TuB'Shvat, what fruits will you be serving?

amother ↓

Thu, Jan 24 2013, 9:18 am

I was told recently that one should only serve 'fresh' fruit such as figs and dates on TuB'Shvat as opposed to the dried fruit selections sold all over the place. Are there any halachos as to what should be eaten, and does it only have to be figs, dates, olives...or can it also be pomegranates, starfruit, and ugli fruit. Please HELP.

Thu, Jan 24 2013, 9:44 am

I don't believe it is a mitzvah at all to eat fruits on tu bshvat - just something people do. In which case, you can do what you want! It's possible it's a minhag in which case it doesn't matter what other people do - just your family.

Mrs Bissli

Thu, Jan 24 2013, 2:18 pm

As the previous poster said, I understand it's really a minhag.
A few version I heard are 7 minim, 15 kinds, 18 kinds.
No need to go competitive to seek out the most exotic fruits you've never heard of that's out of season and imported from timbaktu by air. My DD's school has annual competition about who can bring the unique fruits, and the last year's winner was someone who brought an apple, because everyone else brought in starfruits, passion fruits, mangosteen etc.

I think we're going for 15 kinds at the kiddush. My previous suggestion for having as many fruit liquors as possible were shot down with one liner: "no, it's not purim!"

Isramom8 ↓

Thu, Jan 24 2013, 2:26 pm

I just bought fruits we like; what's the point of spending on techincally correct fruits when everyone goes for the sugared pineapple, banana chips and sunflower seeds and leaves over the rest?

Raisin

Thu, Jan 24 2013, 3:16 pm

my supermarket doesn't seem to have any very exotic fruits in stock at all so it will be mango, grapes, etc and some dried figs and dates.

Mrs bissli, timbuctu is in the middle of a civil war right now. Probably not exporting fruit.

Thu, Jan 24 2013, 4:44 pm

As far as I know, it's all custom, not halacha.

We like to make a Seder Tu B'shevat with fifteen fruits (five with peels, five with pits, five entirely edible). I've never heard about having fresh rather than dried, and it's not possible in some parts of the world anyway.

MimiMommy ↓

Thu, Jan 24 2013, 5:29 pm

I thought a big part of the minhag was to make a shehecheyanu on a new fruit?
At any rate, we freeze our esrog after sukkos and then I candy or jelly it for tu bishvat (only way it's edible) - exotic and new!

chocolate chips

Thu, Jan 24 2013, 5:35 pm

I think it is minhag. I personally like to have one shehecheyanu fruit. Dh and I are not really major random fruit people. Apple, pomegranate and pear are about all.

I asked dh what he wants and his response was "if I wanted something I would actually remember when tu bishvat was!"

Speaking of minhag, my sefardi family relatives have a 'seder' with 4 cups of wine going from totally light to totally dark.
My friends family used to have 15 fruits, one for each shir hamalos.

Tova

Thu, Jan 24 2013, 6:31 pm

Grapes (for 7 minim), Fresh Pineapple, Strawberries
My family doesn't really like figs, dates, etc. and I didn't want to buy packages of food that would not be eaten beyond a couple to be "yotze."

poelmamosh

Thu, Jan 24 2013, 6:41 pm

MimiMommy wrote:

I also make esrog jam for tu b'shvat, but AYLOR regarding a shehechiyanu. Mine told me (when it was dh's birthday in kislev - we have a minhag to eat a new fruit on a birthday - and I was going to break out a jar of the stuff) that we don't make shehechiyanu on esrog, ever. There were a few reasons, I think primarily cuz it grows year-round and doesn't have a season.

gp2.0

Thu, Jan 24 2013, 6:54 pm

Isramom8 wrote:

I just bought fruits we like; what's the point of spending on techincally correct fruits when everyone goes for the sugared pineapple, banana chips and sunflower seeds and leaves over the rest?

Same here. Our favorites are grapes, dates and pineapple. And I got a mangosteen because I've been wanting to taste one for years.

But btw OP pomegranates are in the figs, dates and olives group...along with wheat, barley and grapes. Smile

↑ MimiMommy ↓

Thu, Jan 24 2013, 6:55 pm

poelmamosh wrote:

MimiMommy wrote:

Interesting! I'll ask DH.

↑ MimiMommy

Thu, Jan 24 2013, 6:56 pm

Also I wonder about these applications nowadays...when everything can be grown all year round. I'm buying strawberries in January, for goodness sake!

morahtikvah ↓

Thu, Jan 24 2013, 10:02 pm

Mrs Bissli wrote:

I think we're going for 15 kinds at the kiddush. My previous suggestion for having as many fruit liquors as possible were shot down with one liner: "no, it's not purim!"

We are having a juice tasting at the kids program I am running. Disposable wine glasses and animal crackers for palate clearing and five kinds of juice,

alpidarkomama

Thu, Jan 24 2013, 10:38 pm

MimiMommy wrote:

Also I wonder about these applications nowadays...when everything can be grown all year round. I'm buying strawberries in January, for goodness sake!

For the first time ever (because of the unusually warm weather we've had) I PICKED strawberries in January!

↑ amother ↓

Fri, Jan 25 2013, 1:42 am

We are having:
cherimoya (shehechiyanu)
persimmon (also shehechiyanu, maybe we'll save that for the day seuda because it's not so ripe yet and I have 15 other fruits anyhow)
olives
dates
grapes
pomegranate
apple
pear
apricot
mango
clementine
pistachios
macadamia nuts
cashews
almonds
pecans

My father's minhag was to say a shir hamaalos before tasting each fruit. Dh's minhag is just to eat.

yogabird

Fri, Jan 25 2013, 2:00 am

We're having all the shivaas haminim plus fruits mentioned in the Torah with kabbalistic significance such as apples, esrog, almonds, and carob.
Aside for that, we got clementines, star fruit, kumquats, sabra fruit, pears, passion fruit, and some other fruit the shuk was carrying whose name I don't know, but may be guava. (the skin is sort of like green/yellow/brown snake skin and its shaped like a big puffy heart-any ideas?)

AlwaysThinking

Fri, Jan 25 2013, 2:08 am

My menu is revolving around fruit and the 7 minim:

Lychees to start

Muchroom barley soup

pomegranate nectar to drink

chicken with cooked orange slices
mixed basmati and brown rice with caremalized onions, craisins and chopped pecans
green beans in apricot jam and soy sauce

dessert: nut platter (macadamia, pistachios, almonds, peanuts, cashews)

dried fruit platter: kiwi, mango, guava, dates, figs

candied kunquats, home made candied esrog

chani8 ↓

Fri, Jan 25 2013, 4:06 am

People here in Israel do a Seder Tu B'shvat including 4 cups of wine.

We're taking it easy since we can't have sugar and all fruit is sugar.

I took some of imamother ideas though, and put orange in with my chicken and raisins in with the wild rice.

And green apple in the diet pineapple jello, because I couldn't find pineapple with no sugar added.

And I'm planning on making a fruity cake, with banana, raisins, apricot and prunes.

Hey Riff, I think I'll add some apricots to the veggies tonight, also. Thanks for the idea! And I see we both did the oranges - for fun!