As the season changes, our fruit boxes are keeping pace. Due to the high price of fruit, we offer two sizes of fruit boxes during summertime:
Small fruit box – 70 NIS
Large fruit box – 100 NIS
Choose your preferred size and advise us via our order system.
Here’s to a sweet, juicy summer!
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Shavuot Changes
Over the week of Shavuot, Monday deliveries switch to Tuesday 11/6.
Chag Sameach!
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Fire
Last week we were struck with red hot, sweltering days. At Chubeza, as soon as we started feeling the temperatures rise, we set out to help our vegetables cope with the approaching heat stress. The mercury indeed skyrocketed to 42-44 degrees!
When attempting to cope with such a heat wave, human beings take measures to protect themselves from direct sunrays by wearing hats, seeking shade, drinking a lot, hunkering down at home with the AC or fan blasting, or heading for the water, be it a shower, beach, swimming pool or natural spring. The vegetables, on the other hand, are stuck in the soil, right where we planted or seeded them, with no option to escape…
To make their lives easier in the open field, we stretched shade nets over the more sensitive veggies (specifically the greens) and the growth houses, to shield them from the glaring sun and lower the temperatures a bit. And, of critical importance, we filled up their canteens “because it is important to drink a lot!”, i.e., we upped the duration of irrigation to provide the plants with a generous portion of water to fight the loss of liquids (which of course escalates in the heat) in the leaves and the hastened evaporation of the water from the soil.
And indeed, our plants made it through the heat wave with flying colors – all but the cherry tomatoes which grow in the open field (and were not coddled with a shade net) whose plant tops and inflorescence were lightly scorched. But they are tough plants, and our guess is that they will overcome this challenge and eventually make it. But this may delay their yield. We are also waiting with trepidation to see if this stress will take its toll over time – the plants are sometimes able to pull through at the cost of weakening and becoming vulnerable to disease and other ills. We hope our fears will prove groundless, so to speak.
There is one advantage to this very hot weather and the accompanying dryness, especially following such a rainy season. Leaf diseases and various funguses tend to thrive in moist weather. The very welcome rain also improved the conditions for several leaf pests to develop and damage the potatoes, for one. Potatoes are seeded in the middle of January, at the peak of wintertime. For some years now, we have pushed up the seeding schedule as the warm temperatures arrived early for the mature potatoes to enjoy. But this year they were cold and grew very slowly, challenged by numerous leaf inflictions. They had it hard. Then came the heat waves which dried up the fungi and other pests, becoming quite a boon. However, as of yet, this year’s potato crop has been unimpressive with smaller yields and smaller sizes than usual. But to our delight, they are still aesthetic and yummy.
The sweltering heat waves also spawned forest fires in our area – north and south. Although the flames avoided Kfar Bin Nun, they did ravage our neighboring communities of Mevo Modi’m and Kibbutz Harel, where entire homes were gutted. In these times of cautious, gentle healing and return to routine, we send our hopes for strength, growth and restoration to the families who suffered losses.
Wishing you all a good, soothing springtime week,
Alon, Bat Ami, Dror, Yochai, Orin and the entire Chubeza team
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WHAT’S IN THIS WEEK’S BOXES?
Monday: Zucchini, beets, lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, onions/ leeks, cherry tomatoes, New Zealand spinach/Swiss chard/kale, coriander/dill/parsley.
Large box, in addition: Cabbage/yellow string beans, butternut squash/acorn squash, fakus.
FRUIT BOXES:
Small: Nectarines, bananas, peaches, apples/melon
Large: Nectarines, bananas, peaches, cherries
Wednesday: Zucchini, beets, lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, onions/ leeks, cherry tomatoes, New Zealand spinach/Swiss chard, coriander/parsley.
Large box, in addition: garlic, butternut squash/acorn squash, fakus.
FRUIT BOXES:
Small: Bananas, peaches, avocado, pomelit.
Large: Bananas, peaches, avocado, cherries.