortune-seekers of the Gold Rush. They went beyond California’s borders, supplying goods to the rapidly growing sugar and coffee plantations of Hawaii. With their foreign manners, the English and German Jewish merchants making the journey were easily identifiable….
One Sunday this past August, I stopped by the farmers’ market in Morris, Connecticut. Morris is a small town (population about 2,400) in lush, hilly Litchfield County. It’s probably best known as the home of luxury resort Winvian, and its main intersections are governed only by a stop sign or a single red flashing light….
(JTA) – I will now share a cardinal truth of the life agrarian: If you give them tomatoes, all else is forgiven. OK, the truth may only be trivial. It might not even be true. But some conviction along those lines must have lain behind my decision to plant 1,000 — yes, 1,000 — tomato…
(JTA) — We were out weeding squash last week when Fred came over to say he had to show me something but he feared it would lead to an act of violence. Regular readers will know Fred is the farm’s sole employee. (I believe the technical term is “farm hand.”) He’s also a devout Hare Krishna,…
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