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

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

Hava V'Adam

Just saw this short video on my old farm and thought I'd share

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

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.

Yesh Meain

It’s still winter in Israel but you wouldn’t be able to tell, with 90 degree days and me already having a beach weekend under my belt. I’m in my third week at Yesh Meain, the permaculture ecological center near Haifa. My days are filled with a variety of activities, my favorite being my daily snacking on passion fruit from the vine outside the salon. As for my schedule here, we start our mornings at 8am with a meeting to discuss the current projects. Sometimes participating in these projects means I plant a new bed of seedlings in some sort of permaculture design or companion planting, or bake sourdough bread for the community, or learn some new ecological component. Today it was making summer seed balls (little clay balls filled with seeds that can be planted or used in guerrilla gardening) to sell at this Saturday’s exchange market. Yesh Meain is wonderful magical place designed of cobb buildings, compost toilets, grey water collection systems, and bountiful gardens. It’s not a very big farm as it’s situated on one parcel of land in a moshav called Nahalal but there is so much going on, from the monthly exchange market, as mentioned before, to educational workshops, and school tours. But it’s not just and educational center, it’s also an intentional community.

From our morning meeting we choose our daily tasks. Our schedules are very flexible here as the motto of the farm encompasses “sustainability”. This motto not only embodies ecological functions but also a personal sustainable environment. Everyone puts in the amount of work they feel like putting in each day. If I need a break, a snack, a nap..I take one. Whenever I feel like it. This may seem like a surprising method to live by as the general assumption would be that people would take advantage of such freedoms but some how everyone knows their responsibilities and there is trust in a community like this that says, "if I can’t accomplish my task someone will take up my slack, and I will do the same for them”. Currently there are four volunteers including myself plus four permanent volunteers living and working here. It’s actually a small amount of people compared to what Yesh Meain has held in the past. But it is slower days here because of winter and Merav (the owner of the land/center) is pregnant and getting ready to deliver soon. This “sustainable” lifestyle, without stress and with such a supportive environment has been such a healthy place for me.

Another exciting thing going on in my life is that I’ve been working very hard on becoming a certified holistic health coach. I’m halfway through my course work, which means I am now able to see clients. I’ve been learning such powerful ideas about food and lifestyle choices and how they affect our nutrition and health. We are all biologically individualistic which means there is not just one answer, one diet, one lifestyle, that is right for everyone. It takes investigation and exploration to discover what works best for each person. But with just a couple improvements in our daily choices dramatic changes can occur. So if you are interested or know anybody that could use some help in improving their health I’m giving free consultations while I’m currently still in school…so let me know!

Israel

I’ve been back in Israel for a week now….exploring, learning, revisiting. It’s been amazing. I’m currently staying in Bet Zait, which is a beautiful neighborhood outside of Jerusalem. Technically it is winter here, but in Israel, winter is when all the rains come and everything turns green and flowers. In fact Tu B’Shvat is the upcoming holiday, also know as the New Year’s for the trees because now is the time when the almond trees develop their blossoms. There is a beautiful seder for Tu B’Shvat which involves the four seasons and the mixing of red and white wine; very Kabbalistic but everyone here recognizes it. But back to my current home, Bet Zait. This neighborhood is also home to an ancient archeological site, no not ancient Hebrews, but dinosaurs. It’s funny to me how much is in Israel within such a small space. Yigal’s friends are generously letting us crash in their guesthouse here. They just recently adopted 6 acres of land, it’s definitely a fixer-upper, but this place is really special as it has over a hundred different types of fruit trees, mostly citrus, growing on it. A few days ago I helped them start a new vegetable garden near the house. It was wonderful to get my hands dirty and my body active again.
I also recently visited my old farm in Modi’in, Chava V’Adam, and helped out in the gardens there. And it was really amazing to see all the changes that were accomplished during this last semester….A addition to the kitchen, a medicinal herb garden, and a new shower floor for the outdoor shower. Visiting made me realize how much I missed my fellow Ecos and how much I missed eating farm food…whole grains…lots of veggies.

Next week I head up to the north to start working on the permaculture farm in Nahalal. I’m very excited to begin this new chapter and hopefully eat lots more organic veggies.

I’m still continuing my studies with IIN. It’s been amazing how quickly it’s all going. I’ve learned so much already and I can’t wait for more lessons. I’ve listened to such inspiring lectures by some of the greats like David Wolf, Marion Nestle, and Joshua Rosenthal.