 |
I bumped into Huri, the creator of these products, quite by accident while he was dropping off stock at one of his retailers in my local shopping center. An outgoing, friendly sort of person, we started chatting about the teas and spices he sells and before I knew it I was accompanying him and his wife to the local coffee shop so we could continue talking. Such is his passion for the products he makes and sells that within the hour I had agreed to sell his products for him.
Born in Israel in 1955, Huri, is a rugged outdoor type of person. You can see that he has had ups and down in his life, but from talking to him you know that his passion is agriculture, and more specifically growing hyssop / zaatar in our local valleys. This is the story he shared with me.
" Growing up, I always felt that I was different from everyone else. While the other kids wanted to play football, I was always sitting on the sideline thinking up new ideas.
"My father, was probably the biggest influence on me. He was an Agricultural Officer in Judea and Samaria, and his job was to improve the level of farming there, thereby improving the life of the Israeli farmers there, many of them who were completely new to farming. I used to accompany him on his trips and it was through him that I developed a deep love of agriculture. My father loved the Land of Israel and was very Zionistic.
Soon the subject of herbs and medicinal plants was a source of deep fascination for me and I knew that this was going to be what I was going to be involved in. At the time I was living on a Kibbutz in the South of Israel. One day my father came to me and told me that I should move to the Galilee because new residential outposts were being built there and it would be good to move there and settle down and live near him.
It was about this time that the government banned the harvesting of the indigenous zaatar/hyssop plant because it was threatened with extinction by overharvesting by the local Arab. My father was responsible for creating the new cultured version of the zaatar plant to be grown by local farmers. He told me that he would teach me everything that he had learnt about growing hyssop.
So at the age of 27, I moved back from the South to the settlement of Alonei Abba in the foothills of the Galilee with very few possessions or money, but with a vision of learning everything there was to know about growing zaatar. I knew it would not be an upwards path and there would be difficulties along the way, but with a vision out that I was determined to reach.
Slowly, slowly I made progress and one day a few years later when I was working in the fields a jeep pulled up next to me. Some people got out and asked me what I was doing. I told them that I had a passion for growing zaatar, and that it was my vision that zaatar would be eaten in households all over Israel.
They told me that they are TV producers for Israel's only TV channel (at the time) and that they were looking for someone to feature in a new TV show they were working on – they were out looking for someone from the Galilee who was doing something special… it was like a god send… a few months later the whole country watched a show about me – a young guy who had moved to the Galilee to fulfill a dream.
That show was a turning point for me and opened up both the Arab and Jewish Israeli for me.
I decided that I needed to add a spiritual message to my products. It became a mission for me. Through my products I am bringing love back into the world
At about the same time I decided to add a spiritual message into my products. I felt that it was a kind of a mission. Through my products I bring back love and contentment into the world, and into every Israeli household. When people sit down and drink a good herbal infusion, they feel contentment, positivity and enjoyment.
Over the years I amassed a wealth of information and knowledge about herbs and medicinal plants: how to grow them, how to dry them naturally using the sun to keep a perfect aroma etc. My father shared with me all his knowledge and I added even more to it. I learnt exactly when to plant, when to harvest, when to separate the flowers from the stalks. The central message I learnt from the growing of zaatar, is that as long as man does not understand that he needs to live the moment, he is living under an illusion."
|
