Pesach Preparations!

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We've just hit that point when the countdown to Pesach is truly on! There's no more room for denial, no more time to waste, no more keeping my head in the sand - Seder night is officially less than TWO weeks away!

excuse me while I scream (AAAHH)

This is going to be the first time since 2019 that anyone outside of our immediate family joins us for Seder. Not just for Seder, actually. We have 11 guests joining us for the first 4 days of Pesach (which includes 1 day of Yom Tov and 1 Shabbat)! And I feel extremely out of practice. Especially because we've barely even been having guests on regular Shabbatot (lately we've done a bit more hosting, but seriously - we got kind of stuck in the mindset that set in in March of 2020 and our home became much more of a private haven just for us).

So to get myself into the Pesach mode I started cleaning. But I jumped from one task to the other because I was feeling so anxious about "how on earth am I going to get it all done!" So today I did a little spring cleaning, a lot of laundry, a little pantry sorting, and started to clean all the scary things out of the back of the fridge. I also confronted one of my children who told me that yes, they'd seen some of those scary things and decided to leave them for me to deal with instead of actually removing them from the fridge! Maybe we need to find a way to make the back of the fridge easier to get at?

(Do your kids do that too? I mean, I remember telling them to use up the leftover pasta that was in the fridge. So why did I have to take out a whole science experiment and toss it today? Couldn't they just use it up? Or when they discovered they waited too long - couldn't they throw it out? I really will have to speak with them about this again.)

Another task I managed - I ordered new gas balloons. I was going through a phase in which I didn't want to use the gas powered stove. (Long story but I think my asthma is happier when we don't use gas.)

HOWEVER, it's just not practical to cook for 17 people for Seder the way I'd been cooking. And my kitchen would need to be rewired if I want to run more than 1 electric burner at a time, so in order to facilitate normal cooking for a crowd, I have to revert to using gas. After all, it's not like we uninstalled the gas stovetop(s), so it's easy enough to go back. And then we'll know if it actually affects my asthma, right?

I also placed our shmura matzah order, and my husband went out and found some spelt shmura matzah for me. So we'll be FINE, right? Note to Katzrin people reading this: if you want good shmura matzah get your orders in ASAP!

I've got to make my menus and make sure that most of the shopping gets done soon. I will admit to having started shopping last week in an effort to calm my anxiety about having 17 people for Seder, and we have a nice stash of shelf-stable Pesach items and some meat and chicken already, plus plenty of wine and grape juice.

But now chicken prices seem to have gone CRAZY! Please tell me it's not just here, because if it is, I'll be really unhappy with the store manager who told me that they went up everywhere and he expects they'll come back down after Pesach and Ramadan both end. Of course they will. It's always like this, and I know that it is, but I didn't manage to stock up on all the chicken we'll need before prices rose (I did get 3 kilos of chicken for Rami Levy's sale price this week. But I'll be using some of that for this Shabbat, so it's definitely not enough if we're going to have chicken over Pesach!). I also really have no idea how much chicken and meat we'll need for a group of 17 people for First day of Pesach and Shabbat Chol Hamoed! Anyone who knows how to get it right, please let me know how much I need to cook!

So where does that leave me? I think it leaves me trying to get a handle on things. So if I seem out of it, now you'll know that I am simply overwhelmed by everything I need to do right now - there is truly a lot to take care of (and I didn't list anywhere near the half of it here!). But I'll try to be friendly and make time for you too. Just please forgive me if I don't have a lot of time. Believe me, I'd love to just sit and chat and catch up. And we will. One day. But not right now!!

But I will admit to you, that I am REALLY looking forward to Shabbat and the break it brings. I plan to read the new book I just got. It was written by someone I know, which is so, so much fun! I also plan to be a little social, we'll see how that goes.

What are you up to in your Pesach prep? Let me know!

The Pesticide Problem

Last week, I posted about the newly published "Clean" and "Dirty" Lists for Israeli produce.


These lists  are meant to help shoppers make choices about which produce items are safer to buy and which are not (among conventionally grown produce), similar to the list for the USA that is put out by the EWG.
I have been bombarded with questions since I posted the list, so I decided to do some research and try explain more.



I cannot, however, take any responsibility for what you do. I am merely sharing my personal thoughts regarding the produce lists, and my opinions are not meant to be understood as scientifically accurate, nor is this meant as medical advice. (Or advice at all. Just my thoughts.)

Regarding pesticide levels - Once upon a time, I tried to feed my family a mostly organic diet, as I am wary of chemical exposure, especially for young children. I was able to do this with careful planning, in the U.S.A. I have not been able to do the same here in Israel, as the cost of organic produce is so much higher compared to conventional produce here, and salaries are not equivalent.

I believe that G-d created our bodies with the ability to get rid of many toxins, (and we develop this ability as we grow) and the presence of a toxin in someone's urine is evidence that our bodies are able to remove it, at least partially, so when there are reports of such-and-such a compound being found at detectable levels in urine, yes, that means we are ingesting it. But it means we are also removing it from our bodies. I DO believe, however, that for very young children, reducing their chemical load is important. If I had a baby or a toddler I would probably be buying specific foods organically just for the baby, even while feeding the rest of the family the conventionally grown equivalent.

I also believe that eating fruits and vegetables of any kind is important. Eating a junk food diet in order to "avoid" pesticide exposure will not solve any problems. Eating conventional fruits and vegetables is STILL healthier, despite pesticides, than not eating fruits and vegetables.

That being said, I still would love to take some precautions to reduce our exposure.

I know it's not perfect, but I scrub all of our produce before cooking or eating it. I use a commercial fruit and vegetable cleaner, because that is my preference. Pesticides are made to stay on a fruit/vegetable (they adhere to it in order to work even after rain or crop irrigation), and are usually not water soluble, so in order to remove them, some scrubbing, and a cleaner (soap of some sort) are most effective. But I only wash produce in cold water.

Some people recommend peeling fruits and vegetables. I am torn on this one, as we know that often vitamins and minerals are stored in the peel of a fruit or vegetable. I usually opt not to peel, knowing that I've scrubbed the peel, and that there are plenty of benefits to consuming the peel...

On the other hand, I want to send a message to the growers and chemical companies that we don't want toxic overload in our food.

I plan to scrutinize the list carefully and pick a few items I can reasonably cut back on and find suitable replacements for.


Here are my first thoughts about the some of the produce specified on the list:

At the moment, even when grapes are in season, we rarely buy them, as they tend to be pricey. Same goes for celery, I rarely buy it, except the ones that are certified lower in pesticides (the non-organic, certified lower in pesticide ones are sold at Shufersal and Yesh).


Apples, sadly, are a staple in my house. In the U.S. I only bought organic ones; here the price for organic apples is usually 8X higher than conventional. In the U.S., the difference was not as pronounced... But I am going to try to find a cleaner alternative to our daily apples. Or perhaps make more baked apples, as I have read that a large # of pesticides break down when cooked...

As far as the rest of the items on the list, I am considering cutting back our potato and pepper consumption as well. We won't be cutting them out completely, but I do think it's important to consume less of them, even if for no other reason than to send the growers a message. Potatoes are easy, we can substitute other carbs like rice... peppers, well, those are harder to replace. But we may try growing our own! If we can't, we'll still buy them, but in moderation... (And, come to think of it, we only eat cooked potatoes, so hopefully some of those pesticides are gone by the time we eat them!)

And those are my first thoughts on the matter. How you choose to feed your family is, of course, a very personal decision. (But I'd love to hear your thoughts , too!)


Here are some other sources for fruit and vegetable cleaners:

Produce Wash from iHerb.com

Produce Wash from Amazon.com

Produce Wash from Amazon.co.uk