If you are planning to be in Beer Sheva next week, make it Thursday and drop by the Earth’s Promise community garden for a festival of Ethiopian culture.
Earth’s Promise founder Isaac Hametz started the garden about a year ago as a way to help newly arrived immigrants adapt to life in Beer Sheva.
The immigrants, who come from a farming background, tend 50 plots planted with vegetables from Israel and other plants from Ethiopia.
While they plant, their children play in the garden (photo below, by Daniella Cheslow). It’s one of the few green spaces around the Kalisher absorption center.
Eco-Thiopia is on June 25 at 6:00 pm behind the Kalisher absorption center at the end of Wingate road. For more information, go to the Earth’s Promise Web site.
Author: Daniella Cheslow
Daniella Cheslow grew up in a car-dependent suburb in New Jersey, where she noticed strip malls and Wal-Marts slowly replacing farmland. Her introduction to nature came through hiking trips in Israel. As a counselor for a freshman backpacking program at Northwestern University, Daniella noticed that Americans outdoors seemed to need to arm themselves with performance clothing, specialized water bottles and sophisticated camping silverware. This made her think about how to interact with and enjoy nature simply. This year, Daniella is getting a Master’s in Geography from Ben Gurion University of the Negev. She also freelance writes, photographs and podcasts. In her free time, she takes day trips in the desert, drops off compost and cooks local foods like stuffed zucchini, kubbeh and majadara. Daniella gets her peak oil anxiety from James Howard Kunstler and her organic food dreams from Michael Pollan. Read more at her blog, TheTruthHerzl.com. Daniella can be reached at daniella (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
Great to read about this. I ran a similar planting project at the mercaz klita in Mevaserret Zion. Unfortunately, since after shmitta year, I was unable to restart the project. But now you’re inspiring me! Thanks!
Michelle
from Jerusalem