One of the most prominent and veteran organic websites in Israel is “organic life.” This site is administrated by its founder Hila Aflalo, a naturopath who taught for many years in complementary medicine colleges and has been treating detoxification through nutrition for nearly a decade.
At the end of this month, Hila will be conducting a workshop for detox through nutrition, a healthy and natural way to cleanse your body of toxins. Our body knows how to neutralize and disperse the contaminants– all we have to do is give it some assistance without disrupting the process. The detox leads to losing weight, weaning oneself of salt, sugar and/or caffeine. Plus, your energy level will increase and you can improve or even rid yourself of health issues and symptoms that disrupt quality of life.
More details about the workshop which will take place in the Shavit Center in Ramat Gan, may be found here. For further information, contact Hila: 052-3435558
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In our “Extras” Department:
*The delicious organic pomegranate juice that had been MIA for some time has now returned to Chubeza.
*We now have in stock Minchat Ha’aretz whole spelt flour and 70% spelt (non-organic).
*Eliezer of “Shorshei Zion” has a new yummy product: raw chips in such diverse flavors as banana-date, pizza and sweet potato. The important thing about these chips, like all “Shorshei Zion” products, is that they are “raw” food, created at low temperatures so as not to harm the nutritional value of the raw food from which they’re made.
You are welcome to add any or all of these distinctive products to your order via our order system
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Rainy Days and Mondays
“On the fifth day, which was a Sunday, it rained very hard. I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.”
― Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Our foreman, Mohammed, told me that when he woke up at 3 AM everything was still dry and silent, but a few minutes later the thunder started rumbling from way up north. The lightning and thunder grew slowly closer, and when he left home at 4 AM to walk towards the machsom, the rain had already started. Lots of rain. A veritable flood. It wasn’t strong or mighty, but there was water galore.
It rained at Chubeza for hours. Two hours after the first drops, everything was already muddy and very wet. Sunday rains met those of two weeks ago, still waiting under the earth. They embraced each other like old friends, and became one. And still the heavens poured buckets of raindrops, and continued to do so till late afternoon. In the field, we stuck to the vital tasks: we harvested the necessary vegetables and then hurried to the dry warmth of the packing house to concentrate on rainy day chores.
The carrots, beets, daikons and radishes which we pulled up from under the earth made their brown, muddy appearance. They all received a long soak in our vegetable tubs (these are actual metal baths that have been with us for over a decade, right from the very beginning). We soak the vegetables in them for an hour, then wash them in bunches and allow them to drip-dry into netted plastic boxes. Despite these ablutions, you will receive wintery, rather muddy vegetables this week that will probably require another rinse or two to reach full cleanliness.
Gosh, it’s weird to harvest peppers and eggplants on a wintery rainy day. A muddy corn, too, is a surprising sight. And still, as we have only arrived at the onset of winter, and Sunday’s big rain was not frigid or frozen, and we could definitely get by with a sweater on days such as these, there are still final harvests of these summer vegetables. The last corn bed was harvested this week, and eggplants and peppers will be with us a little longer till it’s really cold. When the harvest of summer vegetables takes place on a rainy day, we almost feel like a rainbow.
What joy to harvest the new winter vegetables! Today we harvested the first cabbages, the flat type. They are great big ones, full of rain from the past few weeks, with many crowded leaves, creating a juicy and healthy round head. Then we crossed over to the broccoli beds to chop off the heads of the first broccolis – They’re beautiful! Green and chockfull of joyful winter. This is great! The cabbage and broccoli are both sprinkled with drops of freshness, as if they were specially made for a winter vegetable commercial.
In the late afternoon, the skies lightened and patches of clouds dotted the blue heavens. What a beautiful sight. Monday may hold a few more showers in store, and after that, two days of clean high and open skies, promising all the goodness of winter: hope and life.
Sending a message of health, recovery and a lot of strength to Puah, Oded and their son, Eyal. You are always in our thoughts.
May we have a good wintery week, fresh, clear and healthy!
Alon, Bat Ami, Maya, Dror and the entire Chubeza team
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WHAT’S IN THIS WEEK’S BOXES?
Monday: Sweet potatoes, celery, lettuce/arugula/mizuna, tomatoes, beans/lubia/Jerusalem artichoke, parsley/dill/coriander, cucumbers, carrots, kale/New Zealand spinach/winter spinach. Small boxes only: beets, leeks
Large box, in addition: Totsoi/Swiss chard, daikon/turnips, cabbage/broccoli, corn/eggplant/bell peppers
Wednesday: cilantro/dill/parsley, spinach/tatsoi/Swiss chard, cucumbers, green leaf lettuce/arugula, tomatoes, kohlrabi, sweet potatoes, green and yellow beans/yard long beans/fresh black eyed peas/Jerusalem artichoke, carrots, small boxes only: leek, beets
Large box, in addition: daikon/radishes, slice of pumpkin, eggplants/peppers/corn, cabbage/broccoli, celery
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, pomegranate juice 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!
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A winter soup with summer-veggies – curry pumpkin-corn soup