10th June 2024 Bulletin

The Day of the First Fruits

This year the festival of Shavuot runs from sunset on Tuesday 11th June until nightfall on Thursday 13th June.  Shavuot celebrates the day on which God gave the Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai.  But it also has several other names and roles including Yom Habikkurim, the Day of the First Fruits, because it was also an ancient harvest festival. 

Accordingly, Shavuot seems like a good time to think about how we buy and consume fruit and other produce, in a sustainable way that is in keeping with Jewish commandments relating to our stewardship of creation.  Many fruits and vegetables carry a burden of “food miles” – the distance they have had to travel from producer to your plate – that affects their sustainability.  The best way to counter this is to buy locally-grown produce, but this in turn can mean restricting consumption to produce what is in season.  Of course this is hardly a novel thought; food writer and sustainable consumption champion Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall wrote this interesting article about it twenty years ago, and his advice is just as relevant today.  We in the Three Counties region are blessed with great availability of high-quality, locally-grown produce, so this Shavuot Eco Corner encourages you to think local!