Shavuot has arrived along with a strong summer !!
It is hot both for the crops and for us!! Just as a cold shower helps us, a cool rinse will refresh most vegetables, that are especially those feeling really distressed after we disconnected them from the earth and their feeding system.
Of Course, the leafy vegetables and roots suffer more than the juicy summer fruits which are full of liquid. Remember that, after rinsing, you must dry them well and refrigerate them in a bag (this applies to most). Here is a link with storage tips:
There are lots of new cute crops this season. As the summer bursts, they do too!
Every time I marvel again when a fruit returns after a break. It's so exciting, and I feel like sending it to you right away! But despite their outburst together with the summer’s arrival, the season is still volatile and characterized by uncertainty of the quantity and quality of harvest.
This is perhaps a good opportunity to invite you to our ordering system, where you can make specific orders and requests, also for crops that are not included in the weekly boxes, dry goods (grains and all kinds of other products), bread, oil, etc. etc 🙂
When I see new fruits and vegetables in the garden, I’m just happy – a kind of excitement of gratitude to Mother Nature / God / natural forces / or any other cosmic source… I fill with pride that it “worked” for me, but it is also so clear to me that it is really not dependent on me. In order for it to work, so many conditions are needed to be right: moisture, light, length of day, microorganisms, air, birds, frogs, insects, wind…. Wow, it is just endless… and I believe that there must be many more conditions that we have not yet discovered or thought of and don’t even know to measure…
We work in all weather conditions – this year in storm, snow, hail, and now in the heat and in not-moving air, carrying, hoeing, weeding, weeding, weeding (Yes, in organic gardening there is a lot of manual weeding) and still, no matter what, it is not entirely up to us. I am never sure if a good crop will turn out from the ground… because so much of it does not depend on us.
It seems to me that most of my gratitude comes from being able to take part in all of this. I get to see the morning light every morning, to walk barefoot on the ground, to see, smell, and touch seeds that turn into sprouts, that become plants, that are picked, packaged, delivered to your home and then also to hear what you have prepared, how it was accepted in the meal and, finally, to talk to you about them. (Yes, that was a run-on sentence, but there is so much that I am grateful for in this lifestyle I have chosen.)
Can you conceive of how many things must happen for a seed to become something that someone enjoys eating? It's just unbelievable how much happens! (And this I say while knowing that there is so much more I cannot see, hear, or understand …)
I get to plan and care for crops and hope for their future. Sometimes it does not turn out the way I want and sometimes I really, really, literally, am picking the fruits !!!
The joy and wonder is so great that it is easy for me to understand how in most agricultural societies they have a holiday or ceremony celebrating the change of seasons. A holiday in which we reap the fruits of our labor. A holiday to rejoice about the first fruits, a holiday full of hopes for the next growing season.
In our country, with our summer weather, which did not allow many crops in the days before drip irrigation, after a good wet growing season full of sweet rain from the sky – it makes sense and is obvious to have a harvest holiday After all the work, plans, hopes … we have what to pick and it must be now, because soon the dry season will start!
The name Shavuot tells us about the date of the holiday, which is seven weeks after the counting the Omer, then on the day of bikurim (another name of the holiday), they would bring the finest first fruits to the Temple.
When I pick a new first fruit, more than anything, I want to just give it a bite. Mmm …
It is written that once in the country "a man goes down into his field and sees a first fig, a first cluster of grapes, a first pomegranate – he ties it in גמי, and says ‘these are first fruits’ " (מסכת ביכורים). Then all of the farmers from each district would make a convoy to Jerusalem, led by a bull with horns coated in gold and escorted by a flutist. Everywhere the convoy passed, it was welcomed by the locals. When they were approaching the temple, a messenger would be sent out to announce their arrival (pre cell phones) so the priests could come out to receive them with great respect. Yes, it is that much fun to receive first fruits!!
The main ceremony of the celebration included baking two breads from first fruits. One bread was swung around to thank God that we came to a land from which we can derive grain. The second loaf was raised as a request for good weather and other conditions that will allow crops in the future.
I remember as a child one Shavuot, during the short time in which we lived in a moshav, we went out to celebrate Shavuot with everything that grew in our garden, with the eggs that were laid in our chicken coop, with the new chicks and we even presented my new sister, who was born in Israel earlier that year (who is now editing our weekly emails to you)!
The most important thing for me at this holiday is to understand that only together all of this can happen. Yes, this miraculous nature, does most of it on its own. We humans, even in these developed times, don’t have the ability to make life happen in a laboratory.
BUT, we have a big part in it and great responsibility as well. All of us, in the city, village and anywhere, regardless of our main occupation in life, eat, breathe and live in this wonder world. This is our source of life. Therefore, we must allow it to exist. We must act responsibly and spoil it less. We have to keep it in a healthy way and always take care in our activities to damage as little as possible. It is all in the little details and we do not receive prizes for this.
We should always think what and where we buy, and in general to reduce consumption. We must recycle, and not waste. We must not use harmful substances, we must be organic, we must encourage appropriate local businesses with this view…. and lastly, the farmers need to be able to work: to dig, aerate, sow, plant, weed and weed and weed, and only then, perhaps, we will all reap and eat real fruit and we can look back and celebrate this amazing cycle.
Happy holiday! With lots of joy from the fruits of our labors and with hope for a fruitful future, together!
Yours,
Maggie and the garden staff
