Land of Milk, Honey and Whobasa

One of the many creative spellings of Neve Eitan

For the past 19 days I've been calling Neve Eitan and the Local Center for Health and Community my home.  It filled my days up with new flavors, alternative ways of thinking and lifestyle options I had never considered.  

If you had told me six months ago that I'd be living at the border edges of Israel, working at a small local community center and living communally, I'd have probably have laughed my ass off.  The person I was six months ago habituated Starbucks soy lattes and would plan a weekend around Lululemon sales.  I navigated farmers markets and got my organic vegetables from farm stands and CSA  (Community Supported Agriculture) shares.  These foodways existed as reliable solids in my life and my access to them happened automatically, almost without thought.  I had no relationship of my own with the origins of my food and I never wondered what would happen if these things suddenly disappeared or were challenged.  

Homegrown broccoli from the LCHC gardens

So when it did, it sent me down the rabbit hole.  I needed to work from the ground up to understand my relationship with food and its effect on a balanced lifestyle.  I found myself drawn to a small kibbutz on the fringes of Israel, where I amazingly had the chance to study and learn from a world recognized expert, Uri Mayer-Chissick on wild edible plants in the Levant, fermentation and living a nutritionally balanced life.  

So after 19 days here, I can walk through a field and recognize whobasa, silpad and dillion, collect them if I wanted (wearing thick gloves for the silpad!) and make a stir fry out of them; I can ferment cabbage and lemons and understand the biological environment needed to make that chemical transformation take place; I've weeded gardens, watched broccoli and radishes grow and most importantly spent time with the wonderful people who add personality and warmth to LCHC and Neve Eitan. 

Stir fry of whobasa, silpad and onions

I've become much more involved and aware of where my sustenance comes from.  It's an incredibly cathartic feeling to be able to understand your ingredients and the venerable traditions being incorporated into the flavors a dish provides.  I underwent no apotheosis to become an amazing cook, but I know a little bit more about the origins of my food, how to find ingredients at my doorstep and the benefits of using them.  My favorite seat in the house has always been the kitchen; I've found it very meditative to listen to the sizzle of a frying pan, smell the spiced aromas swirl around and feel the warmth and energy generated by a meal.  

I hope that I've done a good job relaying the experience and interactions I've had.  Hopefully you get the feeling that I've been very well taken care of, feel a part of a family and been living some where unexpectedly beautiful.  It's been amazing to learn everything I have in such a unpretentious and down to earth, little corner of the globe.  I was trying to come up with the words to sum it all up, so I went out on a run to try to see what would come to me.  It was between rainstorms and even in the middle of such rapidly changing weather, the scenery was breath taking.  As the saying goes, a picture speaks a thousand words, so I think that's the way to convey it!

Hello ladies! Kibbutz = working farm.  Probably one of the reasons I feel so at home here!

Typical view of the farm fields past Neve Eitan

The view looking towards the mountains of Jordan.

Coming storm over a field of whobasa 

My running path

Some of the many date groves in the area

The road I run down, with Jordan in the distance

A different evening, out on a run, pelicans migrating overhead

These pictures are pulled from a few different runs.  I could never make it through an entire hour's run without stopping to take a couple photos of what was around me.  Apparently I became a recognizable figure on the kibbutz while I was here - I was "that American who runs".  

I'm now on this really unexpected adventure that seems to be focused on the power of food and the way it intertwines our lives.  From Uri, I've learned just how nutrition can bring together a community and provide a chance to teach others and interact more with the world around you.  As I've been blogging about what I was experiencing, it's really amazing how many people seemed to respond and be curious about the information I am finding.  I'm not sure what I plan to do with it, but I'm excited and optimistic about all the possibilities.  If you're curious, many of the recipes will be available from Uri's webpage, so I encourage you to check it out and interact with them!  

Chocolate bar I made and then promptly ate all of it!

So now I'm packing up my large, semi-mobile bags and heading south from Neve Eitan.  To those who welcomed me, put food in my belly and treated me like family even though they knew nothing about me, thank you.  I don't know if you realized how much you healed me and gave me a community and a place to call home.  I'm happy to know that I can always return here, and I hope that one day you visit me in the States.  You always have a place to stay with me and I will try my best to provide you a healthy and tasty meal! 

And now to the open road - which in Israel, is actually not that open since there will likely be traffic - although my next adventure is taking me somewhere much more open, which I can't wait to tell you more about - TOMORROW!!!