Fabulous fruit platter for Tu B’Shevat – the new year for trees

Celebrate Tu B’Shevat – the Jewish New Year for Trees – with a delicious fruit platter featuring 15 gorgeous tree-grown fruits.

What is Tu B’Shevat?

Tu B’Shevat is one of the more minor of the Jewish festivals, but one of the most fun to celebrate! The name literally means “15 Shevat” – the Hebrew date of the festival, and it is the New Year for Trees.

Yes, you read that right, the trees apparently have their own New Year, and deserve their own celebration. Apparently this is when the sap starts to rise and the trees start to awaken from their Winter sleep. Any excuse for a party, right?

Let’s Celebrate Tu B’Shevat

Historically, Tu B’Shevat was simply a date in the agricultural calendar, that was used for calculating the taxes due on the fruit harvest. However Tu B’Shevat has been celebrated as a small but lovely mid-Winter festival for at least the last four hundred years.

There are lots of different ways to mark this special holiday.

Planting trees

As a child, I remember observing the day by planting trees. We would do this here in the UK, with a spade and suchlike, and would also collect and send money to have trees planted in Israel.

Years later I worked in the forests in Israel, and spent months tending the trees, building paths, laying irrigation, and teaching young visitors about the importance of protecting our natural environment.

Israel’s forests are home to all sorts of fruit-bearing trees and plants, including figs, almonds, pomegranates and prickly pears.

New year, new fruit!

Since the Middle Ages, people have marked this special day by eating fruits. Since Tu B’Shevat is the start of a New Year, it became traditional to eat a ‘new’ fruit that had just come into season. As well as being delicious, this provided an opportunity to say the shehecheyanu blessing – giving thanks for the new/unusual/pleasant experience.

The Tu B’Shevat Seder

In the 16th Century, kabbalists including Rabbi Yitzchak Luria of Safed and his disciples expanded this idea and created a Tu B’Shevat seder. This ritual festive meal/service celebrated the Kabbalistic Tree of Life and included special prayers, modelled after the Passover seder.

The meal ended with a prayer which includes the following:
“May all the sparks scattered by our hands, or by the hands of our ancestors, or by the sin of the first human against the fruit of the tree, be returned and included in the majestic might of the Tree of Life. Then the trees of the forest will sing out and the tree of the field will raise a branch and make fruit, day by day.” (Read the full text here.)

Jewish eco-activism!

In more recent years, Tu B’Shevat has come to be seen as a Jewish day of environmental activism.

There is an emphasis on planting trees, particularly in Israel. Events and programmes are organised to raise environmental awareness among Jewish groups and promote an eco-friendly Jewish lifestyle.

Since the emphasis is often placed on growing food sustainably, and Tu B’Shevat typically falls in January, there is also some symbiosis with veganuary.

Fruit platter – a tasty tradition

As well as creating the Tu B’Shevat seder, Rabbi Luria also started the tradition of eating 15 fruits on Tu B’Shevat. When I was a child, we always had to make up the total with some dried fruits and nuts, but these days the shops are filled with an immense range of fruits, so finding 15 is usually no problem at all – although you might want to bear food miles in mind…

Try to make sure that all your fruits grew on trees – e.g. melons, which grow on the ground, don’t count if you’re being a real stickler.

Can’t make a fruit platter without cutting fruit…

Our fruit platter (as seen in the photos) included the following fruit selection (in no particular order):

• Apple
• Plum
• Peach
• Pear
• Kiwi
• Tangerine
• Lychee
• Physalis
• Fig
• Cherries
• Papaya

We could also have had oranges, dates, mangoes, nectarines, passion fruit, grapefruit, persimmon, and probably a load more. What a choice! My daughter Kipper pointed out that OLIVES would also count, as they grow on trees too. Maybe serve them separately from the rest though…

Blessings for your fruit platter

The hebrew blessing to say before eating tree-grown fruit is as follows:
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech Ha’Olam, borei pri ha-eitz.

Which means:
Blessed are You, L-rd our G-d, King of the universe, who creates the fruit of the tree.

Many people also have the tradition of eating at least one fruit which has not yet been eaten this season. This enables them to also make the Shehecheyanu blessing, which is:

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech Ha’Olam, Shehecheyanu Vekiyimanu Vehigianu Lazman Hazeh.

Which means:
Blessed are You, L-rd our G-d, King of the universe, who has granted us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this occasion.

Tu B’Shevat celebration!

However you choose to celebrate the New Year for Trees, I hope you have a very happy Tu B’Shevat!

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📖 Recipe

Tu B’Shevat Fruit Platter

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Celebrate the Jewish New Year for Trees with a delicious selection of fruit.

5 from 5 votes

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 20 minutes mins

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine Jewish, Vegan

Ingredients

  

• 10-15 Tree-grown fruits, e.g. Apple, Plum, Peach/Nectarine, Pear, Kiwi, Tangerine, Lychee, Physalis, Fig, Cherries, Papaya, Mango, Orange, Dates, Grapefruit, Passion Fruit, Persimmon…

Instructions

 

• Prepare the fruits by washing, peeling or trimming as necessary. Cut the larger fruits into strips or slices.
• Arrange the fruits on a large platter in the shape of a tree. Be creative!
• Have a great Tu B'Shevat!

Keyword fruit

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Tu B’Shevat ideas and celebrations

I think this fruit platter is a lovely way to show off all the wonderful types of fruit, and allow everyone to help themselves to the different sorts. You could also make fruit skewers, a big fruit salad, or even a 15-fruit smoothie!

You’ll find more information about Tu B’Shevat with this recipe for a delicious pear and apple crumble cake. All my fruitiest Tu B’Shevat ideas and recipes are here, and if you need even more inspiration, take a look at my Tu B’Shevat Pinterest board. 

I’m entering this fruit platter into the Inheritance Recipes link-up, organised by Pebble Soup and Coffee & Vanilla. 

This post was originally published on 1/2/2015. It was extensively updated and republished on 10/1/2022.