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2/16/2016 Farm to Seder Plate: Growing Crops in Canada With a Jewish, Feminist Touch Jewish World News Haaretz Israeli News Source Haaretz.com
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Home > Jewish World > Jewish World News
Farm to Seder Plate: Growing
Crops in Canada With a Jewish,
Feminist Touch
In rural Ontario, four Jewish women prioritize nature and ritual
over the bottom line on Biblically-inspired Bela Farm.
Judy Maltz (Toronto) | Feb 11, 2016 5:01 PM
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2/16/2016 Farm to Seder Plate: Growing Crops in Canada With a Jewish, Feminist Touch Jewish World News Haaretz Israeli News Source Haaretz.com
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Sabrina Malach and Risa Alyson Cooper, two of the four cofounders of Bela Farm. Credit: Courtesy,Shoresh
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TORONTO – When Bela Farm, a 100plusacre farm insouthwest Ontario, has its official unveiling in June, it willhave several claims to distinction.
It will be the largest Jewish educational farm everestablished in North America, according to its founders. Itwill also be the first Jewish farm in North America designedand overseen exclusively by women. Four local activists havejoined forces to create this selfdescribed “rural center forsustainable, landbased Judaism.”
“Growing up, I started to become more interested in theenvironment and less in Judaism,” confesses SabrinaMalach, a professional beekeeper with a master’s degree inenvironmental studies, who is one of the farm's four
Related tags: Jewish culture , Jewish World , Jewish food , Jewish holidays , Jewish Diaspora , Rosh Hashanah
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2/16/2016 Farm to Seder Plate: Growing Crops in Canada With a Jewish, Feminist Touch Jewish World News Haaretz Israeli News Source Haaretz.com
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founders, along with Risa Alyson Cooper, Andrea Most andRochelle Rubinstein.
Beekeeper and Bela Farm cofounded Sabrina Malach with the hive. Credit: Courtesy, Shoresh
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“I didn’t think it was possible to connect them," she says."Only when I became involved in different Jewishenvironmental movements did I begin to realize that Jewishagricultural laws are based on social justice, and it madeJudaism so much more relevant for me."
Bela Farm plans to incorporate Jewish practices and values
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2/16/2016 Farm to Seder Plate: Growing Crops in Canada With a Jewish, Feminist Touch Jewish World News Haaretz Israeli News Source Haaretz.com
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into its ongoing operations. For example, even though it isnot required by Jewish law to observe "shmita" (the practiceof giving the land a rest every seven years) since it operatesoutside Israel, the farm has every intention of honoring thetradition.
According to Cooper, the founder and executive director ofShoresh, a Torontobased Jewish environmentalistorganization sponsoring the farm, a major focus will beproducing food and other products that can be used to markJewish festivals.
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“We’re already making honey for Rosh Hashanah andbeeswax candles for Jewish rituals,” she notes. “Once we’reup and operating on a large scale, we plan to add to ourproduct line our own horseradish and heritage wheatmatzahs for Passover.”
Also in keeping with Jewish tradition Bela Farm plans todonate a share of its crops to hunger relief programs, saysCooper.
With four women running the show, it makes sense thatfemale empowerment will be a motif at this cuttingedge
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2/16/2016 Farm to Seder Plate: Growing Crops in Canada With a Jewish, Feminist Touch Jewish World News Haaretz Israeli News Source Haaretz.com
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farm. As Malach notes, she and her partners hope, throughthis initiative, to finally correct what they believe to be ahistorical wrong.
“We’ve designed this twoacre meadow that will contain 12different patches, each one symbolizing one of the sons ofJacob, but in the middle of these patches, there will be agorgeous wooden structure dedicated to their sister Dinah,who hardly gets any mention at all in the Bible,” Malachsays. Around this shrine to Dinah, which will also serve as awomen’s retreat, an assortment of herbs consideredbeneficial to women’s health will be cultivated.
Dinah's Tent, a tribute to the Biblical figure of Dinah, Jacob's daughter. Credit: Courtesy, Shoresh
Shoresh, which also runs several small urban farms indowntown Toronto, began operating Bela Farm as a pilotproject several years ago on a much smaller scale. Inaddition to running various farming ventures on a plot ofland owned by Rubinstein, an artist, in the town ofHillsburgh, about an hour west of Toronto, Shoresh alsobegan organizing education activities at the site, mainly for
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children.
Rubinstein recently purchased the adjoining, much largerproperty but agreed to allow its owner to live there until hecould no longer manage on his own. Now that he has movedaway, the land has been attached to Bela Farm, allowing amajor expansion of the project.
The soontobelaunched upgraded farm, according to itsplanners, will include 30 acres of native forest where Jewishcommunity members can honor the memories of loved onesand mark lifecycle events, 20 acres of wildflowers and fruittrees meant to feed the native bee and butterfly populations,30 beehives and 10 acres of organic vegetables.
On the 14acre plot it currently operates, Bela Farm hasalready produced 1,000 jars of its own organic honey,according to Malach, “and we’ve sold every single one ofthem.”
The Bela Farm cofounders, with a neighbor. Left to right: Rochelle Rubinstein, Sabrina Malach,Fred Cox, Andrea Most and Risa Alyson Cooper. Credit: Courtesy, Shoresh
2/16/2016 Farm to Seder Plate: Growing Crops in Canada With a Jewish, Feminist Touch Jewish World News Haaretz Israeli News Source Haaretz.com
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But making money, she says, is the least of their concerns. “Ithink that’s one of the differences in having women run afarm,” she says. “Unlike men, we put a lot of thought intohow we can nurture nature and not just use the land toproduce cash crops. In much of what we are planting here,like the trees and the wildflowers, our aim is to help takecare of the natural world, which is what makes this such aunique project.”
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