We had a wonderful time at our vegan Israeli brunch on Sunday. The idea came from one of our lovely community members, Yifa, who is from Israel, but unfortunately she wasn’t able to join us due to illness - we missed her!
On the menu was vegan shakshuka, Israeli salad, hummus steamed green beans, and pitta, and challah from Carmellis. We were also able to harvest some of the beautiful organic vegetables from our garden, including cherry tomatoes for the salad, sorrel for the shakshuka and green beans, which we served as a side dish with olive oil and lemon juice.
A few people arrived early to help prepare the feast, and we were especially grateful to have Seran, the 12-year-old daughter of one of our community members, helping in the kitchen. With Israeli heritage, she was able to share her knowledge and offer some valuable input on the finishing touches.
It was fantastic to sit outside and enjoy the garden, with the sunshine on our side and the heatwave having passed. We all admired the hard work and love that has gone into developing and caring for the garden, thanks to our wonderful garden volunteers — including those that have joined the gardening club, those that have come in weekly to water and in particular our lead garden volunteer, Simone for all her commitment and passion to this project.
It was a relaxed and fun afternoon, bringing together regular members and newcomers, with old friendships renewed and new ones made.
One of our community members summed it up beautifully: ‘We had such a lovely time — chopping, mixing, cooking and chatting. The shakshuka was absolutely delicious, and it was so nice to sit and enjoy it together in the JVS garden’.
Thanks to everyone who came and special thanks to those that got involved in the cooking and the clearing up at the end. It felt like a wonderful community effort.