This week:
♦ No Monday deliveries.
♦ Today we are sending deliveries to Jerusalem, Gush Etzion, Modi’in, Ramat Gan, Givatayim, Bikat Ono, Rehovot, Nes Ziona, Rishon L’Zion, Mazkeret Batya, Beit Shemesh area, Kfar Bin Nun and some of the Tel Aviv neighborhoods.
A message was sent to all of you who will be receiving your box today.
Unfortunately, there is no delivery this week to part of Tel-Aviv: South, Jaffa and some central neighborhoods, and to the Mevaseret Zion area.
Over the week of Yom Kippur: ♦ Monday deliveries as usual (Sep 17th). ♦ Wednesday deliveries will be moved to Thursday, September 20th
During Chol HaMoed Sukkot: There will be no deliveries, thus no boxes on Monday and Wednesday, September 24th and 26th.
Over the week of Simchat Torah: ♦ Monday deliveries move to Tuesday, October 2 ♦ Wednesday (October 3) deliveries as usual.
Back to normal schedule after Sukkot and Simchat Torah.
If you wish to increase your vegetable boxes before the holidays, please advise as soon as possible.
Open Day at Chubeza In keeping with our twice-yearly tradition, we invite you for a Chol HaMoed “pilgrimage” to Chubeza to celebrate our Open Day. The Sukkot Open Day will take place on Thursday, September 27, the 18th of Tishrei (third day of Chol HaMoed) from 12:00 noon – 5:00 PM. The Open Day gives us a chance to meet, tour the field, and nibble on vegetables and other delicacies. Children have their own tailor-made tours designed for little feet and curious minds, plus special activities and a vast space to run around and loosen up. (So can the adults…) Driving instructions are on our website under “Contact Us.” Please make sure you check this before heading our way. Wishing you a Chag Sameach and Shana Tova. We look forward to seeing you all!
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A reminder from the Ish Shel Lechem Bakery:
There will be no bread-baking on Monday, September 17 and Thursday, September 20th. Come meet Ido and Carol and their excellent goods at our Open Day on Sukkot! Baking will renew the week after Sukkot.
Shana Tova and happy holidays!
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Each year the grass grows green The squills go white, the citrus gold Every year the earth renews The sun goes up, the rain falls cold Each year so many new are born To happiness and grief, to laughter and tear And someone who wants only good to prevail …this year.
– Leah Goldberg
(translation: A. Raz)
In honor of Rosh Hashanah, we send you last year’s Rosh Hashanah newsletter, with some updates…
These pre Rosh-Hashanah days are festive indeed for Chubeza. I like the holiday symbols, not necessarily because of their blessings (I can definitely do without all the curses and abuse to our enemies. Not my idea of an optimistic holiday atmosphere…), but because of the seasonal variation that the holiday table offers, bringing together guests of all sorts: from the green leaves (Swiss chard), the legumes (black-eyed lubia peas), the princess of onions (leek) and the gourds, the summer kings. Plus, of course, the pomegranate and dates, apples, honey and fish – all demonstrating the wealth of this season in its blessed nature.
It’s an invitation to stop for a minute and glance at the colorfulness and the amazing variety of long green pods, round orange (or green) peels, green leaves with a white stem, white onions, red juicy seeds and oval brown-golden fruit. What a holiday for the senses, and what a collaboration of leaves, bulbs, roots, stems, fruit and pods. A true song of praise to the vegetable garden that brings together a vivid host of vegetables and fruit!
The simanim also reflect so much hope and truth regarding the upcoming year (and the one that is ending), wishes that contain a little of everything, in a mixture and variety: a little bit of this, a little bit of that… depth and shallowness, simplicity and complexity. May it be easy and hard, funny and sad, emotional, annoying, exciting, boring, depressing, elevating. May we experience success and failure, mistakes and correct choices, acceleration and deceleration, a treading then a sprint…This perfection of an imperfect, mixed salad, made of tiny slices of life.
In honor of the New Year, we are sending you a box of greetings comprised of Chubeza vegetables, varied and rich in colors and fragrance, despite the difficulties of the end of summer, in-between season we are now experiencing. This is our Rosh Hashanah seder:
Sweet Potato: May we enjoy sweet surprises that grew and ripened far from the naked eye, and may they bring with them wholeness and happiness.
Lettuce: Lettuce learn to accept the changes that even the known, accepted rituals undergo in hue, texture and flavor. Lettuce know to appreciate and not take for granted the loyalty of those who remain with us, now and forever.
New Zealand Spinach: May we acknowledge our strengths to survive and flourish in green freshness, even when the heat is on.
Pumpkin: May we persevere, as the pumpkin, to the end of the vine.
Potato: May we learn from mistakes made in the past, of others and of our own. May we remember to vary our fields with many yields, and not only count on the simplest and most common (you can find an explanation right here)
Leek: May we have the patience to grow slowly and diligently, and the understanding that sometimes, in order to reach ripeness, one must grow very slowly. And spring no leeks.
Cucumber: When others are in a dither, may we develop the sensitivity and ability to be calm, levelheaded and cool, as the cucumber.
Coriander: May we rejoice in the difference in people’s tastes, in the differences between us, in the wonderful variety and vibrancy that create a symphony of opinions, varying faces and opposite choices.
Parsley: May we allow the good things to enter, fill and cleanse us from the poisonous and harmful. And may we live sparsely, as the parsley.
Okra: May we gaze at the stars at least one night every so often to feel the lightness of our minuteness and the strength of being part of the vast cosmos. (slice the okra horizontally to see stars)
Eggplant: May we try and succeed to see the light, whiteness and faint but beautiful purple hue within the murky dark.
Pepper: May we be blessed with the skill to pepper our speech with just the right phrases, without overdoing it. And when life gets salty, may we stand beside it to add some spice.
Onion: May we be granted the wisdom to acknowledge the many and varied layers that life i
s comprised of, that people are made of, and that reality is created from. May we strive to gently, with consent, peel them off, rejoice in the many echelons, and arrive at the sweet heart.
Tomato: May our experiences be homegrown, ripened on the vine, full of juice, color and sweetness.
Black-eyed Pea: May our shiners be only from this pea.
Garlic – May we never stop asking questions or experiencing wonder in seemingly mundane surroundings, changing from acrid to sweet when the occasion arises.
Swiss Chard-Silka: May self-doubt and cruel self-criticism be banished (Yistalku) from us, and may we develop a strong, stable, supporting and beautiful spine, as the stem of the chard.
Mizuna: Who? What? May we always be blessed with newness: to meet, to know, smell, bite into and enjoy with every fresh encounter.
Zucchini Squash: May we not be squashed by difficulties, but, like squash plants, cling to our life forces and succeed to grow despite obstacles and hardship. (Zucchini and squash plants have a wondrous ability to continue growing and bear fruit, even if attacked by viruses or pests.)
Corn: May we have a sweet, happy year! And may some yummy dinners be as easy as just peel and bite.
Mallow: This September, may we try to remember when life was sweet and oh, so mallow. Renew our days, as of old!
So here’s to the New Year, to great expectations and very wet showers — please, oh please, may they come in due time, in the proper measure and quantity. May they satiate the human salad of this country, and the animals crying out for drink, the dusty plants growing grey at the edges, the flying insects, the crawlers and jumpers, the rocks and clods of earth that so deserve the blessing of rain.
And, beyond the rain, we wish you the fulfillment of your hopes and prayers, for good and for blessing, for happiness and growth. Shana Tova!
From the entire Chubeza crew in the field, the packing house, the office and on the roads: Alon, Bat Ami, Yochai, Aliza and Melanie, Mohammed, Majdi, Ali, Vinay, Thom, Hoth, Montri, Asaf, Eyal, Alon, Melissa, Ruthie, David, Alon, Aharon, Yigal and Amit.
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WHAT’S IN THE FIRST BOX OF THE NEW YEAR?
Thursday: Onions/garlic, cherry tomatoes/potatoes/okra, eggplant, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, slice of pumpkin, Thai yard-long beans, zucchini/sweet potatoes, parsley/coriander, bell peppers.
Large box, in addition: New Zealand spinach/Swiss chard/mizuna, corn, leeks.
FRUIT BOXES: Nectarine, bananas, pears, apples. Large boxes also: plums.