Hello Dear Friends,
October is over and we will charge the credit card for all purchases this month, excluding the last Thursday of the month.
I'm reminding you that you receive two invoices. One is for vegetables, fruits and sprouts that do not have sales tax, and the other is for the products, dry goods and delivery that require VAT. You can see the details and history of all of your payments in your account in our website, under the tab labeled " דו"ח הזמנות ותשלומים".
Please verify that October was indeed charged correctly. If you don’t see this charge, or if you got 2 invoices (that are not " חשבונית מס קבלה") we would be grateful if you contact us. We are always busy with work and count on you to find any mistakes, which we will gladly fix.:)
This year we have a real autumn 🙂. Typically an Israeli autumn has fickle weather. A hot day, maybe even a hamsin, and then a cool day, and then a dry day followed by a damp day. We send our kids to school with sweatshirts and they leave them there and return with short sleeves…. people and vegetables don’t know what to expect.
This year the days shortened, the temperatures gradually dropped and it began to rain, even in Nataf. In the last few years, since the rain became an important issue in my life :), I see that it frequently happens that the rain "skips" us here in Nataf. I can see from my porch that it is raining in Modiin. I hear from the drivers about the rain in Shaar Hagay. I see that the streets in Abu Ghosh are all wet, and here – it is dry!!! The structure of the hills here creates these corridors and I think that somehow the clouds, maybe because of their altitude, with Nataf on the lower ridge, do not float in our corridor and we miss their sweet rain… So, without speaking of the devil, so far it feels like a text-book-autumn (may it continue like this).
Most of the garden is covered with tiny sprouts (mostly of weeds). It indicates the soil’s fertility 🙂 and also that we will have lots of weeding to do.
The entire garden is watered. In all corners and ends and also where the drippers are clogged and where the irrigation doesn’t reach. The rate of growth is fast due to the combination of the warm temperatures and the sweet water from the sky.
You can actually see the plants grow with your eyes. After this last weekend I could literally measure how it all grew, differently from a couple of weeks ago when the rate was slow… and not easy to see.
I already wore my rain jacket when I went to turn off the irrigation system and to verify that the trenches and ducts around the house and roof aren't blocked. Of course they were, so after I cleared them I was also able to verify that my boots were whole and not full of holes. I'm not waiting for my first rainy picking day to find this out.
One of my biggest "enlightenments" (and yes, I know it sounds obvious) is the fact that the weather, the most influential aspect of my work, is not within my control!! Or perhaps that fact was of course known to me but accepting it was not simple. For me to accept that was needed and still it as hard….
You also probably noticed that our variety of greens, roots and citrus, which are all completely winter crops, are gradually returning at a constant rate.
You've also noticed more dampness in the bags and I want to remind you that proper storage requires all produce to be stored dry!! A previous mail about proper storage of vegetables can be found here
We are hoping that nature and the weather will keep giving what is best for the earth and the world. And we hope that the world and the earth will keep growing fruits and vegetables that are best for us in each season.
Have a pleasant autumn – wet, healthy and green.
Maggie, Michele and the garden staff
We expect in our weekly autumn baskets (that are very appropriate for orange soup): (draft only)
Sweet Potatoes
Lettuce
Dill
Chives
Star squash
Chives
Pumpkin
Butternut squash
Potatoes
Radishes
Cucumbers
And tomatoes
Larger ones also:
Eggplant
Celery
And cabbage
Fruit baskets:
Clementines
Oranges
And Sweetie
Larger ones also:
Annona
And Melon
