Borei pri ha’etz

This post was originally supposed to be called “Farming Friday: Tu B’Shvat Edition”.

But since today is neither Friday nor Tu B’Shvat (discuss amongst yourselves…), the above title will have to do.

Note that all the fruit appearing in this post comes from TRLEOOB*.

As always, feel free to click on the pictures for a closer view.

 Our lemon tree

Gathering the crops

A lone clementine (i.e. a clementinah, for the Hebraically-oriented among you)

Two lemons and a pomelo

Waiting to separate trumot u’ma’asrot

{cue: TV announcer voice}

What will happen to the lemons?

Are they doomed to spend their days huddled together in torn plastic bags?

Is a life of rolling around the living room floor to be their dismal fate?

Or…  are they ultimately destined - {insert: dramatic pause} - for greatness?

Tune in next time at some unspecified future date, when we’ll discover the answers to these and other exciting questions…

___________

*TRLEOOB=the real life equivalent of our blog

Farming Friday: Radishes Edition

That crackling noise you hear is the sound of thousands of high school students across the country reluctantly joyfully hitting the books.

Yes, bagrut season has officially begun.

To that end, the Resident Ulpanistit was required to submit a biology experiment.

She and her lab partners examined the effects of different fertilizers on radish plants.

In total, they planted 30 radish seeds in six planters. For two of the planters, they used  potassium chloride; for the third and fourth planters, they used a commercial fertilizer; and for the fifth and sixth planters, they used no fertilizer at all.

Here are the results:

Overall, the commercial fertilizer was the most successful.

Kol hakavod to the Resident Ulpanistit and her friends, and good luck to everyone on their tests!

!שבת שלום ומבורך

Farming Friday: Broccoli edition

The multitalented MAG - He lains! He makes movies! - has a new skill:

He grows vegetables.

You see, his busy weekly schedule in yeshiva includes two hours of agriculture, and a few weeks ago, he brought home some school-grown radishes.

Then, last week, he showed up with a bag of broccoli:

 This picture was taken before trumot u’maasrot (tithes) were separated and before the broccoli was washed/soaked/checked, etc.

שבת שלום ומבורך

from the entire

Our Shiputzim staff!