2016 was the year of the great awakening. Here are the questions that came bursting into awareness that demanded answers. If one lives in Israel and reads the Torah, shouldn’t the words that were written in the Torah match up with the land under one’s feet? And if those words written in the Torah functioned once as an agricultural road map shouldn’t that road map still function in the same way today? And if those two questions can be answered answer with ‘yes’ then why isn’t someone or anyone still using this ultimate instructional manual in their daily life to not only live their lives by but to grow their gardens by as well……especially if one lives in Israel.
But in 2016 there was no land under our feet as we lived on the middle floor in an apartment building. So instead of planting seed in the earth we earnestly planted seeds of prayer in heaven. Prayers about the lack of land and the need for land to understand the words more clearly that are written in the Torah. Two years were filled with hikes, prayers, watching the land yield to the rainy season, watching what the earth produced first, watching the wild grains and tender greens be born on the land, watching how the rains left and the plants left for the year, and more prayer, lots of pray. How can the words of the Torah be practiced without a little land?
In those two years of watching the land the calendar of the Jewish bible began to leap off the pages of the scriptures. The verses and the plants came together in harmonious cycles of fruitfulness. All of the seven species listed in Deuteronomy 8:8 can still be located in situations where only the rains from heaven water and sustain them. This is the key to understanding the Biblical calendar; the key is knowing and following the firstfruits of the seven species that are still watered from heaven only by Hashem.
10 For the land which you go to possess (Israel) is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; 11 but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, 12 a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year. 13 ‘And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. 15 And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.’ Deuteronomy 11:10-15
Were the words still true and how can they be known to be true without land?
In October 2018 the location of Shade of the Olive Tree became available. Moshe and Rivkah both felt the location and the timing were correct for making a leap of faith to nourish a small and modest piece of land. For many months a source for wood chips or wood mulch was searched for. The mulch was needed to distribute on the property. The mulch would be needed to protect the roots of the plants from the hot Israeli sun until Hashem caused abundance to the property. Finally in May 2019, after the extended rainy season had passed the fresh pine mulch was delivered to the property. May, June, and July were spent focusing on distributing pine mulch to the depth of at least 8 cm in the total back garden and part of the front garden. Then the pine mulch was opened in trenches and drip irrigation was laid through out the back garden on top of the soil and covered back over with mulch. This resulted in 6 formerly thought to be dead citrus trees bursting back to life from either their roots or the base of a dead tree stump.
There was a lack of ability to plan for the delivery of the pine mulch due to the extended heavy rains of 2019. This cause a lack of ability to plan for the delivery of fertilizer or soil amendments before the shredded pine was placed around the property. In addition the cost of delivery in Israel is extravagant and would have prohibited an additional delivery payment for manure or good worm compost. But it hasn’t seemed to matter. The growth in the gardens has been miraculous.
Next year has the promise of abundance as we step back and allow Hashem to water as we plant. How much will be needed to water in the dry season? How many years before the property is canopied with trees and the rains no longer evaporate? The best average time is for a property to become a food forest is five years and that is achieved with lots of soil amendments and additions of micro-organisms in the first year. But what will it be here as we observe the biblical calendar and keep the commandments of Hashem and keep His commanded days of rest? He has promised blessings of abundance and peace as a reward for obedience. We look forward to pleasing Him and seeing His work on this property He has provided for our use.
Already the garden is being called a paradise as it has not only survived temperatures of 109 degrees fahrenheit (41.1 celsius) but it has thrived and yielded peppers, eggplant, squash, etc. Already visitors all note and comment about the feeling of peace that prevails on the property. Birds have begun to return to the property as have bees, butterflies and dragonflies. We had a bumper crop of lizards that include even chameleon lizards. All of this promises a restoration of balance to the land.
There are currently 24 food-bearing trees on the property, of which fourteen are citrus trees and it’s not known what all of the citurs trees are because some did not have time to bloom last season as they were being reborn. What we do know is there are pomelos, tangerines, orange, lemon, kumquat, loquat, avocado, almond, apple, olive, fig, pomegranate, papaya and mango. In addition, there is an old grape vine that has come back to life and a newly planted passion fruit vine. There have been six new trees and one vine planted in 2019, the rest of the trees were already here.
In the coming year the goal will be to continue to plant a few more food-bearing trees and to start planting fruit bearing bushes in between the trees. The pine mulch is in place in the front garden and drip irrigation has begun and will continue to be expanded with each new tree or bush.
Shade of the Olive Tree rests on one dunam which is one-quarter of an acre, while the land may be small יהוה is mighty to provide.
