FoCo Joe: Rosh Hashanah Apples and Honey Platter
It is an exciting time of year for Jewish people everywhere — the High Holidays, or High Holy Days as some call it, are upon us. September 25 is New Year’s Day on the Jewish calendar, which runs with the changing phases of the moon. Next week will see the Day of Repentance, or Yom Kippur, which concludes the High Holidays saga of sorts. Both holidays are extremely important in Judaism, and therefore this week’s FoCo dessert ought to be important, too.
It is tradition on Rosh Hashanah, which translates to “Head of the Year,” to consume apples and honey — the apples are the fruit which Adam and Eve sinfully consumed many years ago to begin it all (there are many other spiritual reasons for apples’ symbolism as well) and the honey is the sweet. Pure and simple, honey is sweet — just how we want to bring in the new year, amirite?
In all seriousness, I wish you all a very happy and healthy 5775 (the new year according to the Jewish calendar). My gift to you all – tips on how to make apples and honey look divine on a FoCo plate.
Step 1: Grab one or two apples and cut them into good-looking slices. I visually prefer slices without evidence of the inner core’s existence, but such an observation is rather trivial.
This!
Not this.
Step 2: Grab a small bowl from the fruit station and fill it with honey. You can usually find honey over by the coffees and teas. The bowl should go in the middle of the plate.
Step 3: Place apple slices carefully around the bowl of honey on the plate. If you have one red and one green apple, it might be nice to alternate the colored slices around the plate. This is the key step if you are making this primarily to impress your friends, like I am.
Step 4: Eat!
This dessert is a great fruit serving and a sweet way to end any day, especially a Thursday— so close to the weekend! More importantly, in only the second week of the term, we are very much in the early stages of the fall and its resulting pleasures and stresses. Regardless of where we are emotionally, on this High Holy Day let’s all honor the goodness of apples and honey — two underappreciated dessert ingredients, if you ask me — and hope for a productive and satisfying fall term!