Fire Island has a large and mostly tame deer population.

As many of you know, I recently began working at Hazon, which is a non-profit Jewish organization devoted to educating people about sustainable agriculture, food, and the connections between who we are and what we eat. Hazon has many other projects, but as a foodie I’m involved primarily with their food curriculum, their upcoming food conference and, most recently, a food cleanse on Fire Island. Now, I realize that when I say “food cleanse” you likely have no idea what I’m talking about and I know this because that was precisely my reaction when, two weeks ago, my boss told me that I would be organizing the entire event. A cleanse, you say? What could that mean? Bathing in fruit juices? Avocado face masks? I hadn’t a clue. But it turns out that a “food cleanse” - at least, one run by Halé Sofia Schatz - is all about eating healthfully and cleansing our bodies of the “toxins” we ingest every day. Sugar, caffeine, refined flour, chocolate, dairy - Halé believes that all these foods are not only difficult to digest but also put toxic substances into our systems. For instance, regular milk has traces of hormones and antibiotics in it, which is understandable when you consider how commercial dairy farms give cows estrogen to increase milk production and antibiotics to keep them healthy. Dairy cows spend the majority of their lives attached to automatic milking machines, and if a human mother can’t take certain medications because they will be passed on to her nursing infant, why wouldn’t the same principle hold true for lactating bovines? (By contrast, organic milk comes from cows that have not been given hormones or antibiotics, though unfortunately the term “organic” does not regulate how animals are treated.) In addition to these factors, Halé also teaches that dairy increases the amount of mucus in your system, which would explain why ice cream indulgences when suffering from head colds usually result in even more congestion.

Though I will never, ever give up baked goods, coffee, chocolate or ice cream, I do recognize that as a society Americans eat far too many of these kinds of foods. Hence I decided my body probably could use a good “cleansing” and I dutifully followed Halé’s advice, eliminating everything considered toxic from my diet during the week leading up to the Cleanse. I wasn’t happy about it and longed for my aromatic cup of hazelnut brew each morning, but I stuck to the plan goshdarnit. Since Hazon’s entire staff was going on the Cleanse we were all doing the same thing. I’ll let your imagination envision our caffeine-deprived, muffin-missing, no-dairy-drinking pre-Cleanse days at the office.

One of Fire Island’s many beaches

On June 14th the Cleanse experience officially began when I headed out to Fire Island with several heroic staff members. Our mission: to haul five days worth of organic produce to the beach house we’d be living in (no cars are allowed on Fire Island so this was done by hand-pulled wagon) and to kasher the kitchen. Phyllis Bieri, whose house we were using, wrote a fascinating post about the kashering process, as did my co-worker Leah Koenig, so I won’t go into that here, but suffice it to say that by evening we were knackered. Not only had we transported an incredible amount of food and thoroughly done over a kitchen, but we had done so while remaining faithful to our pre-Cleanse diets. This was a feat, especially when you consider how we passed Rachel’s Bakery on each trip to and from the boat dock. Behold the awesome power of peer pressure, by which I mean that, had I been making these trips alone, I would have been seriously tempted to duck into Rachel’s for a bite of contraband cookie. (Ok, I was tempted anyways, but I didn’t do it. Which is what matters. Ahem.)

Alluring bakery aside, Fire Island really was the perfect place to do this Cleanse. A thin strip of land just off the coast of Long Island, Fire Island is a gorgeous location surrounded by picturesque beaches and abundant, nearly tame wildlife. If I don’t count my childhood visits to petting zoos, it was during this retreat that I saw a deer up close for the first time. Leah, Ben and I were taking an empty wagon back to the docks to fill it with more food boxes, when a young doe walked up to us with large, curious eyes. I think she was looking for food but alas, we didn’t have anything to give her. I experienced other firsts on Fire Island too, like falling asleep to the sound of the ocean. Sure I’ve done this in my apartment before, but in those instances it was modern technology and iTunes mp3s that made it possible. Fire Island had the real thing, and it was lovely. You don’t realize how noisy our bustling city lives are until you head out to an island and experience the silent calm of a rural evening.

Freshly picked strawberries from Phyllis’ garden

Much as I missed my baked goods and coffee I have to say: the food we ate during Hale’s Cleanse was amazing. Chef Linda Lantos created three spectacular meals a day, serving everything from toasted pumpkin seed pesto with spaghetti squash to curried red lentil soup. (Recipes will be posted in a subsequent post along with Q & A from Linda.) I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and have done much experimenting with vegetables, but never had I realized just how inventive you can be with the veggies that most Americans relegate to the place of a side dish. Without meat, flour, dairy or sugar in our diets, Linda’s creations satisfied even the most ravenous appetites. Though most of us suffered from Cleanse side effects like headaches and body aches, the fact that we had five-star meals waiting for us every few hours was definitely a spirit booster. And by the end of the Cleanse? I felt great. I had more mental and physical energy than I’ve had in years - heck, I could have given my 5th grade students a run for their money. (So to speak. Obviously I wouldn’t take money from a 10 year old, what kind of a person do you think I am?)

Now that I’m back to city life and everyday living I’ve added coffee and all those other forbidden foods back into my diet, but I enjoy them in smaller quantities and with a better understanding about how they affect my body. I’ve also switched to organic food, when possible, and have finally become a full-fledged vegetarian (much to my husband’s delight, he’s been a vegetarian since he was 5). I’ll write more about all these developments over the coming weeks, but for now I’m going to leave it at that. Until the next post, I look forward to catching up with all of you. See you in the comments - at your place and mine!

Halé meditating on the beach. You can visit her online at www.heartofnourishment.com. Her book, “If the Buddah Came to Dinner,” is available on Amazon.com

Additional photos can be seen on my Flickr photostream.