FROM PAGE ONE
Wallowa.com
Harvest:
Continued from Page A1
it’s harvested to make sure
there’s no sprouts and
splits.”
On Sunday, Sept. 12,
two Hasidic rabbis and their
driver showed up at the Mel-
villes’ farm just outside of
Enterprise. Porgesz had
been working with the Mel-
villes all morning using air
pressure hoses and vacu-
ums to clean any grain from
a previous harvest from the
farm equipment.
“Samuel fl ew out yes-
terday and they had some
grain stored in one of our
granaries that we cut earlier
this fall … and he helped us
clean everything this morn-
ing,” Tim Melville said Sept
13. “The rabbis just showed
up and that’s the way it
always works.”
The
previous
day,
Porgesz and the Melvilles
loaded wheat harvested
about three weeks earlier
into 2,100-pound sacks.
They were to be loaded onto
a truck — 22 sacks — and
driven to a mill in upstate
New York to be turned into
fl our for the matzah.
“Every bag will be sealed
and then we seal the truck,”
Porgesz said. “We will check
all the seals once it gets to
our mill.”
A bit of a rush
The Hasidim were in a
bit of a rush this year. The
harvest cycle put a bit of a
crunch on them to get done
in time for their high holi-
days. Rosh Hashanah, the
Jewish New Year, was Sept.
6-8, starting their lunar year
5782. Then came Yom Kip-
pur — the Day of Atone-
ment — just a week later,
sundown Sept. 15 to sun-
down Sept. 16. Less than a
week later is Sukkot, when
Jews commemorate the
ancient Israelites living in
tents in the wilderness on
their way to the Promised
Land. It’s also known as the
Feast of Tabernacles or the
Feast of Booths for the tents
Jews put up in their homes
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Rabbi Joseph, left, and Rabbi David examine the header of a combine at Cornerstone Farms
near Enterprise to make sure it’s been thoroughly cleaned before harvesting a kosher crop
Monday, Sept. 13, 2021.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Samuel Porgesz, a kosher bakery manager from Brooklyn,
New York, does the meticulous work of cleaning any remnants
of a previous harvest from one of the combines at the Melville
family’s Cornerstone Farms on Monday, Sept. 13, 2021. To
harvest a kosher crop for matzah, no old grain can be mixed
with the new.
to commemorate how they
lived in the desert.
“We bake all winter long;
we start right after the hol-
idays — right after Sukkot
— and we bake for about
six months all the way to the
Passover holiday,” which
will be April 15-23, Porgesz
said. “Afterwards, we start
coming out to all the fi elds
in New Jersey and the East
Coast fi rst — Virginia,
Maryland and Delaware and
upstate New York.”
Danny Freedman, who
drives for the rabbis, said it
often can be diffi cult to com-
ply with the weather and,
at the same time, properly
mark the holidays.
“We have to go with
mother nature,” he said.
“The holidays (and kosher
laws) we can’t break.”
Rabbinic inspection
Porgesz may know what
they’re looking for, but it’s
the rabbis who must make
the decision on whether the
grain is kosher.
“We have to fi nish up
today because we have a
holiday,” Freedman said.
“Yom Kippur is Wednes-
day but we have to be home
before. Not only because of
the traveling, it’s because we
don’t eat on Yom Kippur. ...
We fast from sunset to the
following day at nightfall.
… We do prayers for most
of the day.”
The rabbi in charge of
determining the kosher sta-
tus of the grain, who pre-
ferred to go by Rabbi Joseph
G., was the youngest of the
three, just in his late 30s.
However, he’s the son of
the grand rabbi and has been
studying under his father
since childhood.
“He has years of experi-
ence in this,” Rabbi Joseph
said, as did his grandfather.
“He has experience from
before World War II” in
Hungary and Poland, where
the large Jewish communi-
ties were virtually wiped out
in the Holocaust.
“He’s still learning now
in some stuff ,” Rabbi Joseph
said. “I’m still learning;
there’s always time to learn.
“The main thing (I like)
is that it doesn’t rain so often
in the summer months” in
the West, he said. “There’s
the quality, and the (lack of)
shrinkage. … Our fl our qual-
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
ity measures the quality of
the wheat. If there was rain
during a stage of the wheat,
the kernel inside might get
core damage. Even if it’s
not sprouted yet, if there
was some germination activ-
ity … when some molecules
and starches start to mature
and it damages the qual-
ity of fl our. … For the rab-
binical, we try to make sure
it’s not past a certain stage
(of development) when it’s
ready so it’s not a problem
for us. Usually when there is
rain, we see some mechan-
ical, physical or structural
damage unto the structure of
the wheat and the rabbi will
determine if it’s acceptable
or not.”
Even a little rainfall can
begin the process of the nat-
ural yeast — leaven — start-
ing its activity.
“We can’t determine each
kernel, but the rabbis are
trained to look at kernels and
see if it’ll be acceptable,” he
said. “I was here three weeks
ago and compare the sample
that was taken to the lab and
see if there was any damage
from the rain.”
A rainfall of only an
hour or so seemed to have
doomed one wheat fi eld the
Hasidim opted out of.
“We’re not farmers. We
don’t have any experience
with tractor-trailers, but
usually the Jewish people,
they are very smart,” Rabbi
Joseph said, and added with
a chuckle, “There was once
when one of the combines
broke down, one of the rab-
bis said, ‘Oh, you need to fi x
this (part).’ And in 2 min-
utes, it was done.”
Other grains, too
Although they didn’t take
as much wheat as they’d
have liked, the Hasidim did
purchase spelt from the Mel-
villes for the fi rst time. It
was also the fi rst time they’d
grown the wheat-like crop.
Tim Melville said he
wasn’t hesitant about giving
spelt a fi rst-time try for his
Jewish friends.
“We’ve never even seen
spelt before,” he said with a
laugh.
According to healthline.
com, spelt declined in popu-
larity in the 19th century, but
the ancient grain is making
a comeback in popularity as
it’s being considered more
healthy than modern grains.
Porgesz said spelt is
believed to be easier to
digest.
“We also do a separate
line of oat matzah,” he said.
“It’s gluten-free; it’s totally
diff erent. We make sure
everything is clean and peo-
ple will see that.”
Kevin Melville said the
Hasidim don’t mix spelt
with wheat.
“They keep (spelt) com-
pletely separate and make
matzah,” he said. “They do
some with oats for people
who are gluten intolerant.
Some people consider spelt
an ancient grain.”
Likes Wallowa County
Porgesz said that in addi-
tion to the grain he’s able
to obtain, the Melvilles —
and the county — make him
keep wanting to come back.
“They’re absolutely mag-
nifi cent. Can’t say anything
bad about them,” he said of
the Melvilles. “Whatever we
want, they do. … Whatever
the rabbis want, we go the
extra mile to make sure it’s
what they want. That’s why
we come all the way from
Brooklyn; it’s very expen-
sive. That’s one of the rea-
sons. Of course, the other
reason is it usually doesn’t
rain out here during the har-
vest time.”
The countryside also
impresses him.
“I woke up this morn-
ing and looked out and saw
those mountains,” he said.
“It makes me want to come
back every time. The Wal-
lowa Mountains, the lake,
sometimes I take a cabin
at the lower end of the lake
near the tramway.”
And he fi nds things here
you can’t fi nd in Brooklyn.
“I have a house but not
that kind of grass. (The yard
is) only about 10-by-10
feet. That’s all we’ve got in
Brooklyn,” he said. “Basi-
cally, that’s why we come is
for the high quality and the
cooperation.”
Anniversary
Sale
September
23rd, 24th & 25th
15% off Serta
Up to 30% off in stock furniture
12 month special financing
Waterproof flooring starting at $2.49 sf
Come see our beautiful selection today!
ENTERPRISE
800 S. River St.,
Enterprise, OR 97828
541-426-9228
Mon-Fri: 9-5:30 • Sat 9-12
A15
Visit our showroom to see the
Oregon made STANTON FURNITURE and
our other products and furnishings, such as
Serta Mattresses, hardwood flooring,
luxury vinyl and fine carpeting