When Life Gives You Grapes...

...You Make Wine?

Today was a little different while WWOOFing.

I've done a lot of digging. A lot, I think somewhere around seven or eight two foot holes. I've dug a pond, knocked down the wall of an ancient homestead, I've installed poles, poured concrete in the holes. I've smashed rocks, planted a lot of seeds. I've cleared a yard, two greenhouses, and a complex of weeds and other detritus. Not complaining. It is the shmita after all here in Israel.

Today I actually got to try my hand at harvesting.

Grapes. Not just any grapes, but mainly grapes for use in wine. I'll be harvesting the rest tomorrow.

It was interesting. Each line of grape trees(? Bushes?) took about two hours. We were actually helping our neighbors, the other volunteer and myself, while our host was visiting family.

Let's go with bushes.

Here's about how large each of those bundles are.

Ok that photo didn't really do justice to how tiny these grapes are.

Nearby were some bushes that were neglects, so I hacked some off.

Those grapes are incredibly small. The larger grapes are your average sized grapes. Not good for wine apparently.

I don't actually know the first thing about grapes, or why smaller grapes are better for wine, which is what these grapes will be turned into.

Here's a site that explains it; something to do with the larger the grape the more juice instead of skin which contains the flavor.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/fermenting/growing-grapes-and-making-homemade-

wine-zmaz03amzgoe.aspx

Here I am picking the grapes;

Next will ensue the photos;

I have to say there is something satisfying in harvesting a field. I wouldn't call it fun- the actual cutting of the grapes was pretty difficult. The grape bushes are plants on steppes, but the ones we worked on were prone to collapsing. Combined with biting ants, and bees (not sure why, there's no water or flowers so...)

But actual carrying a bushel/basket of grapes to the storage shed felt great.

I actually got to feel for a bit what it's like to farm.

Plus lunch was great- the host family is vegan, so the person I helped today isn't and it was the first time in three weeks I've had meat. I'm pretty sure that's what enlightenment feels like, or at least dying and going to heaven.

Somewhere in-between I suppose.

And that's what WWOOFing is about.

WWOOFing

WWOOFing, or rather as it is better known as WWOOF, stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, and Willing Workers On Organic Farms, is an international network that exists worldwide in 99 countries.

Boy that was a bit of a wordy explanation. But it needs to be said, because every time I tell someone I am currently WWOOFing, they go 'Huh'? or for the ones who don't I'm assuming believe I'm acting like a dog somewhere.

Quite the opposite; It is a system where, basically, I work for a person who is building a farm or something of the like, in exchange for room and board, and in some places also transportation. It depends on how friendly the family is and your relationship with them.

I've been here near Beit Shemesh in Matava Matta, a village similar to a Kibbutz (still trying to figure out how much different they are, but it seems by very little.). So far the experience has been exceptional. At the very least very interesting.

To start with I will refer to my host family by their first names only; Josef and Rachel. Josef hails from France, whereas Rachel comes from Mexico. First time I ever met a Mexican Jew. We've had some good conversations about missing Hispanic food. I'm still looking for Nachos in Israel; wish me luck on that.

They live in a Yurt; which was pretty surprising. They in the past had a very large house which was a spiritual center which not only housed animals, but operated in teaching Jewish perspective on how to meditate. They eventually decided to put into action their dream, packed up their bags and began a project to start an organic farm a bit away from where they used to live atop a hill.

Here is the yurt;

A closer view;

It looks modest, but it's awesome inside;

What I'm not showing in the interior photos is the hallway between the two yurts that leads to a bathroom as well as storage closet, and their very large bedroom.

Y'know, respecting some of the privacy.

The yurt is also hooked up to an electric line, as well as water, and even has wifi. Even though they may live relatively off the grid, those of us who are volunteering (such as the New Yorker and UK jews I joined here) are not.


 They also have pets! That's their dog Leo, as well as one of the three kittens. I took these photos during the hottest part of the day today around 3 P.M. so these two are doing their best to just sleep through the heat. Can't blame them.

There are also quite a few chickens.

Here is the tent where I sometimes sleep; I split my time between there and the room they rent which is pretty nearby.

The space in front is actually the garden they will be growing. It has enough room to sustain their family year round. Because this is the seventh year in the Hebrew calendar; Shmita, and is the year of rest. Where slaves are freed, and the land is allowed to refresh. In fact, it is completely permissible to pick fruits and vegetables from gardens and farms (where they observe Jewish law) where it is growing without it being considered stealing or trespassing. It is a year of giving. For example, there is a pomegranate tree

See, Pomegranate. Anyway, I pass it everyday, and if I want to, even though it is growing in the neighbors yard, it is completely OK for me to pick that last pomegranate. So that is why the garden has nothing growing in it presently; the Shmita won't end until September 2015, which is when the first plantings in their project will have begun.

So thus far this is what we have done this week;

Finished a pond, digging it down which in its own right was cool. Israel is filled with history, like literally at this point I'm assuming that within the hills are the remains of houses long since buried. As we dug the pond we began to notice that a lot of what we were digging through was solid rock. It was only when we started digging up pottery shards, and noticed that a lot of the stones were squarish, and had right angles that we were accidentally excavating an ancient house.

So I got my first introduction to firsthand archaeology.

We filled the holes we had dug with Pumice to filter the water discharged from their house. In September this will become a fish pond they can harvest fish from.

2000 years ago this was somebody's house. 

The next day we built their campfire that will be hosting a singing group over the next week;

We had so many rocks from when digging the pond we had to do something with them. The land we dug was approximately 35% stone, 60% dirt, and 5% grass. Of the stone, about 10-15% I'm convinced was somebody's house a long, long time ago.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served, and it is very well cooked. Unfortunately for me it is also Vegan, so I've had to scrounge to get cheese, which I managed to. They don't expect their children to be strictly vegan, so they didn't mind at all. I keep it in the room that is adjacent, which is more like a very small apartment.

We spend each meal talking to each other; Josef, who is very spiritually active especially with the Kabbalah has found a kindred spirit with me, and we engage in long discussions while walking, working or at the table over how we both have very similar views on life and morality, the world and people, yet how my views stem from Buddhism and his from Judaism. Just an hour before writing this post I commented that it is good our views our complimentary yet come from different sources- this way they can better support one another because of the difference. Sometimes difference can mean additional, as is the case here.

But enough philosophy; Today is Shabbat, and I got to take part in a very personal tradition the family holds for how they celebrate it. I then stuffed myself silly on squash soup and Tofu and mushrooms. I didn't say I wouldn't eat Vegan, just that I really, really miss meat, and its only been five days.

If you're looking for a cool way to explore a country, especially Israel, WWOOFing is a great way to go about it.

And if you're looking for a spiritually rewarding experience as well, hit up farm256.


 As a bonus, here are the hills you can see from the homestead Josef has set up.

And A view from just in front of the farm; Matava Matta.

Israel WWOOF site: http://wwoof.org.il/

Into The Negev Part 2

After spending the night in the Bedouin camp, we woke up early. I have a habit of waking up very early, around 3-4 a.m., depending if I feel like sleeping in.

I didn't. Some of the others wanted me to wake them, but I could only remember one of whom to wake up, and that was Roman, our New Jersey hailing, Polish descended Politicist. I actually got a complement that however it was I woke him helped him get up perfectly... even though he had only slept for two hours.

There was another group I think doing birthright at the camp, and they were up late having a bonfire and singing literally through the night and into the early morning. Jews really, really enjoy singing.

Anyway, the reason we got up so early was because we were to go to Masada and seeing the sunrise there is apparently a pretty big thing to do. When it does rise.

We scaled one of the two paths, I only found out later in the day that the way we had ascended was built into the mountain alongside the ramp the Romans had built to take the fortress.

The other path is actually about an hour and a half long hike, and snakes up the mountain. And from a tactical point of view, actually would have been super easy to defend.

Not going to lie, the entrance to Masada at twilight is pretty damn spooky looking,
That's San tearing off past me.

I was determined to be the first up to Masada from our group, and despite being a smoker, did alright. I didn't get the privilege however, as our Jewish hulk, Mad Max, and San San tore up the mountain at a full sprint. They actually got so far ahead of the group that they just kept going, when our kibbutz hooked a right immediately to stand at a viewpoint of the surrounding canyon.

Unfortunately there was too much haze from the dust of the desert for us to see the sun rise. Apparently the optimal time is to come during the winter or spring, when there is some rain to bring that natural smog down.

We then traversed to the lookout point, where I gotta say we got quite a sight.

But what was actually really interesting to me, was this photo;

Those squares you can see at the base of the canyon are the remains of the Roman camps; eight of which at one point surrounded Masada. What makes this particularly interesting to me is that Jews look to Masada with pride; how they refused to surrender. During the Yom Kippur war it was even a rallying cry that helped keep the line together. However, some think the mass suicide after the holdout was all a myth, because of how it was communicated by 'survivors' which there were supposed to have been none of. But when you see the roman encampments like that, there seems to be some truth that all myths are based on something very real that happened.

Here are remains of the Barracks.

A lot of people ask how water was sustained in Masada; it was thanks to deep pits not unlike the ones we explored the day before that were dug into the ground. This is the entrance to one of those massive pits.

Ruins.

This is a photo of what is left of the Roman ramp. The path to the left of it is what we ran up.

This is the spot where the Romans burned through the walls, which were composed shockingly not just of stone.

After this we saddled back and had breakfast. Our next step was off to the Dead Sea, and boy was that an odd experience.

For one, the dead sea is about ten times saltier than normal ocean water, with around 34% salinity. You can actually see the salt, the water looking sort of oily. It is very visible. And speaking of oil, it's impossible to actually swim in the water. It almost feels like something invisible is pushing/pulling you upward. 

The reason we stayed grouped together was in case we dipped our head underwater, or got the water in our eyes. Apparently the experience is super painful, and we would need somebody to guide us back to shore so we could rinse our eyes out.

For another thing, the water feels thick, combined with water of a temperature more at place in a bathtub than elsewhere makes the entire experience rather uncomfortable. It's really a once in your lifetime kind of thing; cool to do, but not that enjoyable doing.

We capped off our tour of the Negev by then hitting what could be called a shallow Oasis. We dammed it also to raise the water level, which we surprisingly did with teamwork by a bit. The waterfall was awesome. Even in the Negev you can find beauty like this. And when chilling at an oasis, one can actually see why our ancestors so looked to come to Canaan, and the hidden beauty you can find just around the corner, that so many hold dear who live here.

Into The Negev Part 1

"Doubt cannot override a certainty."

-The Talmud

Our last trip before I sojourn my way to Arad was to visit the area I will be living in for the next five to ten months.

I was kind of surprised. It's quite a daunting venture to try to turn the desert green. I have always been an avid fan of the Dune series by Frank Herbert. I actually brought three books very important to me to Israel; the Old Testament, The Book Of Five Rings which I consider the bible of martial arts, and God Emperor of Dune, my personal bible. Turning a desert planet into a forest, an Eden, is something that strikes me as exactly what is being attempted in the hottest and among the most desolate places on Earth. It is so dry, and so low, that one of the most hypersalinated lakes exist.

So I thought it pretty cool.

Our first stop was in a series of caves devoted in the 3rd century B.C. to the growth of pigeons for sacrifice at the temple of Solomon. In this region it is pretty common to find these pits, but this one was of particular note because of how well it was preserved. In fact, I would say it is near completely intact to the point that pigeons descended from those raised millenia ago still live there. When you build a farm and the animals raised there are still using the location even without people still there, you know you have built something well.

I apologize for the footage; my device to take pictures with tends to have issues when we go underground;

What was really surprising was this was a medium sized complex for pigeon cultivation.

Each of these holes is a roost for the birds.

Thereafter a 'Tel' was explained to us, using me as a prop. I'm aspiring to get my masters degree in archaeology while in Israel, and since I'll be what is called a 'lone soldier' here, I can get extra 'help' from the government in making that happen. I know that seems irrelevant, but I didn't mind being a prop.

Each hat represents a layer of history. The striped shirt is kind of fitting.
 It is unfortunate that a baseball team ended up being the current layer though, since it's on top and the most recent.

After this we spent the rest of the day schlepping around the cave system in the surrounding hills. Of particular note we traversed to an ancient winery, where our tour guide revealed she had been one of the excavators at one point. I enjoyed this because she was there when a twelve year old found one of the oldest documents preserved and written on clay that recorded a betrothal agreement where the future husband would trade over a 1000 camels for her hand. I'm not going to lie, back then, that was one rich dude.

Moving on we traveled to Bet Guvrin. It's a massive cave complex. One of its coolest features was the constant sound of bats. I made constant jests about this was the Batcave for the Jewish Batman, who I named Shlomo Rothschild. I'm sure that's not really politically correct, but to me its hilarious.

What was particularly cool was this one opening in the cave complex was me getting to go divine for a few minutes;

After that we went to the Bedouin camps. There I got to drink what they call coffee, but I learned was really just a straight cup of coffee. The Bedouins have pretty strict hospitality rules, but their life revolves around coffee traditions. Using an elaborate pestle they make a specific set of sounds, very much like drumming, to alert neighbors that somebody new has come to camp. This new person will be treated very well; even if a pot of fresh brew was just made, when this person arrives a new pot must be made.

There are three cups that are poured, one to welcome the traveler, one to acknowledge they will be taken care of, and another for the sake of having fun. It's pretty strong coffee. Even if you like the coffee, do not ask for a full cup. If they pour you a full cup, that means you need to leave. You've offended them somehow. They live off a strict, if you respect me, I will give you everything, if you don't go back to the desert.

So yeah, asking for a full cup, not a good idea.

 I did get to ride a camel, which I might add is not the best experience. It's better than riding a horse, they're softer, but they are quite awkward animals to say in the least. They don't like their heads or necks touched, and you will end up with your crotch really chaffed. Like really chaffed, which since most of our group was Jewish, meant that since we're rather hairy in the nether regions, meant most were suffering when we later went to the dead sea.

Hebrew Hulk Doing His Thing.

This was Day 1 of the desert. I will post Day 2 to segment the post, because most people do not enjoy reading. Not sure why, but hey, works for me.

Hope you enjoyed!

And go see the Negev, it has a certain beauty only a desert can offer.