"The festival was a huge success - over 2000 farmers, international customers and visitors came to the wonderful Haddad Village site outside of Jenin to celebrate the harvest. Every family got our 2008 Jaru'a poster with a Sliman Mansour print to take home.
They heard from representatives of some of our 35 farming co-operatives, Canaan Director Nasser Abufarha, and some of our international customers, all celebrating the benefits of the fair trade that bring us together in business and friendship.
The ten winners of this year's Canaan scholarships, which cover the full cost of a four-year college education in Palestinian universities including the cost of textbooks, were announced - nine women and one man, all from our farmer's families.
One representative of the students spoke for them all about her thanks to Canaan and the PFTA for giving Palestine back its life through education.
The weather at the outdoor site was perfect and all agreed the PFTA really knows how to put on a party. The band is known as the best in Jenin, and the music was wonderful. Singer Nu'aman Al-Jalmawi can sing the traditional and popular songs and put in references to the harvest, the festival, and the olives, to everyone's delight.
Jenin-area farmer Mahmoud Issa has introduced organic farming to his native village of 'Anin, and currently sits on the board of the Palestine Fair Trade Association.
The folk dancing was exuberant and the locals were able to dubke (a traditional Palestinian dance) about as well as the practiced troupe brought in for entertainment.
Before the festival started, finished parts of the new Canaan facility were open to the public for tours while organic olives were being pressed on the big Alfa Laval machine. We had our first visitors to our new on-site showroom and it was an eye-opener for the farmers and internationals that came.
This retail store would be at home in any major city, and it is here in Burqin, Palestine. The scale is grand: 18 foot ceilings and wide open spaces. Our massive showroom furniture from the fair trade company Tropical Salvage fits the scale and shows our premium products to advantage. This was the first time our farmers may have seen their produce in finished form, and their pride was evident. We did a brisk business in sales with the internationals in attendance.
Meanwhile, a wood-burning oven was set up outside the building, and women were making traditional taboun bread over a fire of olive twigs. Tall tables were set up outside the showroom to taste olive oil fresh from the press, with taboun bread to dip.
At 3 p.m., 350 guests mingled at the traditional harvest meal around fire pits set up among our olive trees. There are ancient olive presses from the Stone Age visible in our olive orchard. The history met the present - the traditions of Palestine continue with the best in modern technology and taste."
0 comments:
Post a Comment