During the Sukkot holiday, visitors will be able to learn how to make olive oil, sweet wine, bread and cheeses the old fashioned way.
Sukkot, the Jewish harvest festival, is a time when Jews attempt to get closer to nature. They live in make-shift huts covered with thatched roofs, sleep outdoors, and celebrate fruits of different species. Which is why Sukkot (which is coming up in a few weeks) is a great time to visit a farm. There are lots of great farms in Israel – including organic goat cheese farms and educational farms intended to teach kids that farming can be fun – but when you’re trying to get your nature on it is probably best to visit one that lets you be a farmer for a day. Such as Bel Ofri in the Golan, which is hosting special food and wine-making workshops during the holiday of Sukkot.
Workshops will include sweet wine-making (from harvesting the grapes to crushing them by foot), olive harvesting and making olive oil, baking peasant bread in a special oven using special local herbs, and making cheese from fresh goat milk.
Less ambitions visitors can enjoy an eco-friendly meal at the farm’s restaurant, which is built around three ancient trees that continue to grow.
The farm itself is built in the style of an ancient village, Ein Nashot, that was located on the site during Talmudic times. Bel Ofri has it’s own vineyards, orchards, and olive groves, as well as facilities to crush grapes, grind olives for olive oil, and mill flour.
Visitor’s to the farm’s vineyard will receive explanations about the differences in wine-making processes during ancient times and today, and be invited to taste the farm’s own wine.
The workshops will be held from October 12th until October 22nd between 10am and 6pm.
: Bel Ofri (site in Hebrew)
Read more about farms in Israel::
Adam and Eve: An Eco Farm Paradise in Modiin
Rom Farm Brings Organic Goat Cheese to a Table Near You, With Some Help from the Handicapped
Israel’s Organic “Goats with the Wind” Farm is Delicious Eco-Tourism
Image via: David Shankbone
Author: Karen Chernick
Much to the disappointment of her Moroccan grandmother, Karen became a vegetarian at the age of seven because of a heartfelt respect for other forms of life. She also began her journey to understand her surroundings and her impact on the environment. She even starting an elementary school Ecology Club and an environmental newsletter in the 3rd grade. (The proceeds of the newsletter went to non-profit environmental organizations, of course.) She now studies in New York. Karen can be reached at karen (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
