On weekdays, after the morning prayers, each member of the community set out to work. The community at Qumran, in keeping with its closed, sectarian nature, functioned as a self-sufficient unit. Its members - most of whom were young, unmarried men - fulfilled their basic material needs by making the maximum use of the area's natural resources. In the vicinity of Ein Feshkha, some three kilometers south of Qumran, the sectarians apparently ran an agricultural farm. There they cultivated date palms, a crop that could tolerate the salt water that flows from the springs at the site. Evidence of this farm is provided by the farming implements (sickles and a hoe) and the remains of date palms and fronds found there, as by the dried dates and date pits that were discovered at Qumran and in the nearby caves. It appears that they also cultivated grain, primarily barley, in the valley above the cliffs. Animal bones buried at the central building may indicate that the sectarians engaged in animal husbandry. It is also possible that they hunted gazelle, and some scholars believe that they bred fish in the region of Ein Feshkha.