An article about the Berkeley chapter of Tuv Ha’Aretz’ Shabbaton at Eatwell Farm will be posted here in a few days, but in the meantime, I wanted to post a photo that sums up a great deal about our experience.

In short, we had an awesome time. It was really wonderful to camp in the very orchards that have been supplying our delicious plums, and meet the chickens who have been feeding us the most delicious eggs we’ve ever eaten.

But I couldn’t write in the article what happened to us as soon as we pulled into the farm. It was almost sundown on Friday, and we were told to pull in to where the sukkah/kitchen was, to do our first drop-off of stuff, and then drive further to where we’d camp. As soon as we got out of the car and opened the trunk, one hen jumped into the trunk. She made herself very comfortable, and looked as if she was digging around, perhaps ready to lay an egg. We only got her out when we carefully took out the card table that she was resting on…but meanwhile, three young chicks jumped into the front seat. They played around a bit, and left us a nice little souvenir on the dashboard. It was quite a welcome.

On Sunday, we spent our last hours on the farm cooking down tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and tomatillos — all the fruits and veggies that are going to waste on the farm because of the quarantine (see my earlier post about the damn Medfly). We heard once again that the farm is losing $8,000 a day because of it, even though no Medfly has been found on the farm. What a heartbreaking sight it was — all those gorgeous heirloom tomatoes rotting on the vine.

Anyhow, stay tuned for the j. weekly version of our weekend in a few days.