Up in the Northern part of Israel in the Lower Gallilee, is a magical place called Yarok Az. When I last said I was departing to this farm I was both excited, and thought it had lots of potential, but I was also nervous- mostly about getting off the bus at the right stop and navigating my way to the farm. Luckily both things went more or less as smoothly as I could have hoped, and I have settled in to my temporary home very nicely. The farm is in a village called Moshav Ilaniya, which is fairly close to Tiberias/Nazareth/The Kinneret (The Gallilee). A moshav is different than a kibbutz in that on a kibbutz everything is communal (or it at least used to be that way). But on a moshav everybody owns their own land and does their own work and makes their own money.
My first day I didn't do a whole lot, but I met the family who owns the farm- a husband and wife (Shahar and Hadar) and their 3 little girls, and the wife's father and mother (Avi and Esti, who used to own the farm) also live on the property and the husband, Avi, runs a good portion of the day-to-day operations. I also met 3 other wonderful people who were also volunteering and had gotten here a few days before me. They helped show me the ropes and helped make me feel comfortable here. They are all leaving before me on their own times, so I will possibly be the sole volunteer here for the remainder of my time on the farm. The family is all extremely warm and welcoming also. Not only did they have all us volunteers to their house for Shabbat dinner, but Avi likes to take the volunteers on field trips around the region. When I first got here he took us all for a swim in the Kineret which was very fun and refreshing.
The food that the farm grows is not for profit, so while it's quite large by most people's definition of a garden, it's not a large scale agricultural production. The food is mostly to feed the family, the volunteers, guests that may stay here, and their friends and neighbors. They also have 2 milking goats and 5 kid goats. The goats also produce a fair amount of milk, but again it's not sold. They used to sell their dairy products, but their main source of income right now is the hospitality section of their farm. They have 2 "eco-domes" which people can rent for the night to sleep in. The property is along the way of a popular trail that people hike called, "The Jesus Trail." Basically it's about a 4-day hike people can do that goes to various sites that had significance in Jesus's life. Many hikers will stop here for the night if they are hiking that trail.
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| The domes and part or the fruit and vegetable garden |
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| The hut I've been living in |
Let's get to the magical part though, it goes something like this: want a salad? Go pick it. Want some tea? Go pick some leaves (spearmint, lemon basil, something pepperminty called white micromeria). Want some milk for your cereal? Go milk the goats and boil it. Want some eggs? Go say please and thank you to the chickens. I find it to be a very special thing to be able to sustain ourselves predominantly from the food right outside our back/front doors.
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| Ready for tea |
The past several days I have been working on a mural/border on a wall that they want visitors who hike the Jesus Trail to be able to sign. I can't say it hasn't been awesome to sit around and paint all day. Other things that I do around the farm include weeding, picking the produce to make sure it doesn't get too huge or overripe, stain some wooden boxes, and clean out the extra straw from the goat cages. And honestly the last one could be a little gross, but I found it quite fun. The kids are in their own pen and it's quite hilarious trying to clean up with them in there because they're more or less like little puppies. They're so eager to not only see what you're up to that they stand exactly on what you're trying to clean up, but they are also constantly trying to nibble and lick you.
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| The border I was painting |
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| Detail shot |
The cheesemaking has also been a dream come true for me. Remember way back when I got to Jerusalem many moons ago that I said I had discovered labneh (as I described, a mix between Greek yogurt and cream cheese)? Well I got to learn how to make it, and it is delicious! And I've made milk, yogurt, and a cheese called tsfatit, which I find to be very similar to fresh mozzarella. It's all fairly easy, mostly it's just a process of bringing the milk up to a certain temperature, then bringing it back down to another temperature, and then adding bacteria and possibly some enzymes, depending on what you're making. I haven't had to do any of the measurements, so I don't know exact recipes, but I'm hoping I can replicate some of these at home, now having the basic idea in my head of how it should go.
It's a good thing I already have a ticket home booked, because otherwise I may never have been able to leave this farm.
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| The yogurt in bottles- similar to kiefer |
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| Making the tsfatit |
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| The tsfatit- 3 of the 5 cheeses from this batch |
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| Sayin hey |
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Mr. Cock-a-Doodle-Doo running quickly away in fear because he needs a better internal clock
since he cock a doodle doos all the live long day and night |
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