What do they do about their overdraft? How much do they pay for their home? Where did they last go on vacation, and what expense do they especially regret? People from around the country speak candidly about life itself, before and in the shadow of the war. This time: the Eldar family from Tzofar.
The home? A 12.5-acre farm for agricultural cultivation, with a private house on 0.6 acres that they built five years ago for about 1 million shekels. Matan: “Someone from outside can’t buy a farm here. You might be able to buy in community expansion neighborhoods, but that’s something else. Today you can’t get farms, and it’s only for returning sons. Since COVID, there has been enormous demand in the Arava.”
The Arava? Tom: “I’m originally from Ein Yahav, not far from here, and Matan is from Tzofar. His family is here.” Matan: “My parents came here from Be’er Tuvia to go into farming. My mother’s parents had a farm and my father worked for them, and that’s how they met and decided to establish a farm of their own in the Arava.” Tom: “There is a sense of isolation and quiet here that you don’t have anywhere else. We live here in a bubble.”
How did you meet? Tom: “We studied at the same school. Here in the Arava everyone knows everyone, and the friends are mutual. We started talking on Messenger and at a certain point it turned into a relationship.” Matan: “There was a period when we moved to central Israel to study. Tom did a degree in education and I studied landscape architecture. We lived in Givatayim for four years, and that was enough for us. We had more than enough of the center.”
Tom: “I actually liked Givatayim. We would sit in cute cafes, and every now and then have sabich at Oved’s, but I never considered staying there for even a moment. I knew I wanted to raise my children only here. Anyone who isn’t from here can’t understand how you live so far from everything, but anyone who is from here can’t live any other way.” Matan: “Because of work I get to the center once every two weeks. I sit in the car and ask myself, ‘How do you survive this?’”
What do you do? Matan: “Agriculture. I work with my parents on the farm. We have a fairly large farm called Meshek Eldar, and we grow eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, watermelons and melons. I did the path everyone does — army, trip, studies — but I always knew I would come back to farming.” Tom: “Today it’s very common to go study an additional profession too. You can’t rely only on agriculture.” Matan: “I also work as an employee because my father has a packing house with partners that I manage, and that company also has dates that I grow. We also have the store.”
Store? Matan: “At the packing house we sell fresh produce on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. It has existed for three years, and recently we also started supplying hotels and guesthouses. It was absurd that people in the Arava had nowhere to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. Farmers sell their produce to the markets, it would go to the wholesale market and from there come back to the supermarkets here. The produce makes a double journey instead of staying close to home, so I decided to do something and started small.”
Small? Tom: “At first it was a tractor trailer that Matan would load with produce from the farm and sell near Moa Winery, and little by little, with demand, it developed. People liked it.” Matan: “Today we have the store and it’s really like a small market for fresh vegetables. We took 5 acres of our land and designated them for the store’s needs, and we started growing additional things like cauliflower, broccoli, cucumbers and more. There’s nothing like freshness. The moment you pick it and bring it to people that same day, it has a different taste and a different meaning.”
Livelihood? Tom: “Agriculture is a gamble.” Matan: “It’s like a casino. You plant and you don’t know what the price will be. There were hard years, and quite a few people went bankrupt. To really make a living you need much more than 12.5 acres, so we rent land from other farms. It’s hard work. The peppers and melons don’t take weekends off, but that’s part of the fun.”
Financial situation? Matan: “This year is okay. Who knows what will be next year. I’ll give you an example — growing one dunam of peppers costs 35,000 shekels. We have 70 dunams, so just the cost of cultivation is 2.5 million. You invest without knowing what the price will be, and we also have another 130 dunams of other things. You’re constantly rolling forward and trying to stay on the wheel.”
Tom? “I work in the social services department of the Central Arava Regional Council in the community of Sapir. Right now I’m on maternity leave that has gone on and on, also because there is no preschool teacher here. That is one of the Arava’s problems — there isn’t enough manpower. In central Israel you can find solutions, but here if there’s no preschool teacher or no space in daycare, that’s a problem. Look, the Arava has advantages and disadvantages. For example, there is no maternal and infant health clinic, and for specialist doctors or dental care you have to travel to Dimona or Eilat.”
Eilat? Matan: “We’re in Eilat about once every two weeks, when we need errands.” Tom: “It’s a VAT-free city, so when you need big shopping trips like diapers, wipes or things for the house, it’s worth driving to Eilat. It’s an hour and a quarter from here, and in Arava terms that’s nothing.”
Going out? Matan: “There’s nowhere to go out here.” Tom: “Tzofar is a little behind in that respect, but in other moshavim there are community pubs that the young people run on a rotating basis among themselves. There are a few cute places here, but it’s not like there’s nightlife here.”