Life in Israel: Touring Eretz Yisrael: Organic Berry picking in Gush Etzion

Always looking for good activities by which we can keep the kids busy with positive activities along with connecting to Eretz Yisrael, we found an organic raspberry farm that is open to the public on Fridays for berry picking. There is an entrance fee that includes unlimited eating of berries while on-site, and a price per kilo for berries to take home.

It was a hot Friday afternoon, and we were spending it outside in the hot sun. Despite that, we had a great time. Even the kids who were initially reluctant about going had a great time. The truth is an entrance fee with "all you can eat" for kids is not really going to be getting your moneys worth, from the "all you can eat" perspective. How much berries can anybody eat in a short period of time, let alone little kids? But, despite that, it was a great experience, I tried to eat enough to make up for the kids shortfall, and it was interesting to learn about the variety of berries they were growing.

The farm grows raspberries, blackberries, boysenberries, mulberries, forest strawberries, some herbs and some other fruit (not all of which is currently in season) and probably some other stuff I don't remember.

When we first got there, Dvir took us into the field to show us where the different berries are and explain things to us. His father, David, joined in the middle and explained things. These are religious farmers from Rosh Tzurim (famous perhaps for its annual cherry-picking festival) in Gush Etzion. This farm is in the Massuat Yitzchak forest near Kfar Etzion. They are originally from the USA, Chicago specifically, but have been here since the mid-1970s. David explained to us about grafting, orlah (a certain mulberry they have is still orlah so we could not eat them), maaser ani, and how many of the berries are grown.

they had some cool berries. A tree (tut etz in Hebrew, I think it is mulberry in English) that had two different colored berries growing on it, at the same time, strawberries that are white with red seeds instead of the normal red flesh with white/brown/green seeds (they are tut yaar in Hebrew rather than the normal tut sadeh), and the amazingly juicy boysenberries, blackberries and raspberries. Because they were organic berries we had to keep our eyes open for bugs.

It was a lot of fun, picking and eating the berries. the kids thought their hands turning purple was pretty cool. The fresh berries were juicy and delicious. And after we got home, we had fresh berry pie for Shabbos!