Aley Chubeza #261, September 21st-24th 2015

Changes in delivery dates over the holidays:

This week:

Monday delivery as usual (September 21st). Wednesday delivery moves up to Thursday, September 24th and the ordering system will close on Monday, September 21st at 12:00.

During Chol HaMoed Sukkot, there will be no deliveries, thus you will not be receiving boxes on Monday and Wednesday, the 28th and 30th of September.

On the week after Sukkot and Simchat Torah:

*Monday deliveries move up to Tuesday, October 6th and the ordering system closes on Sunday, October 4th at 9:00.

* Wednesday deliveries as usual (October 7th)

If you wish to increase your vegetable boxes before the holidays, please advise as soon as possible.

Subscribing to our weekly newsletter: The best way to receive messages and updates is via our weekly newsletter, which is published on our website and, in most cases, arrives directly to your email inbox. Those who do not receive the newsletter and wish to do so, please advise.  If you prefer to receive a hard copy along with your box, please notify me.

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 1st, 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 from all of us at Chubeza. We look forward to seeing you all! 

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Efrat, a veteran Chubeza friend, invites you to the annual 3rd Jerusalem Chalk Art Festival (so many titles…), on October 8th at the Railway Park. For more details, check out this link.

Highly recommended. Take a look at the invitation!

Come one, come all, bring your friends! Open to all ages, genders, religions, etc.

See you there!

Efrat Kampanyano, 058-673-5999 ______________________________________

Vidui (Confession)

Usually, Alon and I get together between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur for our annual, ritual review and self-examination of the events-in-the-field over the past year. Traditionally, we contemplate the year’s successes, failures and challenges, and then share the picture with you, along with our strategy for the upcoming year. This year, we haven’t yet had a chance to powwow, but when the time comes, we will share our thoughts in a Newsletter to come.

But with Yom Kippur just around the corner, I thought I should embark on some soul-searching in any case. Several years ago, a friend introduced me to the “complementary confession” – an alternative or perhaps supplementary addition to the standard “we have sinned, we have betrayed” Yom Kippur confession which accounts for 22 sins in alphabetical order. The supplementary confession is based on beautiful words by Rav Kook: “as there is great benefit to the healing of one’s soul in confessing sins… this holds  true also towards confessions of good deeds which will gladden one’s heart and strengthen his/her good ways.”

In the complementary confession written by Rav Benjamin Holzman, the Rabbi of Kibbutz Ma’ale Gilboa, each Hebrew letter receives a word of a positive nature, referring to life and deeds. And he is not the only one. Professor Vered Noam, a scholar and Talmud teacher, wrote a confession for adults which not only berates oneself for sinning, but rather contains compassion, acceptance and humane, healthy self- observation. Reading these beautiful confessions inspired me to write a Chubeza confession, a temporary replacement (or perhaps complementary) for the more practical summing up we will soon write. A confession by aleph-bet. So it’s not as well-phrased and refined, more like a salad of thoughts and emotions, perhaps more suitable for a farmer…

Anyway, here goes:

We have loved the land

Chosen seeds and plants

We trimmed

And thinned out

We smelled the scent of rain

Made sure the earth was moist

We seeded

Furrowed

Tasted

Sat down to take a rest

Bent our backs

Learned to cope (or to accept)

life with a new harmful pest…

We sorted out the produce

Wiped our brows

Told you the vegetables’ tales

Answered questions like “what is this petrified corn”?

We weeded, and weeded and weeded

and scattered compost

We rejoiced

and harvested

Made lists of veggies in the boxes

Delivered the vegetables to you

And thanked the Lord, the earth, the rain and sun. And we thank you for all your love and support. 

אהבנו את האדמה בחרנו זרעים ושתילים גזמנו דיללנו הרחנו את הגשם וידאנו שהאדמה לחה דיה זרענו חרצנו תלם טעמנו ישבנו לנוח כפפנו גו למדנו איך להתמודד (ולפעמים להשלים) עם מזיק חדש מיינו את התוצרת ניגבנו זיעה סיפרנו לכם על הירקות ענינו לשאלות “מה זה התירס הקשה הזה”

עישבנו עישבנו עישבנו פיזרנו קומפוסט צחקנו קטפנו רשמנו רשימת ירקות בארגז שלחנו אליכם ירקות תודות לאל, לאדמה, למטר ולחמה, ותודה לכם, על התמיכה והאהבה.

May we have a beautiful year blessed with saturating showers, and a juicy sweet year of abundance and health!

SEE YOU AT THE OPEN DAY!

Shana Tova from all of us at Chubeza:

Alon, Bat Ami, Dror, Yochai, Mohammed, Majdi, Ali, Poom, Vinay, Ding, Tamir, Amit, Shlomi, Elli, Alon, Gabi, Moshe, Melissa, Devora, Ruthie, Azriel and Alon. And from your loyal translators, Aliza and Melanie.

WHAT’S IN THIS WEEK’S BOXES?

Last week’s tomato shortage continues. We picked the little amount remaining in the field, including cherry tomatoes, but still, most of your boxes will be tomato-less this week. We did not purchase supplemental stock because of the low-quality of the produce available.

We hope that this dearth of tomatoes will be very temporary!

Monday: Red bell peppers, parsley, slice of pumpkin, lettuce,    eggplant/cherry tomatoes/carrots, basil/Swiss chard, scallions, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, Thai beans/ okra. Small boxes only: corn/potatoes.

Large box, in addition: Leeks, potatoes, coriander/mint (nana), corn.

Thursday: sweet potatoes, cucumbers, paesley/cilantro/mint, lettuce, yard long beans/okra, scalions, basil, pumpkin, potatoes, red bell peppers, small boxes: carrots/eggplants.

Large box, in addition: leeks, Swiss chard/kale, carrots and eggplants

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 and goat dairy products too! You can learn more about each producer on the Chubeza website. Our order system also features a detailed listing of the products and their cost.  Make an order online now!

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