Harvest Season on Our Family Farm in Bethlehem
October makes me wish I were on our family farm in Bethlehem.
I picture the nets spread beneath the olive trees, the olives gathered by hand, and family members working alongside one another. Spending the day on the land, then stopping to share a meal, is part of what makes this season feel like home.
Our family has farmed our land for more than 100 years. Being there during the harvest connects me to the people who cared for it long before I was born.
This year, harvesting has already begun in parts of the West Bank under extremely difficult circumstances. Palestinian farmers are facing Israeli settler attacks, restrictions on reaching their groves, and the theft of their olives in front of our eyes. Trees that families have tended for generations are being uprooted.
A season families should be able to spend together has become a struggle to reach their own land and bring their harvest home.
That is why supporting Palestinian farmers matters so deeply to me. Their work keeps Palestinian life rooted in the land. They need to be able to farm safely and earn a living from what they grow.
Through Palbox, we help bring their products to customers here. Our Fall box includes Rumi olive oil from Mohammad Zein Al-Dein, a Palestinian farmer in Al-Yamun, west of Jenin.
When a family loses access to its grove, its livelihood and its relationship with that land are threatened together. In the next few months, the Palbox team on the ground will be seeking ways to protect these farmers: providing trees to plant, and overseeing and documenting what is happening on the ground.
This is where our current Palbox theme, "What We Preserve," begins for me.
It means preserving the food alongside the knowledge needed to make it. Keeping the farmer's name connected to the olive oil. Remembering the Palestinian places and people behind the flavors we bring into our homes.
Our farmers carry that work forward each season. Their presence on the land is very important to all of us.
Warmly,
Bshara
P.S. We are working on new spices from our family farm, and we are preparing them for our Winter box.