Apparently Jewish Food Festivals are a thing.
Elise Meyer’s blog features a recipe for “Sangria, Charoset-Style.”
Elise Meyer — a longtime Westporter, “Much Ado About Stuffing” food blogger and chair of religious/social events like a women’s seder and the Klezmatics’ Levitt Pavilion concert — says there are tons of Jewish Food Festivals nationwide.
But, she notes, they usually center around traditional and/or kosher food.
The 1st-ever Southern Connecticut Jewish Food Festival — set for tomorrow (Sunday, June 11, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Temple Israel) — charts a different course. Its focus is “food justice, Jewish ideals and values like sustainability and who produces our food — those parts of Jewish culture.”
On tap:
- A keynote speech by sustainable food maven/”Gefilte Manifesto” author Jeffrey Yoskowitz
- Workshops on subjects like pickling, “Baking Babka to a Latin Beat” and “Wat’s for Shabbat: Ethiopian Jewish Food Culture”
- Vegetarian and kosher food trucks (including barbecue!)
- Kids’ activities (they’ll love the bio-powered Teva Topsy Turvy Bus environmental lab)
- And (of course) more.
Meyer is the perfect person to promote this. She’s a sustainability advocate, a Westport Garden Club member, and Community Garden gardener.
Sample foods, from the Southern Connecticut Jewish Food Festival flyer.
She calls this Federation for Jewish Philanthropy-sponsored festival “a chance to bring Westporters together around social and cultural issues.”
And, she adds, it’s open to — and appropriate for – plenty of goyim too. Demonstrations will appeal to all cooks, while a composting workshop should speak to everyone’s inner environmentalist.
Meyer promises that festival-goers will leave with “a full belly — and a full mind.”
As your Jewish grandmother — or Italian, or Chinese — would say: “Eat!”
(For more information, click here.)