New Year Preparations – Changes in delivery dates over the holidays:
- – During the week of Rosh Hashanah: Wednesday delivery will be moved to Tuesday, September 19th and the ordering system will close (for that Tuesday) on Sunday, September 17th at 1:00.
– The week of Sukkot: Wednesday delivery will be moved to Tuesday, October 3, and the order system will close (for that Tuesday) on Monday, October 2 at 9:00 am.
– During Chol HaMoed Sukkot: There will be no deliveries, thus you will not be receiving boxes on Monday and Wednesday, the 9th and 11th of October.
Back to normal schedule on the week after Sukkot and Simchat Torah.
If you wish to increase your vegetable boxes before the holidays, please advise as soon as possible.
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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 Tuesday, October 10, the 20th of Tishrei (fifth 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. We look forward to seeing you all!
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Strong Friendships
Today our vegetables take a step back to make room for our friends. As life moves back to normal, there’s lots of new excitement in our Additional Products section. This Newsletter is thus dedicated to introducing you to some new friends, new products and old acquaintances in a new form.
We are big believers in direct contact between consumers and manufacturers, and in the value of being close to those who grow and develop our food. Over the years, a number of small and medium-sized manufacturers from across the country who create quality products from excellent raw materials have become members of the Chubeza community. They are all masters of simplicity – no preservatives or additives needed.
Wandering among the additional products which may be added to your Chubeza boxes is a sensual experience. Among the myriad of colors, flavors and fragrances, you will find organic flour ground in Hadera; goat cheeses from Tal Shachar; honey from the Golan Heights; olive oil, hummus and organic almonds as well as honey from the Jezreel Valley; organic madjhoul date honey, juices and health bars from the southern Negev; sprouts from the Hefer Valley; dates from the Arava; tahini and coffee handground at Karmei Yosef; unique live products from Beit Shemesh; crackers from the northern Galilee, and juices, jams, apple cider and fruit vinegar from the hills of Jerusalem. This prominent parade is joined by two newcomers this week:
The first, wearing the apron of our new baker, is Ido, a talented baker from the “Beit-Halechem” bakery. When searching for a new Chubeza baker, we received a very warm recommendation for Ido, and after we met him we understood why. Here are his own modest words:
“My name is Ido Blaustein. I love baking and absolutely adore fresh, healthy food from excellent raw materials. In my bakery, I bake sour dough bread from organic whole wheat, never adding yeast, sugar or oil. I try to make sure all the additions to our breads are organic, though sometimes, due to price constraints there are exceptions (nuts or olives, for instance). I’m certain to inform clients of all the ingredients.
I am happy and excited to join the circle of Chubeza associates. Please feel free to contact me with any questions: 054-8191514
Ido gave us the simple version, the “bread and water” (so to speak), but I must add that so far everyone who has sampled Ido’s pastries sings his praises and gives thanks to the day he began baking, testifying to the fact that his love of baking is quite apparent in the outcome… In addition to baking bread, Ido also prepares excellent granola. Welcome!
Ido begins baking for us next week, and we will inaugurate his entrance to the Chubeza scene with a nice variety of breads, all organic and locally ground. It is possible that changes will be made in accordance with your requests. Check out the variety
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We welcome Michal and Avigail from the grinding mill Tahinna. They recommend you rediscover food you thought you knew really well, but do you really?
“Tahinna is located at a boutique factory situated in Kibbutz Netiv Halamed Heh in the Judean plain. The factory was established by Michal Melamed, a kibbutz member and clinical psychologist who decided to turn her life upside down. Big time.
Research and setting up the enterprise took five long years and included learning sesame and its unique characteristics, getting to know traditional methods for preparing Tahini and setting up machinery that could meet the qualifications for production.
At Tahinna, we believe in simplicity, health and flavor. We love doing things at the right pace and time. All in all, we prefer to stay out of nature’s way, going back to the basics, just like old times.
What does this mean? We do not remove the seed’s shell, do not roast it, or add a thing.
So what do we do? We clean the sesame and soak it pre-sprouting. Afterwards, we slow-dry it at a low heat (up to 40 degrees). In the end, it arrives at our grindstones where we grind it whole (shell included).
This unique, untouched process creates a new flavor – strong and lively and even wild!
The nutritional value of Tahinna is exceptionally high, abundant in calcium, iron, and vitamin A, with only a slight sodium content. Thanks to this unique process, the nutritional value remains intact and is more easily absorbed by the body.”
Tahinna is available in two sizes: 350 gr – 23 NIS/ 700 gr – 41 NIS. Try it now for an amazing discovery of something new, surprising and tasty!
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And after we have introduced the new kids on the block, let us welcome the veterans renewing just in time for the New Year with great new products designed to make us happy:
Tomer and Hamutal have resumed processing apples in their production factory in Givat Ye’arim in the Judean hills. This year they added a new line of organic pear products. As you may recall, they use the deprecated fruit left on the ground after harvest to transform to delicacies: fresh juices, ciders, vinegar and sweet jams.
In autumn, both organic apple juice and now pear juice join the durable products which hang in there all year long (cider, vinegar, jams). Soon, we will be informing you of new alcoholic pear cider joining its apple cider cohort.
Tomer and Hamutal’s juices are only with us for a few months, so don’t miss them! For all the details (in Hebrew), click here.
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Udi’s impressive team of sprouts in Moshav Ahituv is being joined by a bunch of very special guys, redheads at that – the amaranthus sprouts. Amaranth is a wild plant used for food and medicine in ancient cultures, returning to its full glory these days as a superfood containing protein, vitamins and minerals and no gluten.
The flowers and seeds of the plant are arranged like a remarkable stalk of grain on the stem, which is why it adorns many home gardens just for its beauty. The red seeds were used by the Hopi Indian tribe to produce the color red. Try Udi’s amaranthus sprouts to add a splash of color and flavor to any salad or sandwich. Here, take a look at these beauties from Udi’s Sprouts:
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With the abundance of ripening fruits in the orchards, Kibbutz Neot Smadar brings us fresh new organic juices from the Deep South. They’re now introducing small bottles of grape juice, grapefruit juice and peach nectar (in 1 liter bottles.) The juices contain no additional sugar (beyond the nectar’s natural sugar) and are all simply delicious. These beverages join Neot Smadar’s great organic date honey created from madjhoul dates (and only dates), and their yummy health bars.
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And one last Associate for this week
After a break and in perfect timing for the New Year, our apiarist Tamir from the Golan Heights has renewed his honey stock. Tamir cultivates beehives and bees in the southern Golan, producing amazing honey. This week we received brand new jars of wildflower honey and blackberry honey.
Tamir is a descendent of Ethiopian apiaries, learning the profession in childhood as he watched his parents work. Read more about him in this nice article (Hebrew) and enjoy his honey by adding it to your boxes.
That’s it for this week. Tune in next week for a close look at our other fine partners. And the good news is that autumn is right around the corner, so don’t despair at the hot weather attempting to set foot in your doorway. Its days are numbered….
Wishing you a great week,
Alon, Bat Ami, Dror, Yochai and the Chubeza team
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WHAT’S IN THIS WEEK’S BOXES?
Cucumbers are back! The cucumber bushes have begun yielding nice quantities, and although the market remains in the throes of a shortage, we are happily distributing fresh, yummy cucumbers from our very own farm. Thank you for your patience. Enjoy them, they’re great!
Monday: Parsley/coriander, corn, yard-long beans/okra, cucumbers, New Zealand spinach/lettuce, tomatoes, edamame (green soy), eggplant/cherry tomatoes, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, onions.
Large box, in addition: Slice of pumpkin, scallions/leeks, red bell peppers.
Wednesday: Parsley/coriander, corn, edamame (green soy)/okra, cucumbers, New Zealand spinach, lettuce, eggplant, butternut squash/potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, red bell peppers.
Large box, in addition: Slice of pumpkin, scallions/leeks, yard-long beans/tomatoes/cherry tomatoes.
And there’s more! You can add to your basket a wide, delectable range of additional products from fine small producers: flour, sprouts, honey, dates, almonds, garbanzo beans, crackers, probiotic foods, dried fruits and leathers, olive oil, bakery products, apple juice, cider and jams, dates silan and healthy snacks, ground coffee, tachini 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!