Matzah in the Sandbox (repost)

I am reposting what I posted around the third day of Passover last year since I have some new readers.  There is no time to write now, but I am experiencing the now annual matzah crumb issue and I am thinking that if Jewish Mamas invented our Jewish celebrations, somehow Passover would have been linked with Sukkah and we would always eat matzah outside,  just like during the #exodus.

  

Nobody wanted to leave the sandbox at lunch time today. With the perfect spring breeze shaking the new Bradford Pear leaves over our heads and the soft afternoon sun warming our cheeks, we were all content to keep playing. Plus, there was a new bucket of plastic sand toys for digging and building. But I was hungry too, so I ran into the house and grabbed a box of matzah.

I have noted the irony of the impressive onslaught of matzah crumbs beginning the moment the house has been cleaned for Passover. The near constant shower of matzah crumbs around my kitchen table has been relentless for the past few days. With two young children, I even found myself sweeping in “real time” with crumbs falling around me and a few directly into the dustpan. Maybe this is another opportunity to remember the bitterness of slavery, I am sure building the pyramids and sweeping up after Egyptians was far more thankless. But for me, I would rather be eating horseradish (which I guess isn’t fair because I do sort of like it).

So, matzah in the sandbox was a welcome change. The crumbs fell and instantly camouflaged into the sand just as the original matzah crumbs must have disappeared on the ground of the Sinai.  And as we were eating, it seemed a perfect time to talk about Passover with my son who spent most of the Seder playing with legos in the next room with his cousins.

He started the conversation. “I love matzah with jam and matzah without jam” he declared.

“Do you know why we eat matzah”, I asked.

“To remember that we are free and that we ran away from the Egyptians.” He said.  Ok, I thought, he absorbed more than I realized during his brief stints at the Seder table.

Then he thought for a minute, raking some sand and asked, “Who was good, Pharaoh or the other one?”

“Moses,” I volunteered, “he and his sister Miriam lead us from Egypt and God helped too.”

He thought about it and asked, “Is Pharaoh still around or did he turn into a skeleton.”  This has become his turn of phrase for describing his new concept of death since we visited the dinosaur museum.

“No, Pharaoh turned into a skeleton long ago.”  I said thinking this is not the time to introduce the mummy concept.

“Then we could stop eating matzah, and go back to Egypt.” he suggested still raking.

“Yes, I guess we could visit Egypt someday,”  I told him.

Then he ate some more matzah and said, “Mom, the matzah is working. It does make me remember.”  And he had a far off look in his eyes, like the matzah was literally giving him memories from someplace far away. What was he thinking about? Were there four year olds who played in the sand in Sinai after crossing the Red Sea.  Or maybe he was remembering something from earlier that day, like when we ate matzah with jam on actual plates at breakfast. Either way, I highly recommend matzah in the sandbox.

Passover is So Very Close

We will sit down for a Shabbat and Passover dinner very soon but it is not yet sunset and my husband took both children out to cover the strawberries with fabric because there is YET ANOTHER late frost warning.  Spring came so fast this year that all of our strawberries are flowering and we are having cold nights again.  This has become routine the past couple of weeks, so many late frosts!

It was a last minute scramble, but I think all of the chametz (non-Kosher for Passover food) is out of the house and dinner is ready.  We are going to do a very modified pre-school style seder tonight and draw heavily on our books from the wonderful PJ Library like the Mouse in the Matzoh Factory (great book!) and our newest addition Sammy Spider’s First Haggadah  both from  the wonderful Kar-Ben  books.  Tomorrow, we will join extended family for a slightly more adult version of the seder.

This year, I am thinking about what it means to be free, and feeling lots of gratitude that I get to raise my children during a time of peace and freedom.  It helps put small frustrations in perspective to think about much harder times in the distant and more recent past.   I will have a couple of recipes to share this week including a new type of charoset, but right now,  I better get back to the kitchen.   Chag Sameach Pesach!  And/or Happy Easter or other spring celebrations if you celebrate!

Guest Post: Introducing the Amazing Omer NOMers

I am so happy to have an actual guest post today from the mama, artist and blogger behind those beautiful Omer counters! Thanks to Tzipporah from the Midianite Manna blog for writing this piece and sharing her creative work.

A creative way to Count the Omer

Much like Tanya, I’m a big fan of homegrown, homemade, and creativity. When I combine these with new twists on Jewish traditions and my own parenting style, the results are sometimes pretty tasty. This year, our family will begin a new mitzvah – counting the Omer, the 7 weeks between Passover and the lesser-known holiday of Shavuot. (If you’re Jewish, you might be thinking, “right, the blintz day.”) And we’ll be doing it with chocolate.

I didn’t grow up Jewish, and as a December birthday girl I loved the cheap chocolate Advent calendars my mother bought for counting down to my birthday every year. I sort of felt sorry for kids with birthdays at other times of the year. Now that I’m Jewish, I don’t really miss Christmas, but every once in a while I do miss my birthday counters. So I was really excited when I saw Amy Meltzer’s idea for an edible Omer counter – not only was it authentically Jewish, it had TWICE as many treats! Oh yeah, and I should probably put some in for my son, too.

I used to be an avid fabric artist, but really hadn’t done anything of note for five years – having a kid can do that to your hobbies. Luckily my grandmother’s sewing machine was still working and after a few experiments, I was able to create a re-usable version of Amy’s Omer counters. The only problem was, I really liked it. So I made another one. And then another. Fabric designers are sneaky that way, making all those different colors and patterns so you just can’t stop at one.

So, in about a week and half, on the second night of Passover, we will begin counting the Omer together as a family for the first time – and I’m pretty sure it’s a tradition my son will insist on again next year.

I’ve put the extra Omer NOMers, as I call them, up for sale in my shop. As a thank you to Tanya for inviting me to post here, anyone who mentions when ordering that they found me through this blog will get a free bag of Kosher for Passover candy to fill in the first week! Now I’ve just got to find a hiding place for all the candy that my extremely resourceful five year old can’t find…

Finding my Sewing Voice (with some help)

Ever since I started sewing, it has felt like something more powerful is going on than a new “hobby”. That might be because I feel like the word hobby itself is so condescending and pathetic sounding –as in “is it a hobby farm?”  Anyway, I don’t have it all figured out yet, but I know that when I sew it feels a lot more creative and fulfilling than I ever would have guessed.  And I spend a fair amount of time thinking about my sewing great grandparents who never sewed as a hobby but as a fierce and concerted effort to feed their families and create useful things.

For me,  it all started by sewing cloth diapers and wool covers.  Then baby pants cut large enough to go over cloth diapers.   And now that we are *almost* done with diapers around here, I am on to sewing for myself.

my sewing corner ready to go

In the past couple of months I have made about a dozen new skirts, mostly wrap style from one simple pattern ( a 2 piece pattern!) and a line skirts from a pattern that I made tracing.  I spent one frustrated weekend trying to graduate to a much higher level dress with all kinds of fussy details like darts and interfacing and wound up with something I didn’t want to wear, so I cut it in half because the skirt part worked.

After the dress fiasco,  I picked up the Sewing Green book by Betz White at my library and I feel like it helped me I find my sewing voice.  She shows you how to make easy and fun clothes out of fabric you can find in your own closet like pillow cases and table cloths.  And if you hit the thrift store, the options become dizzying.  I also love my Sew Liberated book by Meg McElwee and the related blog which has the added bonus of Montessori style parenting hints.

I am so inspired by this blogger at Handmademess who has set out to make her own entire wardrobe and takes the time to take great photos and explain her progress.   And in the Jewish sewing realm, I recently came across these beautiful pieces that are used for counting the omer, the days between Passover and Shavuot.  I have already pulled out fabrics to copy her and you can still buy them on her site as well.

Finally,  I am finding a little too much inspiration on Pinterest, where you can follow me if you like here: https://pinterest.com/thelettuceedge/. Or send me an email or leave a comment here if you want me to send you an invitation to join.

 

More Kale, Less Vinyl — A Birthday Success

So my baby boy, my first-born — turned 5!  I am pretty blown away by this birthday and I am completely overwhelmed with pride at what an amazing person he is already.

A few months ago, he asked for his birthday to be at one of those indoor bouncy centers where you can’t hear anyone talk over the sounds of the fans and machines running.  And all the blow up vinyl toys smell like a plastic factory.  And they serve unhealthy lunches in a little glass room on the side.  And the kids have the TIME OF THEIR LIVES, and the parents just have to show up and pay.

I thought about it, but there was no way I could celebrate my son’s 5th birthday,which happens to fall right after the spring equinox, inside a loud room, that smells like a plastic factory when we live on a farm! But I had to think fast and get into my best sales-mom mode.  I didn’t want him to be disappointed.

It’s almost Shabbat, so there is no time to write the whole story but in short,  we turned it around and wound up with a wonderful outdoor party where all but one of the children ate and enjoyed kale chips (recipe will follow) along with more  standard party fare like fruit salad and of course cake.   They rode on a neighbors horse, went on a farm scavenger hunt, sniffed fresh sprouted peppermint, sat on a tractor and had a wonderful time — maybe even as much fun as they would in a bouncy center!  I could see my son bursting with pride when he yelled “follow the birthday boy,” and lead a small pack of children to the rosemary bush where he had hidden the small bottles of bubbles.

Here are a few photos.  Introducing my little handmade felt bags which were filled with surprises from the scavenger hunt.  I even had some help cutting them out.

Here is the 5 fruit salad for my five-year old!

And the scavenger hunt in progress.

We ate outside in one of the fields in our Sukkah (which is still up) this time decorated with balloons and crêpe paper, you can see it in the distance.  It was perfect!

Now, to adjust to being the mother of a 5-year-old.

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At the risk of overdoing it, I decided to start a Facebook page for this blog.   So, if you are a Facebook user, you will see a new like button on the sidebar, you can go ahead and click it if you want to hear and share more.

A Talk with Sandor Katz about Pickled Peppers

I love the taste of naturally fermented sour dill pickles. Since I don’t live anywhere near a Jewish deli and I have lots of fresh vegetables on hand from the farm, I really want to learn to make my own. But my initial attempts at pickling have not been a success.

Natural fermentation is the traditional way of making pickles taste like they are fresh from the barrel at a Jewish deli rather than fished out of a jar from the supermarket.  They are not packed with any vinegar and not refrigerated, giving them the amazing taste and some say great health benefits.   I put off trying my own naturally fermented pickles for years, using the excuse of being pregnant and nursing young children.  It seemed to me that if you can’t eat feta you should think twice about eating food left soaking on your counter for a week or more.

the pretty red peppers before pickling (the are about the size of a pullet egg - or very small chicken egg for reference)

When I finally got around to trying my own batch this past fall it was already November and too late for cucumber or okra pickles.  Instead, I collected some beautiful small red peppers, washed them and even boiled a rock to keep them submerged in the salt water.  I packed it all in a clean mason jar with carefully measured water and salt.  I was so optimistic!

For many days, nothing seemed to happen in the jar.  So I let them sit longer until the water turned cloudy and the peppers appeared to be fermenting. But letting food soak for days on counter goes against all of my food safety instincts and even without the pregnancy excuse, it was making me increasingly nervous as the days past.  At the next check the peppers felt a little slimy and I didn’t know if it was it the good kind of slimy or something else.  After some deliberation and a failed attempt to get my husband to taste them first, we totally chickened out and dumped the jar in the compost.

So what went wrong? I decided try to find out and sent an email to Sandor Katz, a top leader in the naturally fermented food movement and author of the widely acclaimed pickling how to “Wild Fermentation.”  Katz AKA Sanderkraut has a large following in natural food circles and travels around the world sharing his fermentation knowledge.   He was quick to reply and happy to help.

I recounted my pepper story and asked him, “What do you think I messed up.”  According to Sandor, “It sounds like nothing went wrong at all.  Fermenting vegetables is very safe and there never has been a single case of food poisoning from fermented vegetables.  The process is simple, just vegetables, salt and time.”

That was reassuring news.  So there is no need to worry about good and bad bacteria, you just need to get used to letting vegetables soak on the counter.  I asked, “So, naturally fermented pickles are part of our Jewish tradition, but so is worry.  Do you have any advice for a nervous Jewish mother learning the process?”

Sandor laughed and said, “I promise you that it is not a Jewish thing. People from all over have the same food safety concerns, especially if they are new to fermentation.  Americans are all taught to fear bacteria even though it everywhere and mostly harmless or beneficial.”

Finally I asked him if most of his audience is drawn to pickling to for the health benefits or the taste?

He said, “I started fermenting because I wanted to make a great quality sour dill pickle but natural fermentation it goes so far beyond pickles. There are fermenting traditions from all over the world, for vegetables, bread, wine, beer and more.  It is typical for third generation Americans from to develop an interest in making traditional fermented foods from their own cultural or family traditions.”

In fact that is the topic of his new book, “The Art of Fermentation: An in Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from Around the World” which comes out in June, in time for this summer’s pickling experiments!   In the meantime you can pick up his first book, “Wild Fermentation” which includes his recipe for the perfect Kosher dills and “The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved” (awesome title)  about America’s underground food movement.

Note: This post originally appeared in a shorter form on kveller.com. Kveller.com offers a Jewish twist on parenting, everything a Jewish family could need for raising Jewish children–including crafts, recipes, activities, Hebrew and Jewish names for babies…and advice from Mayim Bialik.