I don’t use the term #blessed very often, (or hashtags to describe my feelings at all actually) but that’s how I felt during the three day Harvest Gathering retreat, put on by Hazon and The Schusterman Foundation, I attended a few weeks back. 60 Jews from all over North America and Israel gathered at Devil’s Thumb Ranch to nosh on bagels, connect, and soak in Jew food knowledge from some esteemed speakers. It was glorious. Things started strong with a keynote from Joan Nathan. I think she is talking about kugel here. We also heard from Woody Tasch and then chatted over some “whine” and cheese. (Get it?) Dinner that night was a “Whole Boat” dinner cooked by some retreat members! Daniel, Deborah, Lior, Kwon and Daniel nailed it! (They gave us big knives.) There were a few wine pairings too. Oy. After all that wine, this sight the next morning was magical. Total Jew Food porn! Seriously one of the best bagel sandwiches I’ve had in a long time from Rosenberg’s Bagels. It was so good, in fact, that I ran outside and threw that sucker in the air. Happy place. This was the view from my room, y’all. After breakfast, we heard from my new crush Ari Weinzwig of the famed Zingerman’s deli talk about his take on building a business. Lots of notes! We also designed school lunches with Chef Ann. Then we had a relaxing break! I was so relaxed, apparently, that I couldn’t keep my eyes open for a robe glamour shot. Then it was off to Lake Grandby for a kosher slaughter demonstration. Yes, you read that right. I’ll just say it was an interesting experience. Hey, Sukkot. And then we feasted! Top Chef winner Hosea Rosenberg cooked us a farm to table meal at the lake. And we learned how to make weed matzah balls and lox. For real. I helped with the meal a bit. The next day we ate Zingerman’s and threw more food in the air.
And then we went fly fishing! So magical. I just wish we had one more day! But I left with some new inspiration, new friends for life, and a constant crazing for pastrami on rye.
Amy Kritzer Becker is the cookbook author and culinary-school-trained chef behind What Jew Wanna Eat, a modern Jewish food blog that's been redefining heritage recipes since 2010. Her cookbook Sweet Noshings was published in 2016. Her recipes have been featured in Food Network, Bon Appétit, Forbes, and more. She also co-owns ModernTribe.com, a Jewish gifts and Judaica shop.
Were you really using weed to make lox and matzoh balls? You also have “cannabis lox” in your email title……please explain the two references to weed and cannabis and why you felt the need to mention them but gave no further explanation.
Call me old school or old fashion…..but I find that very inappropriate. What was the reason for doing it and what did it add to the food? I find it very hard to believe that everyone there was okay eating food containing or infused with pot.
This looks like a wonderful time was had by all. Cannabis in the lox and matzah balls? That’s a new one for me… So the bagel sandwich – please tell me what exactly is in there because it looks amazing and I might want to try and duplicate that. I see lox, I see cream cheese, I see capers? Red onions? Need to know because I kind of want to lick the screen right now.
And then we feasted! Top Chef winner Hosea Rosenberg cooked us a farm to table meal at the lake. 
I helped with the meal a bit. 
9 Comments
Were you really using weed to make lox and matzoh balls? You also have “cannabis lox” in your email title……please explain the two references to weed and cannabis and why you felt the need to mention them but gave no further explanation.
Sorry for the confusion! Yes, they infused schmaltz and lox with cannabis.
Call me old school or old fashion…..but I find that very inappropriate. What was the reason for doing it and what did it add to the food? I find it very hard to believe that everyone there was okay eating food containing or infused with pot.
It was optional and just a small part of the retreat.
How did they infuse it. Curious minds in Seattle want to know. Now that it’s legal here, unlox the secret.
Ha well the matzah balls were with weed schmaltz. The lox have weed in the cure I believe!
So where are the recipes for the lox and matzo balls????
This looks like a wonderful time was had by all. Cannabis in the lox and matzah balls? That’s a new one for me… So the bagel sandwich – please tell me what exactly is in there because it looks amazing and I might want to try and duplicate that. I see lox, I see cream cheese, I see capers? Red onions? Need to know because I kind of want to lick the screen right now.
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