Another name for the holiday of Sukkot (Tabernacles) is Hag Ha-asif, literally the festival of gathering, referring to the late summer and autumn harvests of many key traditional native crops like figs, grapes, pomegranates, dates and the start of the olive harvest.
"Hag" (chag, haag, however you transliterate it :-)), the Hebrew word for festival comes from the Semitic root H.A.G, referring to something circular or going around in a circle. It's the same root that the Arabic Haj comes from, referring to the pilgrimage to Mecca. Hag reflects the concept of time as cyclical rather than a straight linear progression, the rotation of the seasons, the harvests, recurring themes. In the Talmud, one of the key ancient Jewish texts collating a mix of law and lore, Sukkot is simply referred to as "hag", festival, with no identifier, it is considered the pinnacle of rejoicing, of celebration. It's a time when there is plenty to eat, barns are full of the freshly gathered produce. The heat of summer is hopefully moderating. The rainy season has either just begun or hopefully on the way, a time of hope for new beginnings. In the traditional agricultural society of our ancestors it was a time for everyone to relax and rejoice before the work of preparing the next round of crops, a time to pause and give thanks when everyone's bellies are full. In modern times most people are no longer working in agriculture, but plenty of home gardeners can relate to the same ideas, and even if most of us these days live in urban apartments our window boxes and potted plants are just as relieved to feel the heat and dry weather starting to break. On Sukkot it's popular to visit farms and at least symbolically celebrate the harvests in some way. We visited a few this week. One is a family owned and run fruit grower who has been observing the traditional Shmitta sabbatical year, marked every seven years. During this year they maintain their trees with vital activities like watering and essential weeding, but they don't plant anything new, prune or do tasks that would enhance the trees. It was interesting to see that their fruit trees looked wonderful, except for their vineyards which seemed to have been allowed to lie completely fallow this year, the grapes turning to raisins on the vine. The farm grows two varieties of avocado. One which is tastless, grown for organic cosmetics, and another which was huge and shiny, like big glossy green eggs. They are still hard, but looking forward to trying them when they ripen more. The one I tasted on site with some juice of the lemons we picked was out of this world tasty. We got to pick the most stunning Akko pommegranates, a type that is an attempt to reconstruct a traditional ancient variety native to the region. They are at their peak right now and a delight to eat straight from the tree, to quote a friend, the taste was "so rich it was like eating wine". The satsumas were just as tremendous, bursting with juice and flavour, possibly the best I have ever tasted. The fragrance as they were plucked from the trees was intoxicating. Likewise the lemons. The farmer's daughter I spoke to called them lime-lemons, but to me they looked and smelled like Meyer lemons, a very deep yellow and a distinct perfume that was different from the typical lemony aroma and definitely not lime. I went home and used them to make our family favourite lemon pasta I usually make with the freshly harvested lemons from our own tree (very different variety of lemon, equally delicious though) We enjoyed tasting the locally produced honey and a fascinating presentation about their apiary. My friend couldn't resist purchasing a gorgeous honeycomb to take home with her and share with her Sukkot guests. A very sweet and delicious way to celebrate this harvest festival.
