I
!
bigging in the Dirt: Gardens and Blessings
By’ Janet R. Kirchheimer, Special
to the Philadelphia Jewish
^qxment
H I’ve been thinking about bless
ings - the blessings said before
E ting food. To be honest, I’ve
ver been very consistent about
ying them, but that’s been
anging. My father has taught me
to be a gardener.
[Needless to say, it’s given me
pother perspective on food and
how it gets from the ground to the
table. I grew up in Connecticut
and now live in New York City.-
Living here, it’s become easy to
think that vegetables come from
the Fairway or the Food
Boiporium, and that they really
grow with that shiny stuff sprayed
on them.
|I’ve never been a nature girl
and wanted nothing to do with my
father’s garden for many years.
But that changed when I became
interested about two years ago.
My father welcomed me into his
garden. He taught me to smell the
soil to see if it is good, to plant
squash close together in a circle
and then thin it out, to plant
cucumbers near a fence so their
tendrils can climb, and to help
parsley to last until January or
February by covering it at night
once the frost hits. We worried
about what would happen if there
was no rain or too much rain.
Many times, we were in the gar
den urging the plants to grow or
just sitting on the lawn, watching
and talking about how each plant
was doing.
My father taught me that I had
to get my hands in the soil. He
said if I wore gloves I wouldn’t be
able to feel it. He taught me to feel
the connection between the earth
and me. It took time to get used to
that. I was constantly on the look
out for worms, snakes and bugs,
but once I got over that fear, I
couldn’t wait to wake up early in
the morning, go to the garden and
see what had happened the previ
ous night.
When I was back in New York,
I would call home, and my father
and I would discuss the garden.
Even when I wasn’t there, the gar
den was present in my life.
From Chef Dvorah Ruhr’s
T\i B’She vat Kitchen
Candied Clementines
_1 dozen clementines, unpeeled
(washed with top stem removed)
4 c. sugar
3 c. water
Pierce oranges with knife or
toothpick 8-10 times. Combine
sugar and water in a deep pot.
Place clementines in this mixture
and cover. Bring to gentle boil
over medium heat taking care not
to boil over. To prevent the mix
ture from foaming over, add 1 t.
oil. Continue to simmer clemen
tines for 1-1/2 hrs. till translucent.
The syrup should thicken but must
not carmelize. If the mixture
becomes too thick, add additional
water. Recipe may be varied by
adding cinnamon sticks, cloves or
sugar. Serve at room temperature
as a treat with coffee or tea. Store
in airtight container.
keep on low heat, stirring often.
Delicious hot or cold; as a side
dish or over ice cream or cake.
May be refrigerated up to one
month.
Dvorah Buhr, a student in the
Jewish Theological Seminary’s H.
L. Miller Cantorial School, is also
an award-winning, certified pas
try chef with a specialty in choco
late and candy production.
Mixed Nut Brittle
2 c. water
4 c. sugar
2 c. com symp
2 tf salt
4 c. assorted unsalted nuts (try
walnuts, almonds, pecans, pine
nuts, cashews, etc.)
1/4 c. butter
1/2 t. baking soda, dissolved in 1
t. water
^Combine 1st 4 ingredients and
bring to a gentle boil.- Boil until
candy thermometer reaches 225-
230 degrees. Add the nuts and
continue to stir till the temperature
reaches 290 degrees. Remove
from heat and add baking soda
mixture and butter. Stir till incor
porated. Spread on greased baking
sheet. Let cool and break into
pieces. Store in an airtight con
tainer.
der rasenkavalier
Richard Strauss
Romance has
never been so rich.
Opera has never
been so exquisite.
5jpicy Fruit Compote
1 c. prunes
1 c. golden raisins
1 c. dried apricots
1 c. dried cherries
2 c. sugar
2 c. wine (or grape juice)
2 c. apple or orange juice
1 ]. cinnamon
l/j ;. cloves
is . allspice
l4 -. black pepper
2|: rrozen sweet cherries
v.r all ingredient.^ except
6^ -‘n cherries in a pot. Simmer
ov ic'’ till liquid :
^ rbed oy the dried fruit (aboii:
45 min.-l hr.). Add water as the
p^i becomes dry. After the fruits
‘ jvc plumped up, you may cut
lein into smaller pieces. Add
jerries (with their juice ) and
ntinue to simmer till hot and liq-
|d thickens lightly Remember to
January 31 at 7:30pm
February 2 at 7:30pm
Febraury 3 at 2:00pm
3 1/2 GLORIOUS HOURS
Sung in German with projected
English translations.
Beik Theater
Blumenthal Performing Arts Center
Featuring Live music
by the Chariotte Symphony
FOR tickets:
704.372.1000
www.operacarolina.org
^Opera
Caeduna
the power of opera
III Mill I, Charlolte WSLu "
The Charlotte Jewish News - January 2002 - Page 17
My father showed me how to
hill and weed the plants as they
were growing, and I began to feel
like a kid again, covered from
head to toe in dirt. I began to
reconnect to the experience of see
ing something for the first time.
My heart jumped when I saw the
seeds push their way up through
the soil. When we began harvest
ing the plants, I ran to show my
mother the first bunch of carrots,
the first tomatoes and the first ears
of com. I began to understand why
my father was always in his gar
den, and I wanted to be there, too.
I enjoyed being in the dirt. If there
wasn’t something to be hilled,
weeded or planted, I was disap
pointed.
Before becoming a gardener, it
didn’t contain much meaning for
me when I would recite a blessing
over food. I could recite the bless
ing in the morning: “Blessed are
you, sovereign of the universe,
who dresses the naked,” because I
knit, and I know the amount of
work that goes into making a gar
ment. As I put on my clothes, I
could relate to the seriousness and
intention of this blessing. I don’t
want to recite a blessing in vain,
and I think the fact that I couldn’t
connect to an experience made it
hard for me to consistently recite
the blessings over food.
And the garden got me thinking
about how life flows like a figure
eight. The more I gardened, the
more I saw and felt the growing
process, the more I saw how bless
ings are related to experience and
how experience is related to bless
ings and how they are truly insep
arable. I understood how blessings
and experience constantly flow
back and forth into and out of each
other. I think that’s probably what
the rabbis had in mind when they
created blessings.
My experience with blessings
has been enriched because I made
the connection that the rabbis
were trying to teach. I don’t mean
to say that one must have a deep
experience in order to recite a
blessing. That’s not possible every
time and one doesn’t need to have
my type of direct experience,
either.
In the end, I want a blessing to
sustain me, to relate to an experi
ence and I want my experiences to
make me want to acknowledge
them with blessings. O
Janet R. Kirchheimer is the
assistant to the president ofCLAL-
The National Jewish Center for
Learning and Leadership. She is a
poet whose work has appeared in
Crosscurrents.
AND THEN THEY CAME FOR ME
■ Remembering the World of Anne Frank
An adult professional cast performs this
multimedia theatrical experience that
weaves videotaped interviews with
Holocaust survivors Ed Silverburg and
Eva Schloss with live actors recreating scenes
from the survivors’ lives during World War II.
Written by James Still
Directed by Alan Poindexter
Recommended for ages 11 and up
Jan. 25 - Feb. 2, 2002
Children’s Theatre of Charlotte
1017 E. Morehead Street Charlotte NC 28204
Special panel discussion will follow
Jan. 26 performance. Call for details.
Center Seats $9/Side Seats $6
704-333-8983
Box OfRce Hours; Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
www.ctcharlotte.org
Sponsored By:
Mr. and Mrs. Eric Sklut