Happy Tu Beshvat

Hi Friends,
There is a saying I believe in psalms that states that "....a tree growing on water will give fruit at it's time and its leaves will not wilt, and anything it does will succeed..." or something like that.

Last Wednesday it poured buckets of rain in nataf! I don't believe that we have ever had an entire day with so much constant rain. And the reason that I remember so well is because we were out in it.
At five in the morning when we start packing your boxes it is so cold and also dark, so in this season, we delay the picking a little bit, and we start by packing the dry products, the vegetables that were picked the day before and produce that arrives from elsewhere. I was waiting for a break in the rain to do our picking, but there was none! At around eight thirty or so I understood that there is no way, we must go pick in the rain, otherwise it will simply not reach you all. I decided to do the picking by myself until it brightens up a bit...but that never happened. But I did remember why I chose this job.
I was picking and picking in the mud and the water... such quantities of water, not all of it could be absorbed in the ground and created real big puddles in the aisles (where the earth is packed tighter). The growing patches are regularly turned over and a lot of organic matter is mixed inside the earth, so there is plenty of air and most the water is absorbed, still it was wet wet wet. You probably noticed that Wednesdays leaves were especially wet. (remember that in order to better preserve them they should be thoroughly dried before placing in a sealed bag in the fridge.)
After our short coffee break at 10:00am, I changed my pants and boots that were utterly soaked. My rain jacket reaches down to my knees and I remembered too late that I have a pair of rubber boots exactly for weather like this. In the last few years we must have been lucky and have not experienced such wetness on a picking day. In short, I usually hope for lots of "blessed rain", but not on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, our picking days. Despite the discomfort, the rain this last Wednesday reminded me what a blessing the rain is! How the rain enables the seeds to fulfill the potential hidden in them. How the rain is essential in our region and without it there is nothing... so it is welcome! Whenever it can come, as long as it comes!
A short rain update - so far we are pretty average for the season, we only now reached above half the average annual precipitation level for this region. Rashi said that Tu Bishvat was set in a date after most the rainy days. Tu Bishvat is next Wednesday. I really hope we will make the goals we all so dearly need, both here and throughout the world, in order to exist and live healthy lives, and that the earth will be saturated well enough so that crops next season can enjoy it.
Global warming? The issue of existing and preserving our environment is very suitable for Tu Bishvat. Nowadays we are used to immediate satisfaction, we see results immediately, we live "here and now". Organic agriculture is different. We must both preserve what exists and provide for the future. Planting trees is an investment for the future of our environment and our next generations, in addition to their immediate health benefits.
The birth of Tu Bishvat:
Tu Bishvat was issued as the "determining" day, used to calculate the Mitzvahs regarding trees in Jewish religious law. Our forefathers were farmers (organic of course!). so there were many questions: how do we determine how much tax to pay? How do we assist people to keep the Mitzvah of not eating Orla, which is the fruit of a tree that is less than three years old? how do we determine the age of the tree? From the moment the seed sprouted? Maybe from the moment it was planted? Or maybe just from the time it began bearing fruit? When a fallow year ends, how do you know if you can eat the fruit, the fruit did not appear in a day? The fruit began its development much earlier...etc, etc.
Clearly, there was a need for a certain date to begin all these calculations So Tu Bishvat was chosen to be the "determining" date (in addition to more interpretations like Rashi from above). Tu Bishvat is at the end of winter, beginning of spring. Like the end of year for taxes and a new beginning for crops, you can compare Tu Bishvat to the end of a civil year. Everything needs to be wrapped up, and all production calculated. Yet, on the other hand, it is a new clean beginning with new hopes and measurements.
In short it is a holiday that deals with crops, nature and how we, the humans, fit inside all this.
When our people were separated from the land, Tu Bishvat symbolized the longing for our nature here and for the country's fruits. In the Tu Bishvat Seder we drink 4 glasses of wine that symbolize the 4 seasons of the year and eat 30 kinds of fruit from the country. Since in exile, it was difficult to get fresh fruit from the country, they began eating dried fruit. Unfortunately, nowadays, most dried fruit in Israel is imported...
"וכי תבואו אל הארץ ונטעתם כל עץ מאכל" (ויקרא י"ט, כ"ג)
With the beginning of the Kibbutz movement, or to be exact in 1890, the Principal of a high school in Zichron Yaakov, Rabbi Zeev Yaabetz, went out with his students to plant trees - for the first time since the exile of our people. Prior to that it was said by Rabbi Natan, 2nd version, 31, "if you are prepared to plant and are approached by the Messiah,you must say: here is the messiah - go plant your plant and then return to accept the face of the messiah." Planting was always considered very important, and so much so that if the messiah arrives while you are planting you should first finish your planting and only after you are done you may go greet him. FYI...
That's it. Since then Tu Bishvat struck roots with us and it is not only a holiday of new plantings but also of preserving the nature that exists. This Jewish concept is expressed throughout the world. Tu Bishavt is not only a holiday for the trees but for admiration and preservation of all of nature as a whole. What we eat, how it is grown and how it is transported. It is not only a holiday to long for our land and care about our country, it is a holiday for the entire planet earth and existence in general, which is why people recycle paper and care for the tropical forests in other continents. As it was said (not only by our forefathers, also native Americans have an identical saying and I'm sure that more cultures have it as well) "when god created the first man, he it took man back to the tree in the garden of Eden and told him: see how nice my work is, pay attention so you do not ruin and destroy my world, because if you do, there is no one to fix it after you" (Ecclesiastes)
Existence now - our responsibility for the future!

Have a good week,
Yours,
Maggie and the garden & market Teams.

And the expected weekly baskets:

Cucumbers

Tomatoes

Potatoes

Lettuce

Parsley

Fennel

Sweet potatoes

Beets

Dill

And a little onions

In the larger ones also:

Cabbage

Lettuce

Peppers

And celery

Fruit Baskets ;

Citrus, citrus, citrus

Bananas

And avocadoes