Why Join A Jewish CSA?

Tuv Ha’aretz helps you connect to Jewish spiritual values.

For some people, joining a CSA is an expression of Jewish values because of the benefits to the environment. In the Torah human beings were instructed to watch over the Garden of Eden l’avdah u’l’shamrah, “to till it and tend it.” We derive benefit from the earth, but we are also to preserve and keep it.

Others are motivated to participate because they take seriously the idea that food is a blessing.  Trying to find food that is healthy and fresh is a way for some to connect to the Torah’s injunction v’achalta v’savata uverachta, “you will eat, you will be satisfied, and you will bless.”

Still others view the search for healthier and natural food as an outgrowth of the Jewish insistence on seeing our bodies as holy vessels to be honored.  We are to invest our body with dignity by treating it as a gift. Some Jewish prayerbook begins with several blessings to be said each morning day just to give thanks for our body functioning properly!

Some see the dinner (or lunch or breakfast!) table as a vital part of Jewish spiritual life.  The rabbis of the Talmud viewed the table as an altar, a place of worship and atonement.  Bringing the very best and healthiest food to the table is for them a way to connect to this ancient Jewish ideal.

Tuv Ha’aretz helps you connect to local Jewish community.

When you buy a share in the CSA, you also connect yourself to Jewish community in Portland.  Together we will explore the earth-based aspects of Jewish text, history, and cultural practice. We will celebrate Jewish holidays and delve into their seasonal origins. We will make pickles! And sauerkraut! And challah using farm fresh duck eggs!

There are no prerequisites for participation in Tuv Ha’aretz – besides a desire to bring good food into your home and to support a local farm!  Whether you are connected to a synagogue or not, whether your idea of “Jewing” is praying in Hebrew or practicing Jewish yoga, you can reap the benefits of engagement with a CSA.

Along with your weekly box of gorgeous vegetables, Tuv Ha’aretz functions as platform for Jewish education and community building. Every month, we offer educational and social activities that aim to connect the dots between Jewish tradition and agriculture.  Many of these events will be offered on Gales Meadow Farm, where owners Anne and René have offered their land in a great demonstration of tzedakah as a place of gathering. On the farm, we will have farm-to-table Shabbats, we will build a Sukkah in a meadow under old growth Cedar trees, we’ll harvest honey from the hive for Rosh Hashanah, and there will be various opportunities to learn more about mid-scale organic farming. More locally, plan on seminars with Rabbi Josh Rose, mindful eating gatherings, and special CSA-box preparation settings – like preserving tomatoes in the late summer or making live kraut with savoy cabbage in the fall or making hand salve from calendula and comfrey grown by resident herbalist Max from Gales Meadow.