Recipe: Vegan Matzah Ball Soup

As a child of mixed religions, my mother brought her culture to all special family days. This meant that I grew up having matzah ball soup on Hanukkah and Thanksgiving (and Christmas and Easter). Matzah ball soup was and continues to be something that comforts me when I'm sick, connects me with my mother, and links me to my family's history. When I went vegan, I knew I had to make a version of my grandmother's special recipe. After the "once in a lifetime" event of Hanukkah falling on Thanksgiving, it seemed only right to share it. Enjoy, shalom, and thanks!

Matzah Ball Soup

How to Be Environmentally Conscious After Death

It's impossible to ignore feelings of veneration and kinship to the natural world when looking up at the seemingly infinite pinpricks of light scattered across boundless skies or when devoured by the still, wet air that lingers in the early morning hours.

Inspired by those feelings, we  researched a handful of environmentally conscious end-of-life arrangements worth noting.  

Connecting Life to Death

Promession, a method of ecological burial invented by biologist Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak, aims to create life out of death. An individual's remains are frozen with liquid nitrogen and vibrated until they shatter. The ash-like remains are then placed in a biodegradable coffin and buried shallowly. A shallow burial allows for a favorite tree or bush to be planted on top of the coffin. Over the course of six months to a year, the remains convert to soil, providing nutrients for the plant above. 

Sowing "Seeds of Hope": An Interview with Jane Goodall

JANE GOODALL may be the world's most famous primatologist — 50 years ago, she became the first to prove that nonhuman animals make tools — but lately she's been spending more time focusing on a life form less intelligent than the chimpanzees she studied in Tanzania. In fact, one that has no brains at all: plants.

Her newest book, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder From the World of Plants, cowritten with Gayle Hudson, chronicles her lifelong love of all things leafy. In it, she writes: "There would be no chimpanzees without plants — nor human beings either" and confesses that she might never have started studying apes had she not, as a child, been obsessed with Africa's forests.

Goodall, now 79, runs the Jane Goodall Institute to protect chimpanzees' habitat, and Roots and Shoots to encourage children to become conservationists. She's also a U.N. Messenger of Peace and a Dame of the British Empire. We spoke to her to find out what compelled her to spend years writing a book about the botanical world.

You’re known for your work with primates. Why the newer focus on plants? 

The last book I did, Hope for Animals and their World, was about saving animals from extinction. I had a long section on plants but it got too long, so almost all of that was left out. I felt bad because I'd talked to so many botanists and they were so excited that Jane was going to put plants in her book. So I thought, OK, I’ll add to what I’ve done and it’ll be a booklet that perhaps we could sell in botanical gardens. That was the original idea.

Celebrate Autumn with Organic Mooncakes

Neil Armstrong may have been the first man to land on the moon, but the Chinese have homage for more than 3,000 years. Chinese emperors of old began worshipping the moon in autumn, hoping and believing that doing so would bring them another year's harvest. One that was abundant and fruitful, of course. Finding that the best time to do so was on the 15th night of the 8th month, moon worshipping extended to high officials and rich families whose participation was alongside that of the Emperor. Setting large tables in the middle of the yard and placing fruits and other various Chinese snacks atop, these offerings to the moon enveloped by its glowing light was a practice executed for many years before it became an official tradition.

Beginning with the Tang Dynasty in 618, the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival was named and laid down in the books as a sanctioned annual celebration. By this time, the practice was no longer for the wealthy, but also the common citizens, all of whom partook in the music, dance, and merriment of praying to the moon for a bountiful year of harvest.

4 Eggs-cellent Easter Ideas

You won't need a miracle to stage an eco-friendly egg hunt. Follow these four easy steps to celebrate a greener Easter.

1.) Natural Egg Dyes: Add color to organic, free-range eggs with natural dyes. Check out our step-by-step instructions for dying eggs with turmeric (yellow), spinach (green), beets (red), and red cabbage (blue).

2.) Reusable Baskets: Opt for natural, handmade baskets, repurposed boxes, or cloth bags, which can be reused each year. Make it a tradition for your kids to set out their empty baskets night before in anticipation of the Easter Bunny's visit.

3.) Recycled Grass: Fill baskets with shredded newspaper or colorful fabric scraps. Better yet, decorate with edible clippings from your organic garden. 

4.) Green Goodies: Candy isn't the only treat worthy of the basket — fruit, toys, clothes, and art supplies make great gifts — but it's hard to imagine Easter without chocolate. Naturally, we have a few crave-worthy suggestions.

See more: Check out our photo gallery of amazing birds' nests.

Photo by Kristen Kong

Green Holiday Gatherings: Bright Ideas

'Tis the season for calendars filled with parties. This week, we're showing you how to green your holiday gatherings. 

Tip #3: Choose greener candles.

If you're gathering with family to celebrate Hanukkah tonight, light the menorah with soy or beeswax candles, which aren't made from petroleum. You might also share the story of the solar-powered menorah in Woodstock, New York, to illustrate how one community's modern twist on a traditional ceremony shows their commitment to a greener future. Local rabbi Yitzchok Hecht told reporters, "the concept of taking the energy of the sun and using it to bring light into the darkness of night is a beautiful complement to the miracle and story of Chanukah."

Tell us: What do you use to light up the holidays?

Hope in the Himalayas: Bhutan's Conservation Ethic

Do you despair that the developing world is starting to consume like we do? That our energy budget is spiralling out of control? Know, then, that Bhutan, the hidden kingdom of the Himalayas, is determined to develop sanely and sustainably.

While you wouldn’t want to visit — tourist visas cost hundreds of dollars per day, plus the flight leaves a big carbon print — four American college students did travel through Bhutan’s mountainous wonderland this summer. But not for play. By the end of their six weeks there, the students, who were with the School for Field Studies, submitted reports about conservation directly to the environmental arm of Bhutan's government.

A monarchy reigned until 2008, when Bhutan adopted a constitutional democracy, one that prioritizes "gross national happiness." One of the government's pillars for development is environmental conservation — always good, but even more so when you control one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots.

Movie Review Friday: The Tree of Life

Escape to the movies with one of our Movie Review Friday selections. Each week we review a film with an environmental theme. Seen a good eco-flick lately? Send us a short review and look for it in the next Movie Review Friday.

The Tree of Life (2011)

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The Tree of Life isn’t exactly what its trailer suggests. Watch its marketing tool, and you get the idea that it’s a poignant story about a young family with a heavy focus on the father-son dynamic. And it is. But it also isn’t.

What you won’t know from the preview is that you’ll sweat through uncomfortably long stretches of natural-history footage that do nothing to move the story forward. We’re talking meteors crashing, lava flowing, waterfalls gushing, cells dividing, dinosaurs frolicking. Which sounds like it’d pique the interest of any nature lover, but instead, it kills the dramatic momentum.

Maybe writer-director Terrence Malick threw all that in to punch us with perspective: Nothing that happens in our little human worlds matters in the grand cosmic – or even earthly – scheme of things. He seems to imply that in the face of all this evolutionary rage, religion is a myth that we created to keep nature's chaos at bay.

Movie Review Friday: The Genius of Charles Darwin

Escape to the movies with one of our Movie Review Friday selections. Each week we review a film or television event with an environmental theme. Seen a good eco-flick lately? Send us a short review and look for it in the next Movie Review Friday.

The Genius of Charles Darwin (2008)

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Imagine this: You're holding your mother’s hand. She's holding her mother’s hand, and on back to the last common ancestor with modern apes. The family line would only stretch 300 miles. In other words, you could drive four hours and see the ancestral human. Pretty incredible, right? The Genius of Charles Darwin, an award-winning documentary series about evolution and its implications, is packed with information like this because, as Darwin himself said, “There is grandeur in this view of life.”

But according to a recent global poll, only 41% of people believe in evolution, even though most scientists regard it as fact. Richard Dawkins, the controversial and brilliant writer of The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion, wants to up that percentage with The Genius of Charles Darwin. His three-part TV series first addresses Darwin’s revolutionary theory, second, Dawkins's own theory of the evolution of human altruism, and third, the conflict between religion and evolution.

Israel Unveils a Plastic-Bottle Christmas Tree

Still reeling from the devastating forest fire that recently ravaged northern Israel, the country is gearing up for Christmas celebrations by showcasing a tree made from recycled bottles. The eco-friendly display in the port city of Haifa was built with 5,480 recycled water bottles donated by locals.

Israeli designer Hadas Itzcovitch and her father, Ernest Itzcovitch, created the tree to raise awareness of environmental issues. The green tree should have plenty of admirers — some 90,000 tourists are expected to flock to Israel for Christmas celebrations.

--Della Watson