Kraut in the afternoon sun

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The late afternoon sun was warm here at the Franziskusgemeinschaft in Austria.

A good time to harvest the cabbages.

In German cabbage is Kraut.
The kitchen has served Kraut in many different recipes in the ten days I've been working here, and they are all good.
Krautfleckerl was today's noon meal.  It is a typical Austrian dish of square pasta and carmelized white cabbage. 

Two community members cut the remaining row of purple cabbages in the front garden.
I followed them and uprooted each plant, shaking the rich dirt from the roots.
That's a first for me.
I love learning new farming things from the dedicated people who have tended this land since the early 1980s.
We wheelbarrowed the harvest back to the courtyard (Hof) and worked on cleaning up the cabbages and selecting which would head to the cellar and which would be cooked the very next day. 
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(Linking to SkyWatch Thursday.)
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Jausenbrote -- breaking bread in rural Austria

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This evening some 15 of the community members walked five minutes up the road to this Gasthaus for a nice supper.

A common sight in Austria. 

Lots of  geese in a big pasture.
The neighbor farm also raises cattle, pigs, chickens.

The menu is overwhelmingly pork but I found one smoked beef dish.

They make every time of beverage imaginable from their apples.
It is high season now for the apple pressing. 

The meal comes on a thick slice of bread, served on a wooden cutting board.

Everyone gets a sharp knife to cut it into manageable sizes.

I took a backwards stealth picture of the one side of the cellar.
There were more happy Austrians on the other side.

Here between two guests is Mr. Luif, the nice man who owns and manages the whole farm and restaurant.
Four generations live and work together.
See more at their website, in German.
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The bounty of the earth

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This afternoon we took advantage of the sunny day (the first I have seen in my 9 days in Austria) and worked outside.
Nice how the beets are color coordinated with the wheelbarrow, no?

We prepared the freshly harvested root vegetables for storage in the cellar.
 There was parsley and some other herbs too.

Here I'm showing off a 3-fingered carrot.
The food here at the Franziskusgemeinschaft  is great.
The community of 18 members is self-sufficient in meat, dairy, vegetables, and fruit and nuts.
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Peppers and more peppers

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So here I am at a farm in rural Austria, at a community (as in commune) founded in 1984 and built by a handful of idealists seeking to live together in the spirit of St. Francis.
I will be living here for a month, helping in whatever work I am given, and learning a lot.
It is my first time in Austria and I'm really excited.

This is an exceptionally rainy and cold October in Europe, so we can't work outside much.
Instead, the members had what we used to call in the kibbutz a giyus, where everyone who possibly can comes in to work together on a project that needs quick attention.
Today we took care of the many beautiful peppers from the big garden.
In German they are called Paprika. 

After I washed each pepper, we started chopping them.

Letscho, or in Hungarian, lecsó, will be the end product of this morning's work.
Wiki explains that "Lecsó is a Hungarian thick vegetable ragout or stew which features green and/or red peppers and tomato, onion, lard, salt, and ground sweet and/or hot paprika as a base recipe."
New to me.
 

A good time was had by all, mostly in German but partly in English.

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Libby makes capsicum boats

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 Granddaughter Libby is only 5 but she is already a specialist at making capsicum boats.
She fills capsicums (bell peppers) with tuna and avocado.  

During my recent visit to Australia I was surprised to find my daughter's new kitchen has dappled mirrors as splash boards. 
Just the thing for the bloggers' weekly meme Weekend Reflections.

Libby is so cute in her school uniform.  (This is the winter one.)
She is in kindergarten at a friendly public school.
It was the end of winter when I came to Australia but by the end of my visit, two weeks ago, the kids were just switching to the cooler summer uniform.
Libby's brothers go to the same school and must wear a white shirt and sometimes even a tie; and all the kids need a wide-brimmed hat in the sun.
I think it looks nice and gives a good feeling to have all the schoolkids looking so tidy.
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Pure and simple

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My daughter, the healthy-eating expert.
And what a cool juicer she has. 

I enjoy eating and drinking Australia's delicious fruits and vegetables (and more!) this month at Naomi's house. 
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Fresh produce of many colors

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For ABC Wednesday, now in its 8th year, N is for Nature's bounty.
This is what I brought home from the big open-air market/shuk in Beer Sheva.
The prices were higher than usual today but still, all this cost just 60 shekels, which is 14 Euros or $15.
They say it is very beneficial to our health to eat a variety of different colors.
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Green grape leaves, stuffed

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For ABC Wednesday  G  is for grape leaves, stuffed and ready to go in the oven!

Elma, the new special hotel I've been telling you about, believes in the "eat locally" philosophy.
And there is certainly no lack of grape leaves in Zichron Ya'akov

After becoming the patron of the struggling pioneers who started the moshava Zichron in 1882,  Baron Edmond James de Rothschild a few years later helped establish the first winery in Israel, Carmel Winery, together with a bottling factory, in Zichron Ya'akov.
 In 1892 the grapevines succumbed to phylloxera, but after a brief set-back, American seedlings resistant to the parasite were grown and the winery began to flourish.
Today you can tour the active winery and see one of the huge wine cellars that were carved into Mt. Carmel over a century ago.
This short video shows  a bit of charming Zichron and the new Center for Wine Culture. 

* Elma's website is a work in progress, and the hotel/arts complex itself is nearing completion and its official opening.
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Jewish new year 5775 begins now

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Here's the bakery man slicing and packing three different kinds of honey cake.
They will be gifts for the two different families here in Meitar  who invited me to Rosh Hashana  holiday dinner tonight and tomorrow.
The bakery and the flower shop were popular places this morning. 

Honey means we hope and pray for a sweet new year.

"May you be inscribed and sealed [in God's Book of Life] for a good year."

More about Rosh Hashana in previous posts:

Symbolic foods 

A stone sculpture of the Akeda 

The binding of Isaac

Fish heads

New calendar for a new year

Tashlich bread to the fish

Tashlich at a monastery

Shofar, tashlich

The world's birthday

Pomegranate symbol
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Shwarma: to take away and take to

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Today's idea for City Daily Photo theme day is "Take away store."
Every CDP blogger will have quite a different example to show you. 

One of the things I miss about Jerusalem are the shwarma stands on just about every corner.
For a little over 20 shekels you can get a whole delicious meal in a paper bag.

It is fun to watch the man "shave" the nicely-spiced chicken and turkey and/or lamb  meat off the turning skewer, stuff it in a pita, and add salads, humus, tehina, and French fries on top.

And a nice story about shwarma in today's Chabad.org/News.  Rabbi Danny Cohen tells this:

I visited soldiers on Sunday, right on the front lines in one of the areas where the units go in and come out. Our staff has been making daily visits to these places. After a few days, due to the generous support of others, we realized that for the time being, they have enough underwear, socks and toiletries for now to open a Costco. . . .
Instead, we have a friend/donor who insisted on sponsoring hot food for the soldiers, who are used to being served airplane-quality cuisine.
So we rolled into the area with 350 portions of hot shwarma in pitas.
The soldiers said at first, they thought it was an illusion due to the heat ... they were so appreciative that was hard to find someone who didn’t want to put on tefillin as well.
On Wednesday, we brought 450 falafel in pita sandwiches, again from sponsors (blessings on their heads). This was met with countless smiles; the food provides energy and nourishment for the soldiers. And about 150 guys wrapped tefillin.

See photos of the soldiers with their shwarma at Chabad News. 
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Paying for pears from Patagonia!?

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Israel has long been a leader in agriculture, so I was quite shocked to see foreign fruit in the supermarket.
Look at these stickers!
The code for the apple I think is from somewhere in Europe.
And the big pear?
All the way from Argentina!  "Fruits from Patagonia" the sticker says!

The prices are high and the taste (of the pears, at least) is low.
What's going on?

Then I remembered our snow storm last December.
And the four straight days of heavy rain and damaging winds.
So much agricultural produce was doomed then.

Now I read that our Ministry of Agriculture agreed to abolish customs duties on apples and pears, beginning last March, for the entire year of 2014.

 Lettuce, zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, and cucumbers also enjoyed several months of being duty-free this year.
If not this, our cost of living would have skyrocketed.

I hate buying fruits and vegetables at Meitar's supermarket because they have a monopoly and charge way too much.
Next week I'll take the bus in to Beer Sheva and see what the price situation is at the big shuk, the open air food market.

Someday, some year, our farmers might get the promised government compensation for the loss of their crops last winter.
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Fruit on a skewer

The little fruit "trees" in honor of Tu BiShvat  were so pretty that no one wanted to consume them at the all-day archaeology seminar today at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

It is an old Jewish tradition to eat dried fruits on this holiday, the new year for the trees.
But the sellers in the big market in Jerusalem that I just now saw on Israel TV were lamenting the fact that dates and raisins are  about the only ones that are local; all the other dried fruit is imported from Turkey, Hawaii, and Thailand.
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Happy Tu BiShvat!
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New fruits and a loofah

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I know, you are probably thinking, "We saw this photo before."
But actually what I bought at the shuk two weeks ago were different kinds of fruit and some of them are already out of season.
And today I splurged (because of a family party coming up) and bought a few spiky pink-and-green  pitaya (dragon fruit), guava, and carambola (star fruit).

Also of interest on my table here are a pomelit (a small pomela), kiwi, figs, pomegranates, and "a personal watermelon."
Oh, and a loofah! 
It's a fibrous plant seed pod.
After amusing the grandkids with it (e.g. bopping them on the head), I'm going to cut it into smaller pieces and try to use one like a sponge in the shower.

Here is the entrance to Beersheva's Municipal Market where all these fun fruits came from today.
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(Linking to Our World Tuesday.)
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The kids have landed!

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The family has landed!
After two long long flights from Australia they drove into Meitar at 1:30 a.m. on Sunday.
But in these first few days my grandkids have already  done the most important things:

(Photo by Naomi, Libby's mom/my daughter)

Libby did the quintessential Israeli thing: she ate a Krembo.

Krembo  has its own entry in Wikipedia which says "Krembos have achieved the status of a pop-cultural item and a national icon."

Also says this (believe it or not!):

Under Jewish law (Halacha), there is some significance to the order in which one eats a Krembo. The blessing over the biscuit is boreh miney mezonot, whereas the blessing over the cream and chocolate is shehakol nihiyya bidvaro. According to halacha, when eating a dish of mixed components, one need pronounce only the blessing over the main components, thus for a chocolate croissant one would say the blessing over the dough, and skip the blessing over the chocolate. But in the case of the Krembo, there is no consensus as to which is the "main" component: the biscuit, or the cream and chocolate. One solution is to bless over each component separately.

 
Eyal bought a school uniform shirt for Psagot School and  started  where everything was new to him--the classmates, the teachers, the place, the language.
His favorite class the first day was English.
(The kids know some Hebrew from home but they will learn a lot more living in Israel.) 
Eyal was a pretty brave boy. 

Ten-year-old Dean found the trampoline at the house the family is renting for their six-month stay in Israel.
How they had so much energy instead of jet lag I'll never understand.

A lot for less

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My family will be arriving from Australia on Saturday night!
I wanted to welcome them back with what we call kol tuv ha-aretz,  all the best our land has to offer.
So I took the 45-minute bus ride into Beersheva and wandered around the big shuk (what the English map calls the Town Market, not to be confused with the Bedouin Market).
I found the best of the produce and bought a little of each kind.

Unpacked on my kitchen table, it doesn't LOOK like a lot.

The fruits and vegetables and nuts  looked more voluminous when still in bags.

I can assure you they weighed a ton when I shlepped them in two tote bags and in my backpack from the shuk to the bus  and then from the corner bus stop to my house.
It was almost my limit.
But I was happy to be a good provider for my grandkids, at least for their first day or two in Israel.
And the price was right (at least when compared to the inflated supermarket prices in Meitar).
At the shuk you always get A LOT FOR LESS (which is good because today is L Day at ABC Wednesday)!
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Eeuw

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My first visit to the open-air market in Beersheba was an eye opener.
The fruits and vegetables were colorful, plentiful, and not expensive.
But seeing the heads and insides of cows or sheep displayed  was not something I was used to in Jerusalem's Shuk Machane Yehuda.

This picture of the butcher with a long knife about to cut something I knew only from anatomy course  made an "offal" impression on me.
Enlarge the photo if you have the stomach for it.
The term offal is used in the United Kingdom while  in the United States organ meats or the euphemistic term variety meats is used instead.

If you really really want to learn the strange vocabulary, see this food blog. 
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Abu Shukri

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Here is grandson Dean, the famous photographer from my previous post, and his famous yellow hat and sunglasses.
When he was here from Australia last summer he and I ate humus and falafel at Abu Shukri, the famous (in its simplicity and popularity)  eating place on El Wad Street in the Moslem Quarter of the Old City.
Abu Shukri has been there like forever and I hope it always will be.
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Soldiers and sandwiches

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S is for soldiers and sandwiches (or in Hebrew, sandvitchim). 
They were sitting just outside the Old City wall.
I think they were getting a head start while  "guarding" their comrades' lunchboxes.

I took the photo from across the street so you will have to click once or twice to see the boys better. 

Once inside Jaffa Gate they started trekking like Sherpas down the narrow pedestrian-only lanes of the Old City.
The whole group of young soldiers was probably waiting for them at the open square in the Jewish Quarter, where there is room to picnic.

Walking around with a knowledgeable guide, learning about our national heritage  is part of soldiers' training in the Israel Defense Forces.

And as Napoleon reportedly said, "C'est la soupe qui fait le soldat," meaning "An army travels [or marches] on its stomach," meaning  "a group of soldiers or workers can only fight or function effectively if they have been well fed."

Bon appetit, dear soldiers!  
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(A post for ABC Wednesday meme.)
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Bring on the loquats!

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Soon these loquats will ripen to a nice yellow-orange color.
Then the birds and bats will know it is time to visit the tree.

In Hebrew they are called shesek  and Israel is the world's #2 producer and exporter, after Japan.

Eriobotrya japonica originated in SE China.
It was introduced into Japan and has been cultivated there for over a thousand years.

The fruit is juicy and tangy and nutritious.
Just don't bite the hard seeds by mistake--they are toxic.
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Bubble mystery

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I've never seen such big bubbles while boiling rice.

But can bubbles have straight lines??

And can my kitchen light reflected in each bubble count for James' Weekend Reflections meme? 

Enlarge the photo and judge for yourself.  Whaddaya think?
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