Good week!
Pita peaches –Despite their strange appearance, these have not been “crushed” by the heat
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We are at the height of summer – July-August – and it is hot. We have installed air conditioners in our store and packing house! Come visit! We will be delighted to see you.
We are trying to use the packing house (during the days and hours that there is no packing) as a place for cooperative events that are healthy and life improving. Every first Friday of the month we have live music.
We hosted our first farmers market – it had many participants selling their very good wares. Many people attended and it was much fun!!
We'd love to hear more ideas and please share this plea with all your friends!
Summer has both positive and negative sides. The variety of organic summer fruits is extensive and they are juicy and full of flavor. It is truly nature’s sweetest bounty.
On the other hand, the green leafy veggies do not like it. They faint on their way to you . However, just like us, they can be refreshed. Give them a cool shower then dry them well and put them into the fridge in a bag (the latter is not just like us. J
I wrote about the best ways to store vegetables here and here.
At the peak of the heat, the organic cucumber plants also experience difficulties, and they give a little less produce than desired. Have you tried to stand outside all day in this weather? So please understand that there may be shortages of cukes.
The ones that have been providing abundance for several weeks (!!!) are the organic peaches. Here we have two species which I find quite amazing. Louis the XIV planted about thirty different species in his garden at Versailles. At the time, peaches were used mainly for desserts.
Our organic peaches are so sweet and juicy that they get eaten fairly immediately, at their freshest. They do not even make it to the fridge, which is good because the cooling breaks the pectin chain in the fruit, which makes it more floury and less sweet.
Of all the summer fruits, the Peach fruit is one of the most loved and popular in the country. It seems that it has always been here, but it actually originated far away in China, where peaches have a place of honor. It is a symbol of fertility perhaps because of its abundant blossoms.
This rich and dense flowering should be thinned (but only after the peak of its beauty, so as not to be missed) in order to allow fewer fruits that can develop with more space and the possibility to reach the desired size.
The Chinese cultivated peaches 4000 years ago and it can be seen in their art. Somehow the peach continued from China to Persia where it received its Latin name as a Persian apple "PRESICA " .. Alexander the Great is responsible for bringing it to Greece and the Mediterranean Sea …
It was the Spaniards who planted the first peach trees in America, where it grows today in abundance. Here in Israel we too grow plenty of peaches, especially in the mountains of the Galilee, the coastal plain, but also in the Judean Mountains!
Peaches are rich in minerals and vitamins which are found in the sweet juice that is precisely appropriate for our season now. Organic summer fruits are exactly what we need so we don’t "wilt" in the summer.
The organic fruit season tends to be shorter than the conventional fruit season because organic fruits do not undergo processes that are designed to extend their shelf life, at the expense of other qualities. So, grab them before they disappear.
Take a fruit and be healthy!
Come visit!
Yours, Maggie and the garden team
And we expect in our organic vegetable baskets (draft only):
parsley
Green onions
Zucchinis
Melon
Eggplants
Cucumbers
Tomatoes
lettuce
Yellow potatoes
ButterNut squash
In the large organic vegetable baskets, also:
basil
pumpkin
Leeks
And Kayle
Organic fruit baskets:
Grapes
Melon
Anna Apple
In the great organic fruit baskets, also:
Papaya
Hermon apples
