It’s not as if these questions are unknown to us: “What, you want to brew beer?”, “More chickens? Are you opening a zoo?”, “Making ham and sausage? Is that another hobby of yours?”. Most of the questions came from Germany. These thoughts are not even foreign to us, or let’s put it another way: we can understand them when you live in Europe and can get everything so cheaply. In Israel, we have to watch what we spend, especially when it comes to certain foods like meat. But thanks to the high costs, we eat more consciously. That is also an advantage.

In recent years, we have thought a lot about what we eat and where our food comes from. We generally find the question of origin important. That’s why we started keeping chickens back then. Although I, Benjamin, had more land in Germany, it never occurred to me to grow anything. Looking back, I don’t even understand why it didn’t occur to me. Maybe it was (my) demands, mental blocks or other priorities. However, I have to say that there are too many regulations, laws and requirements in Germany.
Alex was recently amazed when she wanted to read up on the topic of “growing asparagus in your own garden” and found a long explanation about the correct pH value of the soil. With some instructions, you wonder whether it’s really about implementation or rather about acquiring knowledge. In Israel, I got used to a new kind of pragmatism. It’s about getting to work faster and finding solutions. This is probably one of the reasons for the many successful start-ups in Israel. People want to find solutions and not weigh up contingencies.

In any case, there was no critical eyeing of our work from friends and neighbors. There is interest and nobody thinks we’re weirdos.

2018 – the raised beds are coming

One of my favorite projects are our raised beds, which we created last year due to a lack of space. They are particularly well suited to herbs and spices such as mint, sage, lemon, various types of basil, thyme, rosemary and a few others. For the beds, we almost exclusively used leftover materials that we had or had collected: old pallets, foil and nets.

But!

We have finally been able to start our long-awaited project and replant the beds. As part of this, we installed an irrigation system, a souvenir from Germany, which uses very little water. It is largely based on drip irrigation. The water drips directly down the stems.

Without irrigation, everything would die. This week it’s supposed to be around 40 degrees. We expect the next rain in October/November and are currently still working on the right amount of water. In the picture you can see a tomato bush, so that the moisture stays in the soil better, we have laid out straw.

What is the ultimate benefit?

What we grow has a completely different taste, it is not a mass-produced industrial product. Whether in sauces, spice mixes, as a fruit drink, tea or in a main course, we can say that it tastes good to us and our guests. Clearly, no chemicals are used.
We are particularly proud of the different varieties we grow. Many of our salads are now only rarely grown.
And we are still a long way from reaching our goal. We have been planning to lease more land for cultivation for some time now. We don’t yet know when this will happen. But we are praying and hoping that it won’t be too much longer.

Spinning?

No! For us, it means quality of life and sustaining life. It is an attitude to life that we have discovered and gained knowledge about in recent years: the blessing of growing your own food, experiencing the process of growing, not being able to speed things up, harvesting gratefully. Truly an enrichment for life. Further insights will hopefully follow.

How do we manage that?

We make time for it, regardless of whether we are in the garden, making sausages or brewing beer. For us as a couple, these are activities that we are happy to swap for series or other consumption.

We will be reporting regularly from “our little farm” in future.