The Tree Planting Season has started!

The winter rains are now falling in Palestine and so, taking full advantage of the season, we have begun to plant the trees we have been raising in our nursery all year.

Fortuitously, just at the right moment, a group called Juzoor (www.juzoor.org) have come forward to cooperate with us, bringing groups of school children to do tree planting workshops at Bustan Qaraaqa.

So now we are well on the way to making a little forest across our site, producing a variety of goods and services from food to fuel to soil improvement and erosion control.

Here are a few snaps from recent workshops:






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Photos from the Olive Harvest

Here are a few snaps from the Bustan Qaraaqa olive harvest back in October. Like everyone in Palestine, we did not get a particularly good crop this year - the combined effects of 2 years of drought, unseasonal hot winds destroying blossoms in the flowering season, and the cropping cycles of olive trees made for a particularly bad year.

Nevertheless, we enjoyed the days spent in the olive grove, hunting the elusive fruits amongst the leaves, and eventually we drought in 20 kg of olives (down from a crop of 150kg last year).





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