What To Eat On Tu Bishvat

First of all, a little bit about Tu Bishvat:

The 15th day of the month of Shvat marks the beginning of the "new year" for trees.

Tu B'Shvat is the new year for the purpose of calculating the age of trees for tithing. The Torah states that fruit from trees which were grown in the land of Israel may not be eaten during the first three years; the fourth year's fruit is for G-d, and after that, the fruit can be eaten. Each tree is considered to have aged one year as of Tu B'Shvat, no matter when in the year it was planted.

It is customary to plant trees and partake of the fruits of the land of Israel to mark the occasion.

The funny thing is that instead of eating "fruits of the land of Israel to mark the occasion", many will bless on dried figs from Turkey or apricots from California, וּכְדַי בִּזָּיוֹן וָקָצֶף.

The good news is that Kommemiut and Otzar HaAretz have are marketing a plate of Tu Bishvat fruits that are from the Land of Israel. I picked one up today. Here's a pic of the plate in my shopping cart, full of veggies from Otzar HaAretz:

Shmittah Update

We finally received the vouchers from Otzar HaAretz. Things are a bit confusing, since there are some vegetables that were harvested during the sixth year and do not have kedushat shvi'it (like potatoes) and there are others that were harvested during the shmittah year (like tomatoes). In spite of the confusion, we are doing our best to keep the laws of shmittah. Here is our special repository for peels/leftovers of shmittah produce, which is called a pach shmittah:

I Signed Up For Otzar Ha'Aretz. What About You?

Jameel had a great post about Otzar Ha'aretz not too long ago. I signed up and they sent me this nice book about the laws of Shmitah. It's been seven years since the last agricultural sabbatical year, and I know that I have to refresh my knowledge of the laws of Shmittah.