On Friday, we hosted a very special Community Friday Night Dinner in collaboration with Miknaf Ha’aretz. The dinner sold out in advance, with 50 people attending!
Miknaf Ha'aretz are Jewish land-lovers, land-tenders, and food growers dedicated to building an earth-based, radical-diasporist Jewish community in the UK. Through retreats, courses, and youth camps, the group connects their community to ancestral practices, viewing land connection as a central part of Jewish tradition. Their work integrates ritual, prayer, and food growing with justice-work and seasonal celebrations, all rooted in the cycles of the earth. Operating on the belief that time spent on the land is essential for Jewish healing, joy, and liberation, they also see land as fundamental to collective liberation. Beyond their own community, they focus on building solidarity across the UK and organising for land justice for all.
The menu was planned and prepared by Miknaf’s in-house chef, Sima Cutting of “The Kitchen Table”, alongside a team of volunteers. The menu was centred around seasonal, organic vegetables, mostly sourced locally from a farm in Devon where Sima works. It also included wild greens foraged in both Devon London as well as greens from our JVS garden. Sima shared that the menu was inspired by different Jewish diasporas and recommended to us Claudia Roden’s ‘The Book of Jewish Food’. She spoke about the power of food choices, highlighting the importance of supporting local producers and choosing locally sourced ingredients.
Here’s what was on the menu:
Starters:
Zhoug
Pickled veg
Broad bean & wild green falafel on roasted squash tahini
Samson’s homemade challah (and Sara even did a gluten free version)
Mains
Wedge spiced roasted cauliflower
Majadra stuffed leeks
Harissa & preserved lemon roasted carrots on sumac coconut labneh with wild garlic oil
Iranian style potatoes
Dessert
Rose muhallabeya with rhubarb compote, roasted almonds and lemon biscuits
Sara and Sampson, the inspirational co-founders and directors of Miknaf Ha’aretz shared their own connections to land and the importance of food in building our connection to places. They also encouraged us to share our own food stories with one another. We shared about the JVS garden and food growing club, and plans for the year ahead—including the goal of sourcing much of the vegetables for our Summer and Autumn dinners directly from the garden.
It was a fantastic evening, full of an abundance of delicious food and bringing together the JVS and Miknaf communities. We hope this will be the start of many future collaborations.
Keep in touch with Miknaf Ha'aretz via their newsletter here and follow them on social media @miknafhaaretz
You can and stay in touch with Sima and the Kitchen Table at her Instagram @thekitchentabl and her Facebook