Food and Culture Combine with Sustainability

At Ofaimme Farm, Food and Culture Combine with Sustainability.

The results are exquisite!

BY GLORIA AVERBUCH

The phrase “Land of Milk and Honey” is literal at Israel’s Ofaimme Farm for Sustainable Agriculture. At Ofaimme, that milk is fresh from their organic goats and the honey direct from their own beehives and date groves. These riches, together with a myriad of crops and animals, are all grown, raised, and harvested by Hedai Off aim, his family, and a group of like-minded farmers and volunteer workers from Israel and around the world. The result is food imbued with deep passion not only for its delicious fl avors, but for its historical, cultural, and spiritual values.

This special combination of qualities takes a totality of commitment. “We are not farm to table, we are seed to table,” declares Off aim, who oversees Ofaimme and imbues it with his philosophy. That phrase means that they do it all: from seeding of the fodder used to feed the animals, to milking them, making the cheeses, and

bringing those delights to the table in their own farm shops and cafes. The depth of nurturing extends to all their products: including such endeavors as beer produced in a boutique brewery and distilling their own arak. New on the horizon are heirloom variety groves, including fi gs, pomegranates, carob, almonds, olives, apples, apricots, and plums.

Ofaimme (the biblical word for branches) includes two farms. The original, founded by Hedai with his brother Yinon, was established in 2000, and is located on Moshav Idan in the Arava in southern Israel. The second, located in the Ella Valley, was established in 2011. Between the two, they supply the six various restaurants and shops, online delivery orders and catering—all featuring Ofaimme products. That number is slated to soon expand to nine locations, including a much-anticipated presence in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Ofaimme is uniquely structured in its approach. As Hedai Off aime explains, there are predominantly two kinds of “farm to table” models. One is the “fi ne dining, super elite” that can usually be found in expensive restaurants in big cities; the other is the more alternative lifestyle type, illustrated by small farmers selling their limited wares at local farmers’ markets. “Our method is to create a model that relies on the values that we stand for, but to do it on a larger scale, thus we have the ability to bring fresh, organic, sustainable products and food to wider communities. We come to you; that’s the idea.”

Roots in Agriculture

Brought up in Haifa, Hedai and his brother and partner, Yinon, also have deep roots in Kibbutz Yagur, located close to that city and where their mother was raised. The brothers were raised with the myths once related to kibbutz farming life, and took a path leading to agriculture as a way to a holistic approach to life on the land and to Israel.

Hedai has an eclectic resumé. Among his accomplishments, he is a self-taught chef (self-taught

because “I cannot sit in a chair,” as he explains), manages a tourism company, has written food columns for major Israeli newspapers, authored several cookbooks, and often appears in cooking shows on TV and radio. He continues to teach cooking and farming techniques. “I also try to study as often as I can,” he says.

Ofaimme’s bounty stems from a wealth of Israeli culinary traditions. Hedai’s creations draw from the country’s rich immigration population, which has brought with it a taste of Europe, North Africa, and the Levant. That tradition includes both the food and more. Hedai’s variety of Israeli wines from the farm’s recently planted vineyards will be productive in three years. The farm’s long list of online offerings, including bakery items, conclude with the phrase “and everything the heart desires.”

Love of Food & Hospitality

Hedai’s creative videos, which are featured on the iCenter website and can be found on YouTube, include renowned Israeli musicians combining song performance with cooking demos. They are accompanied by an illuminating discussion of musical, culinary, and cultural history. In one of those videos, Hedai creates a signature Yogurt and Tahini Date Cake (see recipe on page 34) with Ethiopian Israeli jazz/soul singer Ester Rada. The hearty baked good includes his farm-raised eggs, homemade yogurt, raw tahini, and silan date syrup (the type of honey actually referred to in the Bible) made from the farm’s date groves.

Hedai regularly delights in cooking in his home kitchen. His famed butcher-block, handcrafted dining room table, which seats up to 40 people, is the site of meals with family and numerous guests, enjoying traditional Friday night Shabbat meals. Hedai — husband, father, and farmer — both creates and entertains with customs deeply rooted in Judaism. “I am very much involved in Jewish spirituality and a Jewish way of thinking,” he says. “Our Shabbat dinners, which include discussion and song, revolve around those issues. That’s why the dinners are uniquely special.”

Sustainable Farming Yields Proven Benefits

As Ofaimme’s website explains, three elements comprise sustainable agriculture: ecological, social, and economic. Ofaimme Farm adheres to strict or-

ganic and fair-trade practices. Its products are guaranteed to be free of any type of genetic engineering, preservatives, pesticides, and hormones. Farming methods include the use of solar energy, recycled water, and natural fertilizers. In addition to vegetables, fruits, and herbs, the farm raises goats, and provides millions of organic chicken eggs each year. “We’re organic, but high-tech,” adds Hedai.

Numerous sources back up Ofaimme’s sustainable farming methods as yielding vast improvements in the quality of food, benefi tting the environment by encouraging food diversity, and reducing its carbon footprint, as well as contributing positively to the local economy. What’s more, eating farm to table (or seed to table, as Hedai puts it) has been shown to improve food-related health problems, reducing diseases and conditions such as cancer and obesity.

Fair trade agreements are struck with farms that provide Ofaimme with supplemental products. “No one can produce everything,” explains Hedai. “We cooperate using fair trade practices with small farmers that adhere to our standards, sharing the profi ts. For example, we buy olives while still on the tree to make sure they are organic and pressed to the highest quality of olive oil.”

Ofaimme’s nearly 260 workers (missing are about 90 of them at this writing due to Covid, meaning double shifts for current workers) are all paid above minimum wage. In addition, in a program coordinated with the Arava R&D center, agricultural students from over a dozen third world countries are hosted at the farm to learn the latest methods. These techniques, such as maintaining the crops and feeding animals without the need to import supplies and feed from afar, are honed with Ofaimme’s continued research and development.

The Very Israeli Meaning of It All

Ofaimme represents a complete immersion in the land and the country’s culture. “Everything I do is Israeli,” says Hedai. “My father is a Holocaust survivor from Poland, and in one generation all three of his children: my brother, my sister, and I are all Israeli farmers. Sustenance is the most basic notion, and the ability to grow our own food on our own land. To sustain the body and the soul is the whole idea of modern Zionism.”

Ofaimme Farm is not just farm to table. It is seed to table. (Photo credit: Irrie Off aim)

Yogurt & Tahini Date Cake

RECIPE BY HEDAI OFFAIM

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup fresh yogurt 1 cup raw tahini* 1 cup sugar ½ cup date honey (Silan) 2 eggs 2 cups white flour 1 tbsp baking powder 12-15 big Medjoul dates Butter to grease the pan

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F.

2. In a big bowl or in a mixer with a mixing hook, mix together all the ingredients other than the fl our and the baking powder. Add the fl our and the baking powder and continue mixing until the batter is homogeneous.

3. Grease a round baking pan and transfer the batter into it. Flatten the top using a spatula. Halve the dates and get rid of the pits. Set the halved dates in a round shape on the cake, pushing them a little into the batter.

4. Bake for 35-40 minutes until a toothpick that you dip in the cake comes out dry with crumbs. Be careful not to overbake.

5. Serve warm with fresh Greek-style yogurt.

*Substi tute ½ cup tahini and ½ cup water for a lighter cake.