Long before prophets, before Israelite kings or Jerusalem temples, the people of Canaan lived by the rhythm of the soil. They planted vines on the slopes of the Jezreel Valley, crushed grapes beneath their feet, and poured the first sweet liquid to their gods. Now, a remarkable discovery near Tel Megiddo in Israel reveals how ancient wine and worship intertwined at the dawn of urban life in the Holy Land.

An Israel Antiquities Authority excavation conducted ahead of road construction on Highway 66 has uncovered one of the earliest known winepresses in the country — about 5,000 years old — and a collection of ritual vessels that bring to light the domestic cult of the Canaanites. The excavation, financed by the Netivei Israel – National Transport Infrastructure Company, was part of a large-scale development upgrading the main artery that links Yokneam, the Jezreel Valley, and the Gilboa region.

According to the Israel Antiquities Authority, “Impressive evidence of Jezreel Valley settlement expansion at the onset of urbanization, and of the Canaanite cult that existed in the land before the Israelites entered the region, was recently uncovered east of Tel Megiddo.”

The discoveries reveal how daily life, agriculture, and religion once merged seamlessly across the northern valleys.

From the Early Bronze Age IB, a small rock-cut winepress was exposed — a sloping treading floor that channeled juice into a hewn collection vat. “This winepress is unique, one of very few known from such an ancient period when urbanization first took place in our region,” explained Dr. Amir Golani and Barak Tzin, Excavation Directors on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

“Winepresses are indeed very common throughout the country, but it is very difficult to date them. Until now, indirect evidence indicated that wine could have been produced 5,000 years ago, but we did not have conclusive proof of this – a ‘smoking gun’ that would clearly show when this happened in our area. This winepress finally provides new and clear evidence that early wine production actually took place here.”

Around the press, the team uncovered dwellings and courtyards that hint at an early village economy. The winemaking enterprise was likely community-based, tied to the cycles of agriculture and celebration. Megiddo’s residents were already part of a regional network that shipped jars of oil, grain, and perhaps even wine to Egypt and the wider Mediterranean world.

Folk Worship in the Fields

A later phase of the excavation, dating about 3,300 years ago to the Late Bronze Age II, uncovered evidence of popular Canaanite worship just outside the ancient city’s gate. Archaeologists found a miniature ceramic model of a shrine, imported Cypriot jugs, and an intact set of vessels used for libations — the ceremonial pouring of liquids.

Among them was a zoomorphic vessel in the form of a ram. The IAA described how it worked: “A small bowl, which was attached to the ram’s body, was designed to function as a funnel; and a similar bowl – with a handle – was probably held to pour the liquid into the funnel during a ceremony. The ram’s head was shaped like a spout. Once the vessel was filled, tilting the ram forward spilled the liquid out from its mouth to collect it into a small bowl placed before it. The vessel seems intended for pouring a valuable liquid such as milk, oil, wine or another beverage, which could either be drunk directly from the spout, or poured into a smaller vessel for consumption, or as a votive gift.”

The vessels had been deliberately buried in the earth. Their placement suggested small-scale rituals carried out by farmers outside the city’s main temple precinct. In the words of the Authority, “The burial locations of these ritual vessels in the ground yet in the direct line of sight to the large temple area operating at Tel Megiddo in the Late Bronze Age II – may indicate a Canaanite folk cult that took place outside the city on the way to the main city gate – possibly by local farmers who could not enter the city and its temple, coming from their nearby fields to offer consecrations of liquids or valuable agricultural produce, such as wine or oil.”

This “folk cult” reveals a side of ancient religion often missed in grand temple ruins. These were ordinary people, not priests or kings, giving thanks to the land through what they produced. Wine, oil, and milk were not merely commodities but sacred mediums that connected the human and divine.

Layers of Faith and Soil

The Megiddo discoveries illuminate the continuity of belief that tied Canaanite farmers to their earth. For more than a century, excavations at Tel Megiddo have revealed palaces, temples, and gates that mark the rise of urban civilization. But these new finds, uncovered along the modern highway, extend that story beyond the city walls. They show that devotion was not confined to elites but lived in courtyards and fields.

“Megiddo has been excavated for over a century,” the researchers summarized. “While it is long-recognized as a key site in the study of ancient urbanism and Canaanite worship, the excavations we conducted east of the tel have revealed a new part of the matrix between the known settlement in the city – evidence of which has been revealed upon the tel – and the activities taking place in the area around and outside the city. The 5,000-year-old hewn winepress places the beginnings of the local wine industry in a very early urban-settlement context, while the offerings from the period about 3,300 years ago indicate the continuity of ritual consecration and libations outside the sacred complex within the tell, possibly expressing aspects of the local Canaanite folk cult.”

As Eli Escusido, Director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, noted, “The Israel Antiquities Authority’s extensive excavations along the route of the Jezreel Valley road are revealing, layer by layer, the wealth of history hidden and embedded in the soil here. The exposure of ancient wine-making facilities, and the evidence of folk worship outside of Megiddo, allow us to become acquainted with the daily life and beliefs of the region’s residents over the course of thousands of years.”

The finds will soon be displayed at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of the Land of Israel in Jerusalem. “These remarkable discoveries are a national asset and proof that advancing national infrastructure can proceed with full responsibility towards the past,” added Nissim Peretz, CEO of Netivei Yisrael.

The soil of Canaan still holds the scent of crushed grapes. Five millennia later, wine remains part of the region’s spirit — a testament to how the people of this land once turned harvest into holiness, and work into prayer.

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We know that Muslims don’t drink alcohol, and they choose mocktails instead, but Muslims aren’t the only people who live in Muslim countries. In a bid to modernize and westernize Saudi Arabia the Kingdom is allowing the first alcohol shop to be open in 70 years.

The client’s will be limited to diplomatic staff, say sources in local media. These are people who have been for years importing illicit alcohol finally making it legal.

Read Related: Summer mocktails for Muslims in America

Other limits is that patrons will be limited to 240 “points” of alcohol per month whereas one litre of spirits will be worth six points, one liter of wine three points and one liter of beer one point.

Related: Jordan gets its first brewery, upsetting Muslim leaders

According to the US Department of State heroin and hashish are the most heavily-consumed substances, but Saudi officials report that cocaine and amphetamines are also in demand. Paint and glue inhalation and abuse of prescription drugs is also reported.

Meanwhile in 2018 Saudi Arabia lifted the driving ban on women; this weekend the Muslim kingdom held its first fashion week that included swimsuits. And a Saudi prince just bought a Tesla Cybertruck.

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Would you be happy to pour your friends a glass of wine from a wooden cask or sip your favourite rose from an aluminium can? Are there more sustainable wine drinking options for consumers and will they go for them? This is a questions marketing researchers at an Australian business school are asking.

While alcohol is forbidden in Islam, there is a growing wine market in Mediterranean countries, such as Israel, which is emerging as boutique wine tastemaker. Winemakers in Canada have started using plastic corks which you can still find on European-sold wine (cork is being depleted faster than it grows) and people have gotten used to them. But can drinking habits accept a flask made from wood, from pottery or from terapacks?

Conventional glass wine bottles are the wine industry’s largest source of carbon emissions, with the manufacture of a single bottle generating 1.25kg of carbon dioxide. In total, the production and transport of glass wine bottles make up more than two thirds of the wine industry’s total carbon output. Here are 10 ways to lower your personal carbon footprint, in case you are wondering.

Traditional glass bottles have long been the preferred choice of packaging among wine lovers due to the belief that wine looks and tastes better in glass. While glass bottles have been the wine industry’s go-to for centuries, they are not the most carbon-friendly option available. They are however a better alternative to plastic which does not break down and which probably won’t be recycled. In America only 5% of plastics are actually recycled.

Researchers from the University of South Australia’s Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science and the University of Adelaide’s Business School have explored people’s wine packaging choices, and how attributes such as price, brand, and messaging can influence them.

Researcher Jakob Mesidis says previous wine packaging research has largely focused on wine label and closure (cork or screw-top) preferences, but little attention has been paid to the format of the packaging. He says, “We knew that consumers weren’t buying alternatively packaged wine at the same rate they were buying it bottled, so we wanted to know what we should change to motivate them to choose more sustainable options.”

Australia’s main alternative wine packaging formats are the ‘bag-in-box’ (also known as cask wine) and aluminium cans, although new formats, such as flat plastic wine bottles, are gradually entering the market each day. Consumers might also be curious about the effect of plastics and the acidic environment of wine leaving toxins into the final sip.

These alternative formats are up to 51% more carbon efficient than glass, but Mesidis says Australian consumers are resistant when it comes to these more environmentally friendly options. He does not provide data on MENA, European or North American consumers in countries like Canada or France. “There are some underlying prejudices in relation to alternative wine packages as they are seen as the cheaper, low-quality option when compared to glass bottles, which come with a sense of heritage and luxury,” he says.

So, what can the wine industry do to bring consumers on board?

In a survey of 1200 Australians, the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute found that cask wine and flat plastic wine bottles were the most preferred formats after traditional glass bottles. Cans were the least preferred, as they were closely tied to specific occasions, such as drinking outdoors. There was no creative options such as hand-made pottery which could be converted into jars for other purposes, mentioned in the survey.

Results found that package format was the biggest influence on people’s choices. Price came second, while the importance of brand and eco-messaging varied depending on the respondent’s age and how many eco-friendly behaviours they claimed to engage in.

Alternative wine formats were also typically bought more by younger people. Consumers were found to be more likely to choose alternative wine packaging when it is priced at a mid-to-low price range and if it comes from a well-known, prestigious brand.

“If a smaller, less-known winery’s mission is to grow its brand as much as possible, relying solely on alternatively packaged wines is not the way to go. Most Australians—for the time being—are still going to reach for a glass bottle when they’re at the shops,” Mesidis says.

“Larger, more prestigious brands are likely to see more success with alternatively packaged wine. Ultimately, this research provides wine marketers with a foundation for their low-carbon wine packaging strategies, rather than blindly navigating this relatively new field.

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Before Islam was rooted in the Middle East the Holy Land and Mohammad forbid alcohol to its followers, Israel was home to all sorts of pagans, then Jews, then Christians. In Christian and Jewish rights and rituals –– then and now –– wine is used for consecrations purposes: for Christians during the mass to turn the body of Jesus into blood; and for Jews who mark the Sabbath and high Holy Days with a glass of wine shared by all at the table.

So people back then, as it is now, needed vineyards and wineries to produce the wine.

Israeli archeologists are happy to annound unearthing the largest winery from the period of about 1500 years ago. Through this finding, near Yavne, Israelis celebrate how wine was made, and explore its history from an archoelogy site that produced a kind of white wine called Gaza that was most likely consumed locally and shipped south to Egypt and north to Greece. 

Yavne was an important historical site for Jewish scholars. The site was more sophisticated than archeologists would have expected. Remember when we wrote about Elusa? This was one of the rare sites to have revealed its name at the site where it exported wine from Israel. 

The Yavne dig is so special due to its size and the amount of wine they could process every year.

“We found decorative niches in the shape of a conch, which adorned the winepresses, indicate the great wealth of the factory owners. A calculation of the production capacity of these winepresses shows that approximately two million litres of wine were marketed every year, while we should remember that the whole process was conducted manually,” commented Elie Haddad, Liat Nadav-Ziv and Jon Seligman, the directors of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. 

When kids drank wine

The plant includes five magnificent wine presses, warehouses for aging and marketing the wine, kilns for firing the clay amphorae in which the wine was stored, tens of thousands of fragments and intact earthen amphorae (jars), well planned access between the facilities, and more.

Drinking wine was very common in ancient times, for children and adults alike. Since the water was not always sterile and or even tasty, wine was also used as a kind of “concentrate” to improve the taste, or as a substitute for drinking water.

Each of the exposed winepresses covered an area of ​​about 225 square metres. Around the treading floor, where the grapes were crushed barefoot to extract the liquid, compartments were built for fermenting the wine, and next to them – two huge octagonal shaped vats for collecting the wine.

Like wine?
Make Pea Pod Wine

Make your own ancient mead

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Like making lemonade from lemons (or fermented lemons which are even better) Russian scientists have found the best way to use an invasive weed brought from America – and called hairy beggarticks or Bidens pilosa officially. Its other names are black-jack, cobbler’s pegs and Spanish needle. The Russians found that the leaves of the plant contain an interesting enzyme, one that could function as a vegan alternative in the food industry to make cheese and wine, they report in the International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research. This plant, like duckweed as a superfood (see the startup GreenOnyx), could be a promising new ingredient that is vegan, kosher and halal.

Eating a Plant-Based Diet

The scientists say that the leaf extract of hairy beggarticks (let’s say it three times: hairy beggarticks, hairy beggarticks, hairy beggarticks!) contains enzymes that speed up fermentation in wine and which help turn milk into cheese, working as a plant-based alternative to the expensive enzymes used in the food industry such as rennet which comes from an animal stomach. Vegans are looking for alternatives to animal based products constantly such as sturgeon or gelatine as wine clarifiers. Remember when Starbucks got called out for putting crushed red beetles in its frappuccinos? That’s what we are talking about.

According to the authors from South Ural State University, the technique they now use with the invasive plant can produce cheaper plant alternatives to expensive enzymes necessary in wine and cheese production. And obviously the vegan alternative is much desired as more people turn to a plant based diet.

“There is a long tradition of using Bidens pilosa as a medicine,” says Irina Potoroko from the Russian institute. “Due to its prevalence, its use, in our opinion, is extremely beneficial in winemaking and milk processing, where the Bidens pilosa extract can become an alternative to many food animal enzymes,” she said.

In the experiments, the researchers proved that fresh leaves of Bidens pilosa have high protease activity in an acidic buffer pH 4 (8.2567 × 10^-7 mM / mg / min) compared to an alkaline buffer pH 10 (5.15 × 10^-7 mM / mg / min) at 30 degrees Celsius. The scientists were able to determine the optimal conditions for the enzymatic activity of the leaf extract, which makes it possible to use in various technological processes.

Potoroko believes that it is necessary to continue the research in order to find out which part of the plant (roots, stem, flowers?) has the greatest protease activity, because the research carried out was focused only on fresh leaves.

Bidens pilosa is widespread in the world as a weed imported from America. In Russia, the plant was found in the Far East. Bidens pilosa belongs to the quarantine weeds prohibited for import. Going forward, the scientists want to break down even more parts of the plant, which originated in the U.S. but spread throughout the world as an invasive weed.

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If we could all go back in a time machine and be better prepared for scary times. I’ve joined a number of forums for off-grid living. Off-grid means not connecting to the local electricity or water supply. It means relying on Mother Nature, luck, your wits and a lot of common sense and technology to get electricity power, water, work, and stuff done.

So since most of us did not see into the future with a consult from our astrology charts or fortune-teller before this corona outbreak, I talked to a pile of homesteaders, people who have been living off the grid for a while now to see how people –– with the time you have now, can be better prepared and less scared for hard times. 

Teach your kids and yourself these skills and you know you will be able to survive. 

1. How to light a fire. Sounds trivial. I was reading a Farley Mowatt book about when he went to visit the people of the deer in 1947, the first white guy to do it. His matches got wet and he didn’t have fire until he met the Inuit up north who showed him how to do it. 
2. How to grow zucchini. Why zucchini? This is a plant that is easy to start with, it’s hard to kill, and when you do it you can get a bonanza of zucchini that let’s say in hunger mode you can turn into bread, flour, stir fry, something stuffed. Best case scenario you leave them on the porch of your mothers-in-law.
3. A toilet paper alternative: Remember that most bathrooms also contain a shower head. If you run out of water, you can easily wash your bottom in the shower. No big deal. Like the Bedouins do with their squat toilets.  Most of the world uses bidets. You can too. 
4. Grow micro-greens on your windowsill. You can order kits from the internet or simply make your own. You just need the seeds. When they sprout they are packed with nutrients.
5. Learn how to bake bread without a machine. Tortillas or flatbread are a good way to start. If you are more ambitious you can go all-natural by following our sourdough recipe. People have relied on wild yeasts to ferment their bread doughs, beer, and wine for thousands of years. By contrast, commercial yeast has only been around for about 100 years. It only became possible to culture-specific strains of yeast after Louis Pasteur discovered how yeast works. While commercial yeast yields safe, predictable beer and wine, mead, sourdough breads, with their delicious tang, still work beautifully in a modern kitchen.

The post Know these 5 skills to survive appeared first on Green Prophet.

Shelling peas is a bother, but worth the effort for the singular enjoyment of eating them fresh. Frozen peas, however handy a bag of them in the back of the freezer may be, never give you that delicate flavor. But now you’re looking at a pile of shells. What can you do with them?

You can compost them. Make pea pod soup, as in our recipe here. Or make wine! Pea pod wine is an frugal, old-fashioned British recipe that deserves to be better known. Well made, the wine is light and refreshing, like a Sauternes; the pea flavor disappears in the magic of fermentation.

You do need to know basic winemaking procedure and have some basic equipment. We originally linked to Jack-Keller-Complete-Requested-Recipes-CollectionJack Keller’s winemaking blog, but he died in 2020. If you’re new to winemaking, you’ll learn everything you need to know from Keller who posted everything online for free. We found a PDF of his recipes and you download the collection here (in PDF).

According to Jack Keller of the eponymous blog (no longer online but you can see some of his writing on Facebook), you can ferment the pods of any pea or bean at all and make good wine of them. That might be easier than accumulating 2.5 kg./5 lb. of pea pods, which is the minimum quantity to produce a gallon of wine. You can also accumulate pea or bean pods a bit at a time, freezing whatever you have until you have enough.

The pods need to be cooked, which releases their starch and creates a haze in the liquor. Not to worry: give the wine enough time and the haze will go.

If you’re an experienced winemaker, skip to the recipe. If you’re a new winemaker, I urge you to go through Jack Keller’s site to learn about the procedures that will yield you good, enjoyable wine, not vinegar.

You may choose to ferment with dried baker’s yeast. It works, but it’s never the best option. It’s worth buying real wine yeast; not expensive and easily available online if you don’t have a wine supply store nearby. Another worthwhile purchase is Campden disinfectant tablets. You’ll need to clean, then sanitize your bucket, fermenting vessel and bottles. Bleach will do it, but who wants to work with bleach? To know more about sanitation in winemaking, here’s another informative link. 

Making “country wine” from non-grape fruit and from vegetables doesn’t require a crusher and press. But you still need some equipment. For this rural pea-pod wine, you’ll need a stock pot, a 1-gallon bucket, a carboy (glass or plastic fermentation vessel), an airlock to release fermentation gases while keeping dust and bugs out of the carboy, a strainer, a funnel,a long-handled spoon for stirring, and a new plastic syphon.

Also five 750-ml. bottles. Recycled wine bottles are fine. You may get four bottles out of this batch; it depends on how much sediment accumulates that you’ll have to get rid of.

There is the minimalist, but not recommended, “balloon” method, where the liquor is fermented in a jar and a balloon fitted over the top, pierced with a tiny hole to allow gases to escape. When the balloon droops, fermentation has stopped and you can proceed.

Remember the old country number, “Blue Suede Shoes”? The lyrics go, “You can burn my house – steal my car – drink my liquor from the old fruit jar…” It brings to mind a big jar full of home-made booze fizzing away on a kitchen shelf. But you can do better than that. Buy a carboy and airlock.

Pea Pod Wine Recipe

5 lb (2.3kg) fresh, empty pea-pods
3 lb (1.4kg) granulated sugar
½ lb (227g) yellow raisins (sultanas)
Juices from 1 lemon and 1 orange
1 cup fresh, strong, black tea
1 package wine yeast or 1 oz. (28 grams) dried baker’s yeast

Sterilize a one-gallon bucket – wash it with very hot water and soap, rinse extremely well, then use a Campden tablet rinse as per instructions. Also clean and sterilize a strainer and a long-handled spoon. No wooden spoons! It’s impossible to get rid of vinegar-making bacteria from a wooden spoon. You can sterilize the strainer and spoon in the bucket at the same time.

Wash the pods well. Boil the pods in 6 pints (3.4 litres) of water until tender, then strain the liquor into your bucket. Add the sugar. Stir until dissolved.
Wash the raisins. Either chop them or zap them in a blender with a little water. Pour the raisins into the bucket.  Add 1 crushed Campden tablet.

Cover the bucket with a clean towel and leave for 24 hours. Add the juices, tea and rehydrated wine or baker’s yeast. Let the must (it’s not wine yet) ferment for 3 days. Stir daily. Strain the must into a carboy via a funnel. Fit the airlock. Wipe up any splashes immediately. You don’t want to attract insects.

The must will roil around for a day or two or three. It depends on the ambient temperature. When the initial heavy fermentation slows down, add 8 pints (4.5 liters) cold water to the carboy.

Let the must finish until clear; about 4 weeks. But use your own judgement as to when. It doesn’t hurt to leave the wine in the carboy another few weeks.

Syphon the newly-made wine into sanitized bottles, taking care to leave any sediment behind. You may want to do this twice, waiting for the sediment to settle down in between times. Then you will need a second sanitized carboy to syphon the must into. Either way, add a crushed Campden tablet to the wine at the time.

Cork the wine, lay the bottles on their sides, and wait at least 3-4 months to drink. If you make pea pod wine now, you’ll be drinking it in the fall. 

Keller’s original pea pod wine recipe below

SNAP PEAS OR STRING BEAN WINE

Snap beans, string beans, runner beans (Phaseolus ssp.), are all related and very similar. These are the typical garden green beans grown everywhere, and yes, believe it or not, they can be made into a wine.

Pea pod wine is made from the pods only, and this wine too can be made from just the pods, but because they are typically harvested green and the pods do not open easily to release the beans contained therein, the whole thing (pod and beans) is usually used in the winemaking process. This wine is not to everyone’s liking, but it is wine and some folks have a natural affinity for it.

• 4 lbs. snap or string beans

• 1 lbs. golden raisins, chopped or minced

• 1-2/3 lbs. granulated sugar

• 3 tsp. acid blend • ½ tsp. powdered tannin

• 1 tsp. pectic enzyme

• 7 pts. water • 1 tsp. yeast nutrient

• Champagne or Hock wine yeast Wash beans.

No need to remove stems. Cut beans diagonally into 2-inch pieces, so as to expose more of the interior of the fleshy pod. Put in pot, just cover with water, and bring to a simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, chop or mince white or golden raisins. Put 7 pints water in separate pot and bring to boil. Stir sugar into water until dissolved and set aside.

Strain beans (discarding their water), place in nylon straining bag, and tie bag closed. Tie chopped or minced raisins in separate bag and tie closed. Place both bags in primary and pour sugar water over bags. Add yeast nutrient, acid blend and tannin, stir and cover primary. Set aside to cool. Add pectic enzyme, stir and set aside (covered) for 12 hours.

Add activated yeast. Stir daily, squeezing ONLY the bag of raisins. After two weeks, drip drain bag with beans, saving drippings, and discard the beans. Gently squeeze raisins and discard pulp. Transfer combined liquids to secondary and attach airlock.

Rack every 2 months for 6 months, topping up and reattaching airlock each time. Wine should clear, but if it doesn’t, then treat with Amylase or starch enzyme. Stabilize when clear and no longer depositing sediments. Sweeten if desired, wait 14 days and bottle. Age one year before tasting.

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Napa Valley is one of those places you have to visit. For many families, the escape into wine country nestled in the heart of nature. Napa Valley is easy to get into, offers you a proper chance at living high like the richest of the rich with home rentals Napa and with many places for you to relax in.

The joys and luxury in Napa Valley are immense. So, to figure out your itinerary, check the following list out.

1. Tuck Beckstoffer Estate
One of the premium wine estates in the country, the Tuck Estate offers green valleys which churn out exquisite wine all year round. Take your kids around for a play around the fields, and take part in the various activities offered by the estate itself.

Nestled in a canyon, the scenery is welcoming and quite varied throughout the estate. Remember to taste out the wine that’s available and enjoy the local tasting samples for living life on the high road, even if it’s just for a while.

2. Wine Train
Buses are not exactly a convenient way to go round Napa Valley. The Wine Train is a chance for the visitors to partake in the gourmet lunches and wines from local wineries. Check out the different spaces around the valley and famous local center in the three hours run around the area. The tasting car is one of the cheapest tasting opportunities you’ll have where for a $10 you’d get to have a four float for yourself.

The Wine Train is a refurbished and re-structured old Pullman car, and the journey offers some excellent photo opportunities too.

3. Napa Valley Opera House
You haven’t lived up to your life if you have not attended Opera. The Napa Valley Opera House hosts performances throughout the year and if you’re lucky you can catch one of the legendary American troupes perform. Another place to visit is the Uptown Theatre which has nightly live music and other performances for you to enjoy.

These are the best things to do if you’re a couple looking for some enjoyment.

4. Auberge du Soleil
Napa Valley is home to some of the most exclusive restaurants in the entire country. So, it makes no sense to include “Auberge du Soleil” in this list. One of the premier restaurants, the place boasts of beautiful sceneries and an excellent menu that would have you hooked for hours. This is the area you want to be in with your significant other to sample the wine from the local wineries and to check out the scenic beauty that stretches around for miles.

Reservation is recommended, especially if you’re traveling during the season.

5. CIA St. Helena Campus
If you’re looking for a fun activity for the entire family, The Culinary Institute of America offers some of the best chances at the experience. You can have gourmet food samples for future chefs and also partake in the background of cooking under the instructors’ yourselves.
Take a cooking class, and sample different kinds of foods from the future chefs of America and enjoy yourselves to the full. If you see yourself pursuing the culinary arts any time in the future, this would be a high starting point.

6. Castello di Amorosa
A multi-storeyed castle is a dream for many of us, but, for those who can’t make it a reality right now, this castle offers a view into the lifestyle that comes along with it. Built with fierce dedication by an Italian man, this castle is filled with wonders. What’s more, for the low admission price of $5, you can also partake in the local wine floats and enjoy yourselves.

The castle is chiseled out of over 8000 tonnes of stone, and it’s a work of art as well as an effort in love which makes it one of the best places to visit with your friends.

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In Cuba, guarapo is simply freshly-pressed sugar cane juice, and is drunk on the spot, without waiting for it to ferment. But in Colombia, Venezuela, Peru and Mexico, they homebrew guarapo from pineapples or oranges, and the fragrant fluid sits on the kitchen counter top to ferment until it’s bubbly.

I learned to make guarapo de piña – pineapple homebrew – when I lived in Venezuela. It’s the most refreshing drink there is on a torrid summer day, and it has all the flavor and perfume of fresh pineapple. And it’s all natural, with a slight fizz that owes nothing to industrial additives. Venezuelan mothers used to ferment it only one day, and give it to their kids after school while it was still mild and non-alcoholic, to help them withstand the afternoon’s heat. It’s like ginger beer, but made from pineapples. Read below for the easy recipe.

I like to let guarapo de piña ferment for several days and drink it as a mildl tipple. But watch out. If ferments more than three or four days, it gets strong. You won’t notice it, relaxing and quaffing along…till you get up from your chair.

Traditionally, guarapo is made with papelón, aka panela or rapadura; a chunk of unrefined cane sugar. But lacking papelón, I’ve made delicious guarapo with brown sugar. The surprising part of guarapo de piña is that it’s made with the pineapple rinds, not the fruit itself. It’s a clever way to use every part of those expensive pineapples you buy as a treat, thus avoiding food waste too.

Related: make honey wine 

It couldn’t be easier to make guarapo de piña. Take a ripe, sweet-smelling pineapple, and scrub it, the rind still on, with water only. You want to get rid of any dirt, but not to destroy the natural yeast on the rind. That yeast is what will start the fermentation.

Now stand it on its flat end and slice the rind off, taking some flesh with it. You may want to cube and freeze some of the fruit to drop into the drink instead of ice cubes.

Related: Make pea pod wine

Place the rind pieces in a large bowl or jar with 2 liters (8 cups) of fresh, filtered water.

Stir a cup of brown sugar in.

Cover the jar with a clean kitchen towel. Preferably, the jar should sit in a dark corner. But covering it entirely with the towel will protect the contents from the light and keep houseflies off.

Stir the rinds and water once a day. White bubbles will form on the surface; that’s fine.

Wait 1 day for a mild drink that’s safe for kids to drink. Allow it ferment 2 to 3 days if you want an alcoholic kick to it. Taste the guarapo after 2 days and decide if it’s strong/sweet enough for you. Don’t let it go longer than 4 days, especially in the summer, or it will ferment out and become vinegar.

Strain into a pitcher and sweeten again if needed. Serve with plenty of ice. Transfer it to a clean bottle and store in the refrigerator, but drink it up over the next couple of days. And don’t close it hermetically; it will continue to ferment, even in the fridge. I found that out at dinner once when I opened a tightly-closed bottle of guarapo that fountained all over my lasagna.

Guarapo’s delicious – enjoy!

The post Guarapo De Piña recipe (it’s fermented pineapple juice) appeared first on Green Prophet.

It may not have yielded a prize-winning bottle, but excavators in Israel are excited about uncovering an ancient wine press, probably used for making low quality wine and vinegar, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority which has just released news of the find. The wine press was found in a Byzantine settlement next to an ancient clay “light house” which resembles a small church, suggesting the press was owned by early Christians. The site was excavated before new construction took place at a spa in the area of Hamei Yo’av.

The 100-square-meters wine press, says Rina Avner, the excavation director, consisted of a large treading floor sarounded by six compartments that situated north and east of the treading floor.

The treading floor slopes westward causing the juice to flow westward through and into a settling vat. The juice flow from the treading floor passed to the settling vat, where the waste and dirt sank. Two additional pipes connected the settling vat with two collecting vats. The three vats are situated in a row along the wetern wall of the treading floor.

“At the center of the treading floor we found the cavity of a screw that enabled to press the grape waste from the compartments and to produce viniger and low quality wine, mentioned in Rabbinic sources as “paupers’ wine”,” says Avner.

(Related: read more about modern winemaking in Israel here)

The owner of the wine press was probably a Christian, the excavators surmise, because near it they found a ceramic lantern decorated with five crosses. The lantern was designed as a miniature church building, with an oval opening on one side that enabled its owner to insert an oil lamp.

The other sides of the lantern were decorated by geometric impressions creating a design of palm branches. The crosses were carved in the walls of the lantern, so when the lantern was lit in a small room glowing crosses were projected on the walls and the ceiling.

Sa’ar Ganor, the Ashkelon district archaeologist of the Israel antiquities Authority pointed out that “the wine press at Hamei Yoav and three similar wine presses are located along the ancient road leading from Beth Guvrin to ancient Ashkelon and its port, to facilitate the transportation and exportation of the wine to Ashkelon and from the port of Ashkelon to Europe and North Africa.”

The wine press will undergo conservation and will be incorporated into the modern complex of the garden project near the spa of Hamei Yo’av.

The post Ancient Wine Press for “Pauper’s Wine” and Vinegar Unearthed in Israel appeared first on Green Prophet.