Well you would think shopping in the land chosen especially\u00a0for us by the Lord himself would have everything one needs to live a healthy life.\u00a0 Sadly not the case.\u00a0 We have been here for weeks now and I haven’t tasted a decent tomato.\u00a0 In fact I havent tasted a decent anything.<\/p>\n
I have been told that in Israel, one needs to eat “seasonally”.\u00a0 I.e. they dont import out of the season so whats around is what there is.\u00a0 I have no problem with this, have always been happy to eat seasonal food as its much better for us and the environment.\u00a0\u00a0 We\u00a0used the Riverford Vegbox\u00a0delivery system for years and everything tasted lovely. \u00a0And believe me if its possible in england (with the exception of citrus, as to my knowledge nobody has ever managed to successfully grow an orange on the small rainy island) then here it’s a breeze.\u00a0 The winter here is a lot shorter and its not like one has to subsist on potatos, cabbage,\u00a0leeks and old apples for months on end.\u00a0 The issue is not, therefore, eating seasonally.\u00a0 It’s the total lack of decent produce.\u00a0 Apparently, in true Jewish mother-martyr style, all the “good” stuff is exported and the all rubbish is left here for the Israelis to manage on.<\/p>\n
If I ever saw fruit or veg for sale in tesco with an Israel sticker on it, I bought it.\u00a0 Whatever it was.\u00a0 That’s just me.\u00a0 And it was always lovely.\u00a0 Tesco used to sell these organic sweet potatos which I recently worked out were from a kibbutz down in the south.\u00a0\u00a0 When we went to visit the kibbutz, I was informed by a family member that the kibbutz doesnt eat those sweet potatos, nor the organic carrots they also export, they eat the cheapy non-organic ones, despite living RIGHT NEXT TO THE FIELD.\u00a0 Very sad.<\/p>\n
Obviously one cannot expect to get the best quality produce from the supermarket, so having given up on supersol I was given the name of a giant warehouse selling fruit veg, meat, fish and bread.\u00a0 It was very cheap but EVERYTHING\u00a0I bought from there tasted of nothing.\u00a0 The tomatos, the peaches, the cucumbers, everything.\u00a0 I cannot believe that living here in the north, surrounded by organic farms it can be so hard to find good produce.<\/p>\n
The other day I was in supersol when I spotted a special offer on some fish fillets already in a package.\u00a0 They call it “Amnon” fish, or “Moosht”, we call it\u00a0a St Peters.\u00a0 I was wondering whether I could get away with frying it so I asked the guy at the counter how fresh it was, as from my experience the discounted stuff in these places it whatever has been sitting around longest.\u00a0 “oh its very fresh” he tells me, fishing one out of the tank for me.\u00a0 I watched in horror as it flopped around desperately in his hand – doesn’t he know I am scared of\u00a0 whole fish??? Anyway, I agreed to buying 2 kilo and he starts dragging out tons of them from the tank and bashing them on the counter by their heads.\u00a0 “What are you doing??” I\u00a0shrieked him, “and why so many?” he tells me I will need at least 5 to make 2 kilo of fillets.\u00a0 Yikes.\u00a0 Anyway I ran away screaming much to the amusement of a lady having a coffee in the bakery section, who was practically on the floor laughing at me.<\/p>\n
Anyway it was yummy, just had to erase that image out of my head whilst eating it.<\/p>\n
I am also deeply unhappy with the milk.\u00a0 It tastes of cows.\u00a0 Husband thinks its because we are possibly buying a higher fat content than we did in England.\u00a0 But I think it’s because we got used to drink organic milk, from cows living in rainy green fields.\u00a0 It’s a fact of life – Israel is simply not designed for cows! I am concerned about what is actually lurking in the dairy products we eat here, but I havent spotted organic milk anywhere and without a car we can’t really explore.<\/p>\n
Most years we collect our old etrogs and turn them into jam or candy, using an age old recipe\u00a0passed down from my\u00a0maternal grandma.\u00a0 This year, I have been advised against it as apparently the only way Israeli famers can get their etrogs looking tiptop is to spray them with copious pesticides.\u00a0 So this year in the holy land will be the first year I don’t do it \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n
Never mind, the weather has cooled a bit, and as I sit here writing this in my succah with a slight breeze ruffling our palm trees, I can hear our Ethiopian neighbour singing something\u00a0really cheerful with his son.\u00a0 It’s a little more atmospheric than my previous home where my neighbour used to sit outside\u00a0reading tabloids with some dreadful radio station blaring.\u00a0 Wearing only his underpants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well you would think shopping in the land chosen especially\u00a0for us by the Lord himself would have everything one needs to live a healthy life.\u00a0 Sadly not the case.\u00a0 We have been here for weeks now and I haven’t tasted a decent tomato.\u00a0 In fact I havent tasted a decent anything. I have been told … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8889,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aliyah"],"yoast_head":"\n