“Wines of all sorts & qualities of noblest vintages are bottled up in the skins of countless berries for the taste of men & animals.”
-Thoreau in his Journal, 1853
Last weekend I visited the Kahal B’raira Humanistic Jewish congregation in Cambridge MA, for their annual celebration of Tu BiShvat. Tu BiShvat, the New Year of the Trees, celebrates the value of trees particularly as providers of fruit and nuts.
We began the morning with a Tu BiShvat seder, during which we ate fruits representing each of the seasons.
One highlight was an interactive activity in which kids and adults acted out parts of a tree from the inside out. We started with the heartwood, and added roots, xylem, phloem, and bark. By the end, the whole congregation was part of the tree!
At the end of the morning, I gave a featured talk entitled Wild Fruits and the Birds that Eat Them. I described the natural history of fruits, their value to wildlife, and human impacts on bird-fruit interactions.
Thanks to Kahal B’raira for the warm welcome, teaching me about Tu BiShvat, and for being such an engaged and curious audience for my talk!
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