This week I followed the firefighting airplanes in our sky.
Although lighting bonfires on Lag BaOmer was forbidden, there were plenty of fires south and north of the Jerusalem hills, dozens of firefighting teams, consisting of hundreds of firefighters, worked hard to prevent the flames from spreading. People were evacuated from their lives and from their homes as the latter went up in flames.
You could smell fire in the air. I looked at the woods near my house (which in the past were very close to summer fires) and thought about how all living and growing beings were interconnected. Weeds grow during the rainy season (hopefully there will be many abundant rainy seasons), and if not picked – they dry out causing the thicket to be more vulnerable to fires.
But who could be a good target audience for such vegetation? Herbivores of course. It is good for goats to go out for a walk in a flush pasture, to stretch their limbs and eat seasonal, organic, varied and natural food, and good for the thicket too, to reduce the risk of fire hovering over it. Preventive treatment at its best. How wonderful it would be if small farms were financially encouraged to maintain goat herds and send them out to graze in certain areas. Sustainable agriculture at its best.
Shavuot is finally here, along with the additional attention to dairy products and cheeses. In the last few weeks we have a new tenant in the store – a small and modest refrigerator, hidden between the shelves of the date and agave syrups and the shelves with legumes and milkless milks (almonds, oats, rice "milk" and such).
It is thin and shapely, standing in the corner and containing an inventory of delicious products that prefer to be chilled: sensitive fruits like cherries, mulberries and raspberries, wheatgrass (grinding these green-green leaves into juice is a wonderful way to launch the day), and excellent organic goat cheeses, offered by Galili farm. The farm is in Abirim and the goats graze part of the year in natural pastures, during the other part they enjoy sitting in the barn looking out into the rain. Their milk is used to make yogurt and cheeses – and their cheeses are simply wonderful! My favorite cheese is the Circassian cheese – it has the correct degree of saltiness, with subtle seasoning, it is not too hard and does not crumble… In short, just the perfect combination of textures and flavors.
The dairy farm produces a wide variety of cheeses, some are soft and some are harder. In the refrigerator we have labaneh, spreadable goat cheese and also Circassian cheese.
If you drive north and visit the dairy farm, you can also find Tom cheese (one version with Za'atar and one with sage, we have not yet brought them to the store), which is a classic French style cheese. It is somewhat hard, and its nutty aroma makes it a good addition to meals that include wine (and also a particularly addictive cheese).
The camembert cheese, which is a soft white ripened cheese, brings a unique velvety flavor, and softness that intensifies as you approach the center of the cheese – its aromas and flavors are delicate and can be combined with a good glass of white wine as well as a nice upgrade for breakfast. The farm also produces Moravian cheese, brie, Valençay cheese (wrapped in vegetable ash!), St. Mor cheese, Bordeaux (redish-purple on the outside because it was treated with red wine. One of the hard cheeses that their taste deepens and improves over time) – and also Piquorino and Gouda cheeses.
How to store the cheeses in the fridge? After opening, the cheese should be allowed to breathe, but not to dry (nor exchange aromas with other products in the refrigerator. Therefore, it is best to wrap it in some permeable layer, like baking paper, and enclose it in a sealed container or aluminum foil (if you prefer, it can also be wrapped in plastic wrap, but don't allow the wrapping to touch the the cheese itself, because it may transfer plastic flavors to the cheese, it does not allow the cheese to emit gases, and also encourages the formation of fungi and mold).
To health!
Yours,
Maggie's Garden team
This week’s forecast:
We can expect to receive in our organic vegetable baskets (draft only):
Lettuce
Cucumbers
Tomatoes
Potatoes
Beets
Zucchini
Parsley
Leek
Cabbage
In the LARGE vegetable baskets also:
Pumpkin
Cilantro
Kohlrabi
In the organic fruit baskets:
Melon
Grapefruit
Bananas
In the LARGE fruit baskets also:
Sweetie
Apricots
