Showtime: Spicing up the baskets in Beit Lehem Haglilit

Spice Road Farm is marking Shavuot with its fifth annual Basket Making Festival, with a generous dose of culinary workshops.

By BARRY DAVIS
tnuva basket_521 (photo credit: Courtesy)
tnuva basket_521
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Spicing up the baskets in Beit Lehem Haglilit
Spice Road Farm, Beit Lehem Haglilit, is marking the Shavuot holiday with its fifth annual Basket Making Festival, with a generous dose of culinary workshops to boot. Basket weavers from all over the country will converge on the farm on June 8 and 9.
The festival activities are for all ages and levels of expertise, and visitors will learn to weave baskets from a range of materials, including grass and roots, straw, reeds and banana leaves. Meanwhile, the edibles workshop side of the program will afford visitors the opportunity to take part in spicy pita preparation, pizza making and dairy baking.
Younger patrons will also be able to enjoy a full range of age-tailored activities, including mosaic designing and decorating baskets with spices. There will also be free tours of the farm.
For more information: www.derech-hatavlinim.co.il or (04) 953-3405.
Jezreel Valley festivities
The Jezreel Valley always offers a rich program of events over the Shavuot period, and this year is no exception. For starters there’s “The story of a wheat grain – the harvest holiday” at Ein Dor Museum, which offers a wide range of family entertainment and handson activities, including traditional harvesting with a scythe, operating a millstone and threshing. For details: (04) 677-0333 and www.eindormuseum.co.il.
Visitors looking to get a grasp of regional history should enjoy the “In the footsteps of the guards and the sowers” tour of Sheikh Abreik hills with Tali Zaid, granddaughter of the Hashomer pioneer Alexander Zaid. Tours will take place on June 8-11 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon and cost NIS 30 each. For details: 050-684-8105.
Botany enthusiasts should enjoy the exhibition of over 50 shades of roses at Kibbutz Yogev on June 8 between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. There will also be a farmers’ market with fruit, vegetables and other edibles made at the kibbutz, and an exhibition of agricultural work tools. For details: (04) 993-7578 and 054-598-9802 or www.zivroses.co.il.
Lilies in the green
Lovers of Monet’s water lily paintings and, naturally, fans of the real thing should get themselves to the Green House Nursery at Kfar Azar where agronomist Shuni Anada will exhibit different species of the aquatic plant. The water lily festival incorporates 25 types of the flower, including those that are suitable for our climate and species that originate from tropical and colder areas of the world.
The centerpiece of the event is the Colorado water lily, which opens up daily, first thing in the morning, and closes in the later afternoon. The lilies on display include a wide range of colors and shapes, from peach to yellow, and from elongated blossoms to star-shaped flowers.
The festival will run from June 7 to June 11, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Entrance is free. For more information: (03) 534-7239 and www.hasuka.co.il.
‘Livriut’: Tnuva in the basket
The Tnuva dairy product giant is currently running a hands-on Shavuot-related activity at various shopping malls around the country. The company is making hundreds of thousands of first-fruits baskets available to members of the public, of all ages, to decorate in their own individual way.
The basket-decorating work will take place at special experiential, creative centers at malls in Haifa (Grand), Hadera (Lev), Netanya (Hasharon), Petah Tikva (Hagadol) and Ashdod (Lev), today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and on Sunday and Monday between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. The activity is free.