Tu B'Shevat Customs Regarding Fruits.

Dear Friend Hiram: A great wise view it is. Many thanks for sharing it.

Like all aspects of the Creation, trees are to be respected, and utilized for the greater good. To mistreat any part of the Creation is to disrespect the Creator.

Peace and Blessings, My Good Friend Hiram. Enoch.

Dear Friend Kavika: Strongly agreed. As we keep Mother Earth, Mother Earth keeps us.

Peace and Blessings My Good Friend. Enoch.

Dear Friend Grisham: Mrs. E. and I are gearing up to feast of nature's bounty within the hour. She is busy preparing goodies. I am helping. I am staying out of her way in the kitchen, by coming to the Vine in my computer room. Who says I don't help out?

Enoch

Dear Friend Ray Friedman: Thank's for sharing these words of wisdom.

Lots of meaning conveyed in a very few words.

Peace and Blessings. Enoch.

Dear Friend J. Lemert Whitmer: Thank you for gracing us with your presence, sagacity and generosity of the spirit.

May the Heavenly Father to whom we both pray grant you and yours peace, goodness, blessings, beauty, loving kindness and inspiration unto the thousandth generation.

Enoch.

Dear Friend Katrix: Thanks for your kind post. It is appreciated.

Pomegranates are a fruit with an interesting history. The Adam and Eve story did not refer to a specific fruit. Somewhere along the line, people thought it was an apple. Only the problem there is that from what we can piece together, it was more likely a pomegranate. That is the fruit which grows indigenous in the part of the world where the Adam and Eve story about the garden of Eden is thought to have occurred.

In any event. Mrs. E. and I feasted on all the fruit mentioned in the article last night. We celebrate the savory and nutritious treats given us by Mother Earth. In season, it is my great good pleasure and honor to tend to our Lilacs, apple trees, lawn, hedges, and garden. We grow tomatoes, Swiss chard, cucumbers, peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, and cherries. We also have an herb garden. Nothing like fresh herbs to perk up the taste of a good vegan meal.

Of them all, in spring time, it is the Lilacs of which Mrs. E. and I are most proud. We dote on them.

Peace and Blessings, Enoch.

Dear Friend Al: It is always an honor when you grace us with your sagacity. Thanks for the visit.

Of all our spring flowers, our lilacs continue to be our pride and joy each and every year.

Once they take root, you need to nothing else but enjoy them.

Peace and Blessings, Enoch.

Dear Friend J. Lemert Whitmer: To date, this has been the winter that wasn't. Springtime where I reside is a sticky wicket. Late freezes are not unknown in these parts. Even so, life will find a way.

I concur with you and Al. What can match the fragrance of fresh lilacs?

Enoch.

Good point.

Dear Friend Arkansas Gloria: great post. Superior wisdom shown. Thanks. Enoch.

The rennet thing is correct. Also, at Pesach (Passover) we don't eat foods with leavening. So vitamin D fortified milk isn't kosher for passover per se. Grains are used to fortify milk with vitamin D. Finally, hard cheese needs a label to be safely kosher, because of additives. Soft cheese is generally safe, but it pays to read the label for side ingredients. It always pays to read any fine print, whatever one's concerns. The large print giveth, the small print taketh away. Smiles.

Yes, I also keep kosher. usually, being vegan that is easy when you eat outside the home. For example, I enjoyed a lunch with one of our Vine friends at Chipotle's Mexican Restaurant. I had the vegan burrito bowl. I had brown rice with cilantro, black beans, grilled peppers and onions, mild salsa, roasted corn with pepper, tomato and onion, and guacamole. Nothing unkosher there. Chipotle's isn't certified kosher, but I see no problem with it. Its pretty good food by the way. They over feed you. But the service is great, food is high quality, and not too bad on price. I also like their tea. It's a strong full bodied one. just to my taste, with a wedge of fresh cut lemon.

One final note. Kosher versus non-kosher isn't about nutritional health. There is unhealthy and healthy food in each camp. Its more a matter of customs and traditions which bind a community together.

Great questions. Enoch.

Dear Friend Katrix: Almond, Soy and Rice milk can all be kosher or not depending on what else is in the package. You have your thumb on the pulse.

Ground vegetation, whether almond, soy, or rice is in and of itself completely kosher. Its the additives that make it more or less so.

One way to know if something is kosher or not is to look on the package and see if someone has certified the product as kosher. For example, The Orthodox Union inspects things for compliance with religious purity laws. If you see a U with a circle around it, it means that The Orthodox Union has certified it is kosher.

I use ground soy in protein shakes. As we speak, I am having ground soy protein powder and skim milk with a dash of pomegranate juice for flavor and color in a smoothie. This product is certified Kosher Parve and Vegan by the Orthodox Union, and bears the U with a circle around it on the front of the canister. Kosher Parve means it is kosher and neither diary not meat in composition. Its just ground soy beans. At 190 calories for a shake, with 0 grams of sugar, saturated or trans fats, it provides 60 mg of potassium (lowers blood pressure), 25g of protein, and by percentage of minimum daily requirements:

Vitamin A 35%

C 25%

Calcium 50%

Iron 45%

Vitamin E 100%

Thiamine 35%

Riboflavin 50%

Niacin 25%

B6 30%

Folate 45%

B12 45%

Biotin 25%

Pantothenic Acid 35%

Phosporus 60%

Iodine 25%

Magnesium 25%

Zinc 30%

Selenium 80%

Copper 45%

That is a mess of nutrition for just 190 calories. A downside to this is that alone, the unflavored powder tasteless like chalk dust. That is why I add fresh pressed fruit juice to it. Almonds are a great source of lots of good things. Soy is the most nutritionally complete bean on the planet.

A final word about Kashrut (kosher). It all started with the commandment., "Asur le'aychol egel bah chalav Imo". "It is forbidden to eat a kid in the milk of its mother". The whole idea behind kosher is this. We all have to eat to live. To eat, unless we are scavengers (which our species isn't) we need to take life to sustain life.

That is true for harvesting vegetables, fruits and grains as it is for meat. Dairy is in interesting commodity.

If you do not milk domesticated cows daily, it will harm their health. To get meat on the table, it is necessary to slaughter an animal.

One reason why we don't combine meat and dairy is that meat requires taking life, extracting dairy helps cow's health.

Another is the Biblical injunction mentioned above. That we need to eat to live is fine. That we make the ultimate disrespect for animals, to boil the meat of a child in the milk of its mother seems to us morally repugnant. The central theme of kosher is spiritual purity. We try to attain that by humane slaughter, going as plant based as possible, and respecting the plants and animals that feed us to the extent that we practically can.

We are not alone in this. Our good friend Kavika has often written about Native American respect for all aspects of Mother Earth, including food sources. Other examples abound.

Perhaps from your viewpoint you can share with us the teachings of your philosophy, tradition, and personal thoughts on the matter. I would love to hear it.

There are all kinds of things I never learned before, which I want to know with time remaining. At my age, why wait?

Smiles. Enoch.

Dear Friends Al and Buzz: Great posts. We cannot survive without trees and other plant life producing the oxygen we need, and absorbing carbon dioxide for their respiration. Moreover, life would lost a lot of its aesthetic value without trees. They contribute much.

Kilmer's Ode to Trees is a personal favorite of mine. As is his Ode to Beer.

"I think that I shall never hear, a poem lovely as a beer.

The stuff Enright's Thirst Parlour has on tap.

An amber base, with a snowy cap.

Poems are made by fools I fear.

For only Pabst can brew a beer".

(Errrp, get's me right here, every time). Enoch, sucking down some cultural suds.

Dear Friend Al: Its hard for me to respond, as I was supine under a pine, quaffing from a stein at the time.

Enoch, seeing things that aren't there.