Ben Harris Email RSS

is JTA's former associate editor.

Latest

• This Week in Jewish Farming: First frost

  October 31, 2014 12:09pm

  Most farmers don’t celebrate the death of their crops. But the arrival of the first sub-freezing night was a welcome respite after months of hard labor.

• This Week in Jewish Farming: Season of abundance

  September 19, 2014 9:57am

  With winter storage crops harvested and summer crops still in the ground, September is a special moment for the seasonal eater.

• This Week in Jewish Farming: Ode to corn

  September 12, 2014 10:22am

  Corn has a bad rap in the sustainable farming community, which is a shame. One of North America’s great native crops, corn is fast growing, tolerant of diverse climates, and incredibly versatile.

• This Week in Jewish Farming: Packing the larder

  September 5, 2014 10:54am

  Winter storage crops are the endurance athletes of the plant kingdom, surviving over 100 days in the field and providing nourishment all through the winter.

• This Week in Jewish Farming: Battling the blight

  August 29, 2014 11:56am

  The tomato plant giveth and the tomato plant taketh away — a bit earlier than hoped.

• This Week in Jewish Farming: The high cost of cheap vegetables

  August 22, 2014 9:35am

  Even those of us selling fancy heirloom tomatoes and freshly harvested kale are at the mercy of a market that has conditioned consumers to pay low prices for their vegetables.

• This Week in Jewish Farming: Bring on the onions

  August 15, 2014 7:18am

  It wasn’t the hoped-for bumper crop of onions, but after all the fretting and hand-wringing, it was a crop still.

• This Week in Jewish Farming: Meeting the neighbors

  August 8, 2014 10:49am

  I needed someone to build me a refrigerator. Larry needed some company. It seemed like a fair exchange.

• This Week in Jewish Farming: Hankering for heirlooms

  August 1, 2014 10:52am

  Heirloom tomatoes are an elusive pleasure, available in most of the country for only a few weeks each year. But when they do appear, people tend to lose their heads a little.

• This Week in Jewish Farming: The community thing

  July 25, 2014 11:12am

  It’s common to talk about the potential of food and farming to build community, but it’s hard to say whether the kinds of ties created by farmers markets and locavore eating are worthy of the name.