New Year Preparations – Changes in delivery dates over the holidays:
The Week of Yom Kippur:
- Monday delivery as usual (October 10th)
- Wednesday delivery moves up to Thursday, October 13th and the ordering system (for that Thursday) will close on Monday, October 10th at 12:00.
During Chol HaMoed Sukkot:
- There will be no deliveries, thus you will not be receiving boxes on Monday and Wednesday, the 17th and 19hof October.
On the week after Sukkot and Simchat Torah:
- Monday deliveries move up to Tuesday, October 25thand the ordering system (for that Tuesday) closes on Sunday, October 23rd at 9:00.
- Wednesday deliveries as usual (October 26th)
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, October 20th, the 18th of Tishrei (third day of Chol HaMoed), between 12:00- 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 from all of us at Chubeza. We look forward to seeing you all!
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In honor of the New Year and the sweetness of this month, we are happy to bring to your attention a beautiful article about Tamir Azala, our honey man from Moshav Sha’al in the Golan Heights (Hebrew). May we enjoy a sweet New Year!
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And as autumn approaches, a message from Alon at Izza Pziza
During October and November, our goats start preparing for calving. Some of them naturally stop producing milk, while we help out the others by gradually weaning them till they are dry so they can renew their udder tissue and produce quality milk the next season as well. First and foremost for the benefit of the kids….
The result will be a temporary shortage in fresh milk products, however we will advise you each week of our current stock. Hopefully by December our pen will fill with the sweet cries of newborn kids, and with them a renewal of fresh products. And of course, you are all more than welcome to pay us a visit.
Wishing you happy holidays and a great New Year,
Alon and the Izza Pziza crew
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The Chubeza Story Continues ….
This week, our first newsletter of 5777, we continue to tell our tale (and yours):
{if you happened to miss Part I, here it is from last week’s newsletter}
In our fields, located in Kfar Bin Nun in the Ayalon Valley, we grow a combined vegetable garden of around 100 varieties of vegetables and herbs, all organically grown. The method by which clients receive “a box of surprises” allowing a connection between farmers and community is called CSA – Community Supported Agriculture. The CSA concept was born of the turbulent ’60s in Japan, where it was termed teikei, literally “partnership,” but philosophically “food with the farmer’s face on it.” This type of relationship allows for your direct financial support of a small farm like ours, while receiving quality products in return which are tasty, fresh, and often unique and surprising.
From Day One we were rewarded by great mentors who were experienced and quite generous with their advice. The Israel Bio-Organic Agriculture Association’s counselors recommended we establish our farm in Kfar Bin Nun, and thus we started out in the field of the Poker family. Chaim (z”l) and Leora Poker were organic farmers who had been cultivating an organic vegetable field in their plot for 17 years before we arrived. Leora was very happy to pass over her land and all her knowledge and good advice to young farmers who would maintain the healthy, fertile organic earth. And so we found ourselves at Kfar Bin Nun, which has now been home to us for over a dozen years.
Today, our land is located on Moshe Dagan’s field. Moshe and his late wife Rachel took us under their wings, opening their hearts and backyard to our busy and sometimes noisy packing house. They escorted us step by step and helped us expand at a moderate and “organic” pace suited to our rhythm. Another kind neighbor who helped out from the very beginning is Gabi Za’afrani, an old neighbor of Bat Ami’s at the adjacent Mishmar Ayalon moshav where she lived when she first established Chubeza. Out of his own free will and good nature, Gabi did all he could to help out the amateur farmers by explaining, teaching, lending his tractor, offering advice, finding equipment and supporting us in every possible way. To this day, we are happy to say, he helps out with his tractor and is always there for us, doing everything and then a little more.
Some of our plots are located in the moshav itself, hidden among the rows of houses, mischievously peeking out from between them. Others stretch out more comfortably in plots located outside the moshav. Each plot has its own unique characteristic. One is very well drained, while the other can become swampy over winter. One hosts cultivated earth deep and easily, while another can only accommodate shallow growths. There is a plot located right next to an olive grove, while another boasts a view of a small vegetable plot belonging to the next-door neighbors. One of our plots is adjacent to a small charming tree grove, while the great big fields spread out over a small hill, overlooking the Latrun intersection and the entire Ayalon valley. Some plots are 30-year-old veterans of organic farming, while others turned organic only upon joining Chubeza within the past five to ten years.
Over the years, we grew vegetables only in the open field, as is the case in most of our fields. However, after becoming established and gaining experience in open field farming, when we felt mature enough to proceed and the opportunity approached, we renovated a tall nethouse, four acres wide, located on our field just waiting for us to take over. After two years of learning how to grow vegetables “indoors” we set up a few high Polytunnels where we grow vegetables that need more protection from the dangers of pests or extreme weather conditions.
Our crop variety repeats itself annually based on the rhythm set by the seasons. We try to grow every vegetable in such a way that it can regrow in our fields at the suitable season, from huge pumpkins to tiny snow-peas. (There are only few vegetables we attempted to grow that we had to give up on.) We try to grow several different varieties of the same vegetable for two reasons: one, to enrich the vegetable boxes you receive, and two, to maintain the original heirloom varieties. Almost every year we attempt to introduce one or two new vegetables we haven’t yet grown, or new varieties, checking out a new method or trying out a different way of growing something familiar. This experimentation provides challenges, renewal and novelty in our experiences.
Perhaps because we were assisted by so many veteran farmers who were always so quick to provide advice and experience, we place utmost importance on a readiness to listen to other farmers. As we aspire to learn from experience, helped by veteran advice, we’re quite attentive and open to the creativity of young farmers new to the organic world.
Thus, over the years, we have added more vegetables to our repertoire (sometimes surprised to discover how simple they are to grow), built growth houses, added initiated biological pest control (when you grow in the open field, biological pest control takes place on its own), expanded and improved our very simple packing house (still modest, but oh so sweet), learned to build an open-sided shelter to store pumpkins, and more….
CSA also means teaching and explaining organic agriculture, or any agriculture, seasons, animals who are our partners in the field, etc. in our weekly Newsletter and in response to questions and sometimes to angry complaints. The ultimate message we try to relay is that we are not the owners of this earth, but rather its workers, making every attempt to avoid harming it. That not everything was meant for the pleasure of human beings and needs to be speedily provided according to human preference, but rather that attention must be paid to the animals, insects, tiny microbes, and lumps of earth. Not only out of compassion and kindness, but to the contrary, because we are dependent on their activity and behavior in order to exist upon this earth.
It is important to us to make a direct connection between consumers and manufacturers, to deepen the acquaintance of consumers with the methods their products are prepared, by offering a variety of products that are natural, uncultivated and free of additives, as well as supporting the development of small, independent local manufacturers. Fortunately, over the years we have established many connections and cooperative efforts with independent manufacturers throughout the country to give you the opportunity to obtain additional products to add to your boxes, including organic fruits, organic almonds and dates, organic chickpeas, organic flour and semolina, goat milk products, raw honey, organic crackers, raw food products, dried fruits and “leather”, organic olive oil, rye bread and pastries, apple juice, ciders and jams, sesame spread and coffee.
Agriculture is difficult and challenging. We cannot control the weather, insect offensives, surprise visits of rodents or various pestilences. But this makes everything – sprouting, growing, blossoming, fertilization and ripening that occur in the field at all times in various beds, constantly changing and renewing – an amazing wonder, and a great remuneration for the exhausting efforts and awesome responsibility. We know that we are merely one part of the complex puzzle allowing this colorful celebration of life, and so happy and proud for the opportunity.
We would like to end this Newsletter with the beautiful words of Ehud Manor:
May the sun soon shine upon us and our whole congregation may it light the way to the source of water from now and forever may the wet rain fall upon us and our whole congregation may it make the grass and forest green from here and forever There are many places in the world And in them all, the distance is the same from earth to heaven As they walk from sea to sea, carrying a light weight upon them They aim to wander, never wishing to arrive May the rainbow descend upon us and our whole congregation may it paint the open valley from here and forever may the night cast its darkness upon us and our whole congregation may it put fear and sorrow to sleep from now and forever may a star now fall upon us and our whole congregation may it remind us to make another wish again may the moon cast its beams upon us and our whole congregation may it flare the current in our veins with the fire of a great love oh, may it happen in my day and time upon us and our whole congregation, and upon everyone oh, may it happen in my day and time upon us and our whole congregation, from now and forever.
Wishing you a happy and blessed year. May you be inscribed in the book of kindness, peace and tranquility!
Alon, Bat Ami, Yochai, Dror and the Chubeza family
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WHAT’S IN THIS WEEK’S BOXES?
Thursday: Okra/onions/zucchini, sweet potatoes, lettuce, coriander/dill/parsley, corn, red and green bell peppers, Thai lubia/lubia, eggplant/cherry tomatoes, New Zealand spinach/kale, cucumbers, tomatoes.
Large box, in addition: Scallions/leeks, Swiss chard, potatoes.
And there’s more! You can add to your basket a wide, delectable range of additional products from fine small producers: flour, fruits, honey, dates, almonds, garbanzo beans, crackers, probiotic foods, dried fruits and leathers, olive oil, bakery products, apple juice, cider and jams and goat dairy too! You can learn more about each producer on the Chubeza website. On our order system there’s a detailed listing of the products and their cost, you can make an order online now