I just came across these great articles written about Hava V'Adam (my old farm) that I thought I would share for everyone to enjoy....To add another voice of love for this place.
This Is the World We Live In
New Voices: Eco Israel
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
It’s the beginning of another spring month and the weather is still cool with some occasional showers.
Flowers in the garden
My daily diet has been including such things as: artichokes, kale, swiss chard, fennel, kohlrabi, beets, lettuce, radishes, and white mulberries from the garden and omelets (made from our chicken’s eggs) and freshly baked sourdough bread. Supplemented of course with dried fruits, nuts, and grains from our co-op and fruits from the friendly neighboring grocer in the next town.
The days are also counting down with fewer holidays left for this Jewish year. In fact I believe there is just one. Shavuot. We just ran through 3 of them, Yom HaZikaron (Remembrance Day), Yom HaAtzma'ut (Independence Day), Lag B’Omer.
For both Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzma’ut they are commemorated by a long siren throughout the entire country that sounds for 2 minutes. It’s such an eerie sound as everyone stops what they are doing to stand in a moment of silence. Even Israelis driving in their cars will pull over and get out of their car to stand. It is always a sorrowful yet beautiful moment for me especially when I reflect on how many millions of people are standing together at that exact moment.
Lag B’Omer is traditionally celebrated by families and friends getting together and lighting bonfires. It’s an amazing site to see with so many fires and so much smoke. For the festivities Yigal and I went for a hike through this beautiful mountainous forest near Jerusalem and met up with the rainbow festival camping out there. Needless to say there were tons of bonfires, singing, and music playing.
Flowers in the garden
My daily diet has been including such things as: artichokes, kale, swiss chard, fennel, kohlrabi, beets, lettuce, radishes, and white mulberries from the garden and omelets (made from our chicken’s eggs) and freshly baked sourdough bread. Supplemented of course with dried fruits, nuts, and grains from our co-op and fruits from the friendly neighboring grocer in the next town.
The days are also counting down with fewer holidays left for this Jewish year. In fact I believe there is just one. Shavuot. We just ran through 3 of them, Yom HaZikaron (Remembrance Day), Yom HaAtzma'ut (Independence Day), Lag B’Omer.
For both Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzma’ut they are commemorated by a long siren throughout the entire country that sounds for 2 minutes. It’s such an eerie sound as everyone stops what they are doing to stand in a moment of silence. Even Israelis driving in their cars will pull over and get out of their car to stand. It is always a sorrowful yet beautiful moment for me especially when I reflect on how many millions of people are standing together at that exact moment.
Lag B’Omer is traditionally celebrated by families and friends getting together and lighting bonfires. It’s an amazing site to see with so many fires and so much smoke. For the festivities Yigal and I went for a hike through this beautiful mountainous forest near Jerusalem and met up with the rainbow festival camping out there. Needless to say there were tons of bonfires, singing, and music playing.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Pesach Break
This year I began my Passover with a search for chametz (food that contains grain i.e. bread). This was my first time participating in this ceremonial ritual of hiding chametz in random places throughout the house to have someone else search for it. Ironically it reminded me of an Easter egg hunt but instead of finding colorful eggs you collect old pieces of bread. Once collected, the bread is put into a fire and burnt. Part of the idea of hiding the chametz around is so that in your search you can also find real chametz that was accidentally left during the cleaning.
Another new phenomena for me this Pesach was schmora matzo. I had no idea what this was or its significance but Yigal was set on finding some. So we spent a late afternoon trekking through Jerusalem to a back alley matzo bakery to buy it. Schmora matzo is special because of its long process and the intentions that go into its creation. This special matzo begins as wheat that is grown with the specific intention of becoming future matzo. Special care is taken so that the flour once harvested and milled never comes in contact with water. Once the matzo dough is made, it's then hand cut, and baked in a giant wood-burning oven. And like any delicacy it is carefully weighed by the kilo, then sold for a price of 360 NIS (that’s roughly $100 with the current exchange). At first this seemed to me as a complete extravagance but any food created in the 'slow food' manner seems to have special energy and there's something about anything baked in a wood burning oven that has such a good flavor. Not to mention you are considered the hero of the Seder night if you can manifest this special round matzo for the table.
The wood-burning oven
Weighing the matzo
Leftover scraps of matzo
Seder night for me this year was very special, set in a beautiful backyard surrounded by tons of fig trees, lots of friends around a bonfire, matzo ball soup, and plenty of lamb.
Passover in Israel is a national holiday and many people take the entire week off to travel. A good portion of the country is off on vacation.
For my vacation time I did a three-day workshop intensive called Shomra HaGan (keepers of the garden). Which is a wilderness survival course based off of Tom Brown's teachings. During the program I learned survival skills like how to start a fire from scratch using a bow-drill, build a shelter, and tracking. I’m still working on my bow-drill technique; I can produce smoke but no substantial coal yet.
My instructor teaching me the bowdrill technique
The base where the coal is created
Another new phenomena for me this Pesach was schmora matzo. I had no idea what this was or its significance but Yigal was set on finding some. So we spent a late afternoon trekking through Jerusalem to a back alley matzo bakery to buy it. Schmora matzo is special because of its long process and the intentions that go into its creation. This special matzo begins as wheat that is grown with the specific intention of becoming future matzo. Special care is taken so that the flour once harvested and milled never comes in contact with water. Once the matzo dough is made, it's then hand cut, and baked in a giant wood-burning oven. And like any delicacy it is carefully weighed by the kilo, then sold for a price of 360 NIS (that’s roughly $100 with the current exchange). At first this seemed to me as a complete extravagance but any food created in the 'slow food' manner seems to have special energy and there's something about anything baked in a wood burning oven that has such a good flavor. Not to mention you are considered the hero of the Seder night if you can manifest this special round matzo for the table.
The wood-burning oven
Weighing the matzo
Leftover scraps of matzo
Seder night for me this year was very special, set in a beautiful backyard surrounded by tons of fig trees, lots of friends around a bonfire, matzo ball soup, and plenty of lamb.
Passover in Israel is a national holiday and many people take the entire week off to travel. A good portion of the country is off on vacation.
For my vacation time I did a three-day workshop intensive called Shomra HaGan (keepers of the garden). Which is a wilderness survival course based off of Tom Brown's teachings. During the program I learned survival skills like how to start a fire from scratch using a bow-drill, build a shelter, and tracking. I’m still working on my bow-drill technique; I can produce smoke but no substantial coal yet.
My instructor teaching me the bowdrill technique
The base where the coal is created
Monday, April 12, 2010
Yesh Meain's 5th Anniversary
The weekend before Passover was Yesh Meain’s 5th Anniversary for their exchange market. Because Passover is the national spring cleaning holiday, there were tons of things to be exchanged at the market. We had about 400 people come through and we also sold some baked goods and pizza. I learned how to make pizza, including the dough, in the wood-burning, so awesome.
Pics from the Market
Pics from the Market
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
A View Into My World
Lunch...homemade sourdough bread, tahina, bulgar salad, fresh green salad from the garden, lemonade..yum
Decorative Mud Shelf in Salon
The Salon...Straw bail mud walls
Mud Dome with Garden
Jon Pierre the Dog
More gardens
Gardens
Artichoke!
Gardens
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Spring is Here
It’s spring at Yesh Meain, which means it's time to cut the long grasses, mulch the garden beds in preparation for the summer heat, and plant tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, zucchini, and basil….Tons of summer preparation. I’ve also been starting to stake up the enormous amount of tomato plants that have volunteered growing everywhere around the farm...They grow in between the foot paths, by the water spigots, and other completely random places. What’s really amazing about the volunteer tomato plants is that because they are here so early we already have tomatoes producing flower buds and fruit. This is incredibly early, most nurseries in Israel aren’t even selling baby tomatoes plants yet.
Another good thing happening on the farm is that with the rains beginning to subside we will begin mud building. There is an outdoor shower in the works that I’m really excited to help with.
I'm also continually eating extremely well. Particularly with the help of a new fridge that was donated to the farm. It is three times the size of our last one and with it some how magically we have tons more cheeses, eggs, and spreads. It’s also the end of the citrus season here. So we’ve been enjoying fresh squeezed lemonade, grapefruit, and orange juice everyday. I’m also mastering some newly acquired pitot (the plural for pita) making skills. And I’ve finally figured out how to make a completely whole wheat challah that's actually fluffy!
I'm hoping to soon start posting pictures of all these lovelies I've been describing but I've got to find a cord for my camera first. So hopefully I'll get one soon.
Another good thing happening on the farm is that with the rains beginning to subside we will begin mud building. There is an outdoor shower in the works that I’m really excited to help with.
I'm also continually eating extremely well. Particularly with the help of a new fridge that was donated to the farm. It is three times the size of our last one and with it some how magically we have tons more cheeses, eggs, and spreads. It’s also the end of the citrus season here. So we’ve been enjoying fresh squeezed lemonade, grapefruit, and orange juice everyday. I’m also mastering some newly acquired pitot (the plural for pita) making skills. And I’ve finally figured out how to make a completely whole wheat challah that's actually fluffy!
I'm hoping to soon start posting pictures of all these lovelies I've been describing but I've got to find a cord for my camera first. So hopefully I'll get one soon.
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