Pesach is the holiday of spring. It’s not only the hard-boiled eggs on the Seder plate that remind us of new beginnings in this season. The parsley, though it’s supposed to be bitter, has always seemed to me to embody the new green sprouting from the earth. Pesach also marks the beginning of the Omer – the countdown to the wheat harvest in late spring/early summer.

Just before Pesach, then, is a great time to visit the open market – the “shuk” – to see what fruits and vegetables are in season, and decide which will be gracing our Pesach table. The shuk nearest kibbutz Gezer is in Ramla. It’s not exactly on the tourist track, but it’s one of the best, and on Wednesdays and Fridays it’s bustling with people from all over and from every walk of life.

Open up your kitchen cupboard, grab a handful of common herbs, fruits and vegetables and voila, your own unregulated pharmacy. On Friday, Tamar Lieb shared her knowledge of the medicinal uses of common plants in the workshop “Kitchen Wisdom for Common Ailments.” To use herbs as medicine, you can do everything from eating them to dissolving them in water, honey, sugar, or oil to extract beneficial properties from fresh and raw plants. I’ve included her long list of beneficial herbs and their properties here (it’s even alphabetized!)

To use waters for your herbal preparation, you can make an infusion (pouring boiling water over delicate things like flowers or leaves) a decoction (boiling harder things like bark or certain dried roots), or use steam. The smell of a plant is its volatile oils escaping, so when you’re making tea, Lieb suggested, keep it covered while it steeps. In a steam bath, made by pouring boiling water over your more delicate herbs (think the pizza spices – oregano, rosemary, basil, thyme – for a cold) and then placing your face, under a towel and over the bowl while you breath in the oily, aromatic steam.

Hazon’s Tu Bishvat seder was lots of fun – we sang, we kibbutzed, ate an amazing meal, and listened to some inspiring words by Dr. Eilon Schwartz of the Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership in Israel. *Note our take on sustainable centerpieces – fresh herbs in glass jars surrounded by pecans. It’s low-key, lovely and edible (after the seder you can make parsley pesto and pecan pie!). Who says you need cut flowers?