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Pleasure Hunting / Home Grown By Ronit Vered Tags: israel news, produce  Last week a farmers' market debuted in Ra'anana - a new branch of the Tel Aviv Farmers' Market, which opened almost a year ago at the port. Residents of the seaside metropolis have already become accustomed on Fridays to seeing farmers unloading dusty vans full of crates of fresh produce picked early in the morning, and starving shoppers sitting and dangling their legs on the pier, with leafy carrots, wedges of cheese and crunchy bread crusts in their laps. In Ra'anana Park, visitors to the market can enjoy a relaxed improvised picnic on the banks of the lake in the company of pelicans, swans and a gondola retired from the canals of Venice, or on the soft grassy hills nearby. In the markets of the global Earth Markets movement, which have apparently accepted the Israeli farmers' version into their ranks, there is special emphasis on localism. To avoid transport of local produce over long distances, organizers abroad make sure that farmers don't travel more than 40 kilometers to sell their wares. Israeli markets, for obvious geographical reasons, are not required to meet this standard, but nevertheless the entrepreneurs involved in the new Ra'anana enterprise, Shir Halperin and Michal Ansky, are trying to give their market a local flavor as well. Following is the story of three farmers from the Sharon region, once the agricultural center of the Land of Israel, who participate in both markets. An orange tasting of childhood memories Advertisement The Shamouti species, which made Jaffa oranges famous the world over, is a product of a spontaneous mutation deriving from local Baladi oranges in the mid-19th century. The first crate of these new oranges was sent from the Jaffa port by the British consul to the queen of England. Victoria was not the only European leader who boasted of the Shamouti oranges served at their table. Some 100 years later, a taste test involving oranges was conducted in the luxury fruits and vegetables department of Marks & Spencer in London. Our faithful old Shamouti only made it to 10th place and met with a resounding defeat when compared to the Moroccan and Spanish oranges. Sic transit Gloria mundi. But anyone who grew up on the taste of Shamouti oranges will differ with the opinion of the queen's subjects. Even the discerning palates of a panel of experts cannot argue with the sweet taste of childhood memory. The oranges grown by Elinor and Haim Mansfeld indeed remind one of childhood realms, of dripping juice staining our hands and faces, of fresh juice that Mom prepared every day when we returned from school. In the Mansfeld's orchard you can feast your eyes on two rare sights: a Shamouti orchard that is over 60 years old (most of the old ones were uprooted during the agricultural crisis of the 1980s); and a Jew standing on an old-fashioned iron ladder, picking oranges with his own hands and putting them into a sack. This enclave in the old Sharon - the region that boasted of orchards reaching to the horizon, among whose trees water towers, swimming pools and green lawns dotted with yellow flowers were concealed - was the first site settled by the founders of Gan Haim. After being abandoned during the Arab riots of 1929, the land was bought by members of Elinor's family, who followed Theodor Herzl to Uganda, and when the dream was shelved set their sights once again on Palestine. In one of the three original buildings of the Gan Haim orchard lives Elinor and Haim's daughter. Next door is the spacious Sachs family home, which has fallen into disrepair and has holes in its tile roof; its garden has been overtaken by wild raspberry bushes. Haim refuses to uproot his six-dunam (1.5-acre) orchard, the only vestige of the original 80 dunams of family orchards. "Your friends have a yacht in the port and you have an orange orchard," says Elinor, teasing her husband, who has turned weeding, pruning and picking into a retirement pastime. And the old trees are returning the favor, even without spraying, and produce sweet Shamoutis with that taste of bygone days. The days of Elinor and Haim in the market are numbered: The end of the orange season is approaching, and only next year will visitors be able once again to hear the pleasant call, "Don't buy - just taste," accompanied by a proffered plate of peeled orange sections. Strawberries in the winter sun With all due respect to the strawberry in Ramat Hasharon that was memorialized in a song by Naomi Shemer, the taste of this wonderful fruit has been forgotten in recent decades. The demands of the modern market - mainly, a long shelf life and an attractive appearance - have inflated the tiny old-time strawberries and reduced their sugar content. The Malach species, an Israeli invention, are one step forward and two steps back toward the past: large and fleshy, but excelling in their sweetness, and in their fresh and rich fruity aroma. There are not many things that compare to the taste of fresh strawberries warming up in their beds in the lazy winter sun, but at the Rabinowitz farm they are taking the welcome step of bringing this original experience to consumers insofar as possible. Twice a week two vans leave the farm, transporting fresh produce directly to the supermarket. Once a week, the entire family reports to the stall in the market and sells fresh strawberries that have been raised according to a special system (using the natural enemies of strawberry pests to reduce the amount of poisonous spraying). Tuvia Rabinowitz was one of the founders of Moshav Tsofit. First the grandfather bought agricultural land in Ramat Hasharon, but when he found life in the moshava too bourgeois, he sold it and instead leased land in Tsofit - thereby continuing to be a proud member of the working class. Uri, Tuvia's grandson, returned to the farm after his military service in order to help his parents overcome the agricultural crisis that had wiped out the flower hothouses. A handful of farmers who are still making a living today from working the land, lease and cultivate the fields of others who left for economic reasons or in the absence of a next generation. In Tsofit, as in other moshavim, only 7 percent of the residents are still actively farming; they, like Uri, cultivate huge areas. On these lands, which are today in the shadow of the new neighborhoods of Kfar Sava, in addition to strawberries there are Rata potatoes and purple Vitolette potatoes; various types of sweet potatoes in exactly the right size; carrots, which right now are being pulled out of the ground by a combine; and in the summer individual-size watermelons, as well. Aviv, 12, one of Uri's four children and an enthusiastic vendor in the market, wants to be a scientist, who will invent sophisticated agricultural machines that will help his father in the fields, but will not operate them himself. Very few members of the third generation remain, and for the fourth generation farming is no longer a desirable career. Cultivating medieval cabbage Among the hoard of winter produce in the organic vegetable garden of Aharoni Cohen - including Malach and Yuval strawberries (the latter is a tart, new variety), orderly rows of purple and white cabbages, mangold (chard) leaves sketched by nature's artist, and stalks of scallions and celery - you can also find lovely bunches of kale. This primitive "first-generation" cabbage, if you will, with its dark fleshy leaves known for their strong and bitter taste, was the staple of European farmers during the Middle Ages. The use of kale was so widespread, especially for simple and nutritious soups, that in Scotland the word "kail" became a synonym for "dinner." Indeed, these leaves, roasted simply in the oven with olive oil and coarse sea salt, are a real delicacy. Cohen, of Givat Chen, was one of the first organic farmers in the country. In 1983, in the wake of the illness of his grandfather and father, who both died at an early age, he planted the first organic crops on family land, and was forced - in a country that did not yet understand the meaning of organic farming - to go from house to house to sell the produce. In 1985 he opened the Bio Center, one of the first organic stores, next to the seasonal vegetable garden; this was a prototype for other stores, which sell their own local produce and other organic products. Since then Cohen's wonderful vegetables and fruit have been sold only there. The stall belonging to Cohen - who agreed to join the Ra'anana market although, unlike many others, he has dealt directly with consumers for years - is considered by the people around him to be one of the jewels in the crown here. The Sharon region is now home to a population with a great awareness of ecological and organic issues, and in the new market greater cooperation is planned with the Association of Biological and Organic Agriculture in Israel. The Ra'anana Farmers' Market, Ra'anana Park (near the lake), every Friday, 8:00 - 15:00. Bookmark to del.icio.us   A plague on Egypt Report: Iran behind planned terror attacks against targets in Egypt by Hezbollah. Determined diplomacy Obama: U.S. 'strongly supports' two-state solution, vows to continue peace process.

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