Israel part two: life on the Moshav

My sister, Judith, and her family live on a Moshav, between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, close to Jordan and close to 400 metres below sea level. A farm in the desert? Yes, indeed: peppers and tomatoes and dates and watermelon and flowers and courgettes and more. We saw the Moshav's produce for sale in Tel Aviv; you may well have eaten peppers grown by my brother-in-law, or tomatoes from his neighbour.

Smilebox: the Moshav in January

Israel part one

Here's the first complilation of photos--from the Arava. There will be more to come: it was a wonderful trip and, as always, hard to leave.

Smilebox: a day in the desert

A few more pictures from Israel

See the jeep?

See Dolly?

 Dinner in the desert! Prepared by Itzik (above) who drove the jeep.

Thank you Judith for arranging such a wonderful day!  Happy birthday Shimon!

In Israel

Winter oaks

The decidous oaks are all bare. Huge, statuesque, California's trees.

The "live" oaks--evergreens--shed some of their leaves every day, but hang onto enough through the winter to hide their branches.

Sunny Sunday

An American Robin enjoying the red berries...

... Fury sneaking a few minutes in the sun...

... the new rose garden...

... and lots of pots of bulbs and daffodils waiting for spring.

January

This mild, dry winter has allowed me to spend several days outside during the Christmas and New Years' holidays, and this weekend. I now have a rose garden, where last summers' tomatoes grew; several bare-root, floribunda, grandiflora and one or two hybrid tea roses, all fragrant (of course)... and mulched with leaf-and-grass compost from last year.

Today I planted a plum tree (Prunus salicina 'Santa Rosa') and a "common" lilac (Syringa vulgaris), both at the back of the garden at the boundary with the green belt. I wandered here and there around the whole plot, brandishing the plum sapling, trying to find a spot where it would have enough light and yet not grow up to shade the vegetable garden, nor be under an oak tree. I hope this spot is the right one.

The broad beans are growing well under their chicken-wire nissan huts, which the turkeys have not yet overturned. I will plant more tomorrow, and some peas.

Maybe it will rain at some point this winter. Maybe.

OK, OK. I know.

Update is long-overdue. Been running around: two trips to England, one to Russia, down to the San Francisco Bay Area too... in-between have been preparing garden for spring planting, using sheet mulch to (hopefully) kill off the weeds and prepare the soil.

Also found my tree guy--at least, I think so, we'll find out when the tidying-of-trees happens tomorrow. And of course the decision had nothing to do with the fact that he sounded just like Sam Elliott. Really.

And the gate--the one that fell on and squished Karli--is upright and safely tied in place. It will be fixed and safely functional within the next couple of weeks, once the contractor has obtained the needed parts.

New vegetable garden before...

... and after. Weed/light block of old newspaper and recycled-paper mulch topped with garden compost from the pile and some netting to hold it all in place.

And there is room for more. Where to put the asparagus bed?

Fireplace discovery

The living room fireplace is a wall of rock with possibly the ugliest fake brass insert, still full of old ashes. The chimney needs a new liner so there will be no fires built in this... And I thought that it was hiding a cement mess and not a proper fireplace.

But this evening I found out how to remove the top trim and could peek in, behind the insert. There is a huge , proper brick fireplace! Perfect for a mass of candles.

Anyone want a Country Comfort fireplace insert? Complete with free cobwebs? Perfect for hallowe'en!

Pumpkin!

Over 12lb. Scales won't weigh more

Harvest food

Gluten-free garden zucchini/courgettes cake

Location:Citrus Heights

One welly-booted step at a time...

Second bank of sprinkler valves has now been fixed--this one controls the irrigation around the fruit trees and around the south-west side of the house--the first bank to be fixed controls the beds around the pool and the bank behind the pool fence. Each bank has either five, or six, valves controlling five or six sprinkler circuits. I've dug up and fixed most of the sprinkler heads and excavated several areas where the underground pipe was leaking but the valves and timers or rather, the whole water and electricity thing, is not my idea of fun.

Now I can make a permanent herb garden; dug and planted part of it this morning; tarragon, garlic chives, sage, German and Lemon thyme, rosemary and a volunteer baby sweet basil all planted.

Then it was already too hot to dig any more--at 10.30 am--so rest will have to wait until later, or early tomorrow.

Planning what to plant in the rest of that border...

Pickle and chutney season!

With nearly 1/2 an acre that I can grow things on, this year is just a beginning. Windfall apples from the existing tree; lots of cherry tomatoes and heirloom tomatoes and lemon cucumbers and squash and pumpkins.This weekend I plan on digging the first new vegetable garden ready for "cold season" planting (lettuces and peas for example, yes this is Sacramento).

Americans are not often very familiar with things like English chutney and pickles. "Chutney? What's that?" But I love making it and Dylan, at least, loves eating it. So as well as searching for an authentic-tasting pseudo-Branston-Pickle recipe online, I was browsing my oldest cookbooks (bought in an Uppingham second-hand bookstore when I was expecting Jade). Not only did I find some yummy recipes, I also learned a lesson in food preservation... and how timid we have all become over the years.

The book is hardback, "British Everyday Cookery" and it has an advert for Fry's Pure Concentrated Cocoa on the back, and the price "1/6 NET" on the front cover. That's one shilling and sixpence; equivalent of 7.5 pence in current British currency, a few cents US.It's full of recipes that I remember from my childhood, like treacle pudding and bread-and-butter pudding and toad-in-the-hole and trifle and vegetable marrow (yuck) and Victoria sandwich (yum). But it's the preserving section that I was looking for and some of the recipes will have many of today's cooks freaking out in their sterile, sanitized kitchens....  here's an example.

TO PRESERVE WHOLE TOMATOES FOR WINTER USE
Fill a stone jar with very sound, ripe tomatoes. Place a few cloves and a sprinkling of sugar between each layer. Cover with a mixture of equal parts of mid vinegar and cold water which have been boiled. Place a piece of thick white flannel over the jar, letting it fall well down into the vinegar. Then tie over the jar a cover of brown paper. These will keep for a long time and will not be harmed even if the flannel collects mould.

Hmmm yummy. Mould. That would have the exterminators and fumigators lining up... and yet, this was how food was preseved for winter when few people had refridgerators or iceboxes. Salt, sugar, and vinegar. Sometimes boiled up and sealed in jars with wax-paper rings and a muslin cover; sometimes in boxes or barrels and layers of salt, sometimes just stacked in a root cellar or laid out on in the attic. People lived on what was in season, what they could preserve, and what they could gather.

While I enjoy the immense choice we have today, and the ease with which we can keep food fresh and healthy, I very much enjoy being able to grow my own food. More coming soon.

Sunday was chutney day

Lots of small, windfall apples, almost-ripe but brusing immediately they touch the ground. Grabbed before the turkeys got them on Sunday morning, and made chutney: apples, onions, dried apricots, a few raisins; vinegar, spices, fresh ginger and brown sugar.

Tomaisins (Copyright. Me)

 Large batch of cherry tomatoes picked on Saturday--the day my new dehydrator arrived! There are yellow pear-shaped tomatoes, mini red ones, little gems, and Juliet grape Romas (they, for some bizarre reason, make me sneeze, those Juliets).

First I washed them, as they have been allowed to sprawl all over the garden, as well as climb up bamboo tripods.

 Then I halved them and laid them on the dryer racks, lining them up towards the center. That is not so much OCD coming through but rather following the instructions in the manual. The yellow ones looked better on the rack, all perfectly aligned, but the photo was fuzzy.

Then turn on the dehydrator: 135 degrees F, and leave alone. There's a fan inside that circulates the air through several layers of drying racks. It took longer than the manual/cookbook said--more like 24 hours than 6, or 10 hours--but eventually...

TOMAISINS!!!  Tiny, sweet, tomato raisins that are like little chews of sunshine.

And I'm supposed to store them away and eat them later? Really?

Better grow a half an acre of them next year.

Round yellow cucumbers!

Fresh from garden this morning. They have a clean, mild flavour.

Oh pumpkin

I have never grown a pumpkin before. Now the plant is taking over, and there are many more pumpkins to come. But this is the firstborn!

Sunny sunflowers!

Sunflowers! Learned that squirrels dig up the seeds, so next year they will all be sprouted in pots and then transplanted. These are in a container on the patio.

Location:Citrus Heights

Growing up... And over

Cherry tomatoes entwined with cucumbers and roma tomatoes and a watermelon vine that has only just taken off. Garden madness!

Folsom Zoo

Is it really that long since I wrote anything here? Seriously... where does time go?

Today, Jade and I visited Folsom Zoo, a sanctuary for rescued animals, those who cannot be returned to the wild for one reason or another. California black bears (sadly Fisher is no longer here), who help test bear-proofing of garbage cans... a blind skunk called Gizmo who was hiding today... coyotes and mountain lions.

Did you know that a bear who wants to get at the food you've left inside a locked car, will sit on its roof and bounce until something pops open? Or that wolves will eat pumpkins, and spit out the seeds?

That's what I learned today...