So, has was your weekend? Ours was full of action!
It was such a wild week that we were not able to complete the updates to your orders (the paper you get in the box with the exact weights and quantities) We waited to do the updates of your orders for a more calm time, so you didn’t get them with your box. However, you can see your updated order on our site, conveniently and simply, under “דוח הזמנות ותשלומים”. Click the amount to see all of the details. We’ll be happy to help.
Unfortunately I am unable to upload all the pictures I wanted to. It has been two hours already!!!!! Ahhharrrr !!! So hope you will enjoy the post without them for now and check it out again after I am able to.
On Thursday or Friday I wrote to you: “in fire and water and snow… we will get to you” . I was joking about the fire because it sounded good in the quote. However, it turned out that there really was lots of snow and water and fire!! Never-the-less, all of last week’s deliveries reached their destinations successfully, although with difficulty, and it seemed, at the time we said this, that we are past all the action.
But it was not to be. Here is the story. After several days that the kids were unexpectedly home from school (they are harder to "control" on the afternoon of a snowy freezing Saturday), Ari, who will be twelve on Friday, opens the door to the porch.
I, the mom who is always trying to keep everything under control, because that's the way it should be, said to him: "get in, we'll eat now and go for a walk later"
He calmly replied "the packing house in on fire!"
I told him, because he is always somewhat not under control, "No, not now, let's eat!"
He replied: "No! Really! The packing house is on fire!"
And so it was, the packing house was on fire!
I ran out in my socks (my woolly Siberian socks), opened the hoses that barely reached the fire, and we put it out. Why had we not yet connected the new fire hose from six months ago, I asked myself..
So what happened?
Let's start from the beginning … it already feels like a long time ago…
On Tuesday snow was predicted for Wednesday evening, so we started packing Wednesday deliveries on Tuesday, so we can pack Thursday deliveries on Wednesday and reach you all before the snowstorm …
On Wednesday – a pot full of potatoes, chick peas, colorful carrots and chestnut pumpkins on the fireplace cooking like stew. To this we added spinach and garlic while serving and eating.
We are at an altitude slightly below Jerusalem, so we get snow but it does not interfere too badly with our normal routines (for the last 3 years in a row) even though last year was totally white here.
The greatest difficulty with snow is getting in to us (growers, employees, deliverers…) and the boxes out to you. The road to Nataf freezes. Abu Ghosh is snowy and all of you in Jerusalem, Mevaseret, Har adar and so on, are snowed in. So, when it snows, it is difficult or impossible to reach you, and also to get to us.
So in an effort to be prepared, the picking was done early before the storm, here and at other growers (I hope you enjoyed the relatively dry and mud-free boxes). On Monday we started packing Tuesday deliveries, so that on Tuesday we could start packing boxes for Wednesday and Thursday – a job well done by the garden and packing staff! We worked under difficult conditions without knowing if we would get home … 🙂 Thank you all.
We were able to finish the packaging on Wednesday, with a big mess left in the packing house. We worked hard and finished so late that we decided not to clean up. We can tidy the place later, most important is that everything will arrive to you.
Leafy vegetables have been bruised and broken by the hail
The Thursday deliveries got stuck on the way because of heavy showers of hail in Nataf and snow in the mountains around and the closing of road 1. Accordingly, I had a good excuse to use my two bandit sons (10.5 and 12) for the delivery work. What's more fun than making deliveries in the snow? Get wet, frozen fingers, slipping …etc.
However, a t the end of the day, all deliveries reached their destination by Thursday J yay!! And we finished up with a good soup at a Har Adar customer? Thanks Inbar!
So Thursday was over and I was hoping that the entire extended garden family, customers and workers, are in warm homes. Our fire place was burning full time… how much wood we burned!!!! We finished the day with a pot of Jerusalem artichoke, potatoes, meat, white and purple onions, green garlic, turnips and all kinds of radishes .
Pictures
Friday, snow on the mountains around us. We went in and out, strolled to see our wadi that had become a gushing river and the fireplace worked and worked… how cool is that! We burned so much wood that the fireplace was beginning to be filled with ashes, which chokes the fire, reduces the heat, and makes it difficult to load with more logs, including the exciting experience of hot coals rolling out on our feet every time we open the door. I decided that there is no alternative, I must empty the ashes from the stove in the morning before adding wood and restarting the fire again.
On Friday night we went out for a walk and it was snowing. Really snowing. We thought to ourselves – how everyone indoors is missing it…
Saturday – the pot on the fire with Sweet Potatoes, Potato, green garlic, leeks, white and red onions, mung beans (sprouted of course). Together with avocado salad, flax, garlic, lemon and pumpkin seeds roasted over the fire.
And also green garlic and Sirpad Tehina – Sirpad is stinging nettles, so maybe they should be steamed first. The children reported that it "stung" a bit… but it certainly gave us strength to continue J
A morning tour of the garden filled with much snow. Charming, beautiful and a lot of damage.
Can you recognize the vegetables in the pictures? I will begin from the easy to the harder,,,,
New Ziland Spinach
Sage and Leeks
Napolitus
That's it, morning and it is time to empty the ash from the fireplace. A project of its own at this point with all the cooking pots, 3 sets of gloves, hats and socks around the fire. Also around the fire are buckets of sprouts, which need a little warm encouragement to get to the stage we want to pack them on Sunday, Laundry stand, Boots * 3 ….
picture
Yes, this is how our living room looks
OK, I take out the ashes, which are an excellent odor repellent for our composting toilet that we have out there. I filled two cartons full with ashes (that's a lot, and that's only half the amount that was in the fireplace. I was too lazy). I put them under the floor of the packaging house to avoid them getting wet in the rain and snow ( nearly 80 mm fell here in the last two days) and then I can move them to where we need them when we get a break from the constant showers of H2O from the sky…. that's it! I'm done for today, I thought, I do not need to do anything more. Shabbat Shalom.
And then, a few hours later … now we're back to the beginning J… playful Ari shouts: "The packaging house is on Fire!"
I was already in my wonderful Siberian socks (necessary if you pick vegetables at 5 am in winter here). We flew out! My kids are champions!
Ari opens on the hose which is in my hand already. Roi calls grandpa and opens another hose….
What happened was that the ashes which I took out and put in the only dry place, lit the carton which it was in, which then lit the nearby bamboo fence which started the plastic cabinets that were stored under the floor on fire which then lit the floor of the packing house.
What a sight! At this point I did not stop to take pictures….
This is how it looked after.
That was our Shabbat morning. In the afternoon I was viewing the sea from the porch. We had very clear skies….
At night I had a hot bath with an open window and thought about the next pot on the fire with fennel, tomatoes and zucchini … how great.
So that's the way it is in agriculture… you never know what the day might bring…
We are ready for this weeks' work. Ready for your orders. And ready to deliver to you J
I hope everyone was warm, cozy and interested during the storm!
Maggies garden family – together in fire, water and snow!!
Have a good week!!
Maggie and The Boys!
I expect in this weeks baskets :
Leeks
Avocado Ettinger
Sweet Potatoes
Cauliflower
Cucumbers
Fennel
Tomatoes
Beets
Parsley
And eggplant Baldi
Larger ones also:
Coriander
Onion
Celery
And carrots
Fruit baskets :
Oranges
Grapefruit
And Kiwi
Larger ones also:
Sweeties
