With what do you like to fill your stomach?
On hot summer days, I like pouring in cool watermelon juice.
In the winter – vegetables that were cooked together in a stew and then embrace the stomach from the inside and make it warm and cozy. And now, in slightly chilly days, spring is here, sending smiles of buds and blossoms… Now I feel like filling it with light. We can feel the serious part of winter is behind us (although we were promised a few days of rain, very uncharacteristic of the month of April in our country) and the grayness is fading and is making room for lots of….. light.
We’ve adjusted our clocks, the sun is actually beginning to heat, the houses begin to stir and the prepare for Pesach – spring is coming, the light is coming.
So, what do you do when you feel like filling your stomach with light? We recall a proverb that says, "Whoever fills his stomach with melons, fills it with light" and proceed to slice a small, fragrant melon…
In the field, and also in the store, it is one of the first fruits to bring a whisk of summer scent (also, the first nectarines and peaches are here, exciting!). The melon is the first from its gourd family to indicate that the warm days are coming, as the gourds enjoy more light and warmth, as suitable for tropical and subtropical plants. The melons came to the world from India, passing through Persia and Egypt, where evidence of their existence was found 5,000 years BC. Humans have also noticed that melons come in many shapes and colors, and perpetuate the celebration of colors and shapes in works of art such as paintings and mosaics.
Like the other family members, the pumpkin plant is also a subshrub – it is not a shrub and it has no branches. It straddles on the surface of the earth and makes its way to the light source using its tendrils. A wondrous instrument in the form of a long, remarkably strong plant tentacle that can feel: when it feels a source of support, it clings to it, wraps around it and enables the plant to climb.
The organic melon is a plant that wonderfully demonstrates that there is a time and place for everything. The melon simply shows us when the best time is for picking it. In general, each fruit and vegetable has its own ripening patterns, some of which are similar and some are not. Some vegetables we usually eat premature when they are still unripe – like cucumber or zucchini. When harvested, their seeds don’t have a hard peel yet and are not capable of growing into a plant next season. This "early" harvest is done deliberately, because when they ripen they will not be tasty (try to imagine a cucumber with hard seeds inside).
Other organic vegetables and fruits give other signs that they are approaching the stage where they are ready to be picked and delivered into our box and plate. One of these signs is a change in color – from green (usually) to a more prominent color such as yellow, red or orange. This is because the chlorophyll, which contributes to its green color, breaks down and disappears and is replaced by carotenoids. Even the smell of a ripe fruit is different. Of course, melon is the perfect example for choosing the best fruit by sniffing it. A good melon smells like a small and concentrated honey scented paradise. There are other signs, such as softening of the fruit (or vegetable), and the amount of ethylene gas it secretes, which of course is much harder to measure compared to the change in color and smell.
However, melons greatly facilitate the observation that they are ripe and ready to leave their field. They do not even make us bend down and sniff every melon in the plot. Simple, the part that connects the melon to the plant becomes thinner and thinner, then dries up and disconnects. Then we know without a doubt that the melon is ready.
Like the ones waiting for you at our store … Come and taste!
To health!
Yours,
The garden team
Delivery changes due to the holiday:
Next week, before the Seder, and during Hol Hamoed:
Deliveries to Kalia till Ali – Monday instead of Tuesday
Deliveries to Gush Etzion + Emek Ha'ela – Tuesday instead of Thursday
Deliveries to Mevaseret and the area – Wednesday instead of Thursday
We can expect to receive in our organic vegetable baskets (draft only):
Cucumbers
Tomatoes
Lettuce
Potatoes
Fennel
Turnip
Spinach
Parsley
Celery
In the LARGE vegetable baskets also:
Sweet potatoes
Cilantro
Radish
In the organic fruit baskets:
Oranges
Clementine
Bananas
In the LARGE fruit baskets also:
Pecan, not peeled
Melon
