Not Picking Cherries


We set out today to join the popular cherry picking festival at Rosh Tzurim in Gush Etzion.

This is an attraction for visitors from all over the country – and has become more and more popular in recent years, particularly as the security situation has improved over-the-green-line. It has become a social gathering, as well as a fun family outing.

As a aside, I acknowledge the unknown fellow who first pioneered the concept of 'pick-your-own'. Whoever came up with the bright idea of replacing imported cheap agricultural labourers, with middle class fee-paying families-at-leisure, deserves to be inscribed in the Book of Commercial Genius.
  
The place was packed, yet we found a space in the large car park/field, and were about to join the crowd waiting for the shuttle bus to the cherry orchard, when my son-in-law Daniel Gilad suggested we skip the cherries, and go pick blackberries.

We piled back in the car, drove back down the road a few hundred yards in the direction of Beit Shemesh, took a right turn down a country road to the Chavat Eretz HaAyalim (literally The Deer-land Farm), following hand-scrawled signs for the blackberries/raspberries (“Pettel”).

There were less than a dozen cars at the site, and we were permitted to eat the succulent berries fresh off the bushes to our heart's content – and solely had to pay for entrance and the berries we took home.

In addition to the picking, there was also make-your-own pita bread, using a black metal hotplate, above a fire of twigs, assisted by a Genuine Bedouin from a nearby village, who was apparently born with asbestos fingers.  

There was plenty of room to settle down for a picnic, schmooze, whatever. No-one was in a hurry.

The cost for our party of two kids (3-14), five ‘adults’, two babies, and four half-kilo boxes of blackberries & raspberries, was 200 NIS.

For a fun few hours for the family, that was reasonable value. For a few boxes of berries, it was a rip-off. But who's counting?
. 
It was an altogether more enjoyable experience for our off-the-beaten-track family than joining the throngs at the cherry orchard.

Does that make us anti-social, or what?  

Comments

  1. Rachel15 June 2012 at 17:54

    For the record, at the cherry picking festival you also only pat admission and what you take home. I am pretty sure my daughter ate her weight in cherries. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yocheved Golani18 June 2012 at 18:46

    The happy memories are priceless. You made a great bargain.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous24 June 2012 at 11:31

    We went berry picking last week. The entire hill was infested with bugs. You need to be careful with berries.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Marrying a Soloveitchik

Image
Mazaltov! My nephew, Gedaliah Kestenbaum married Devori Soloveitchik in Jerusalem last week. Gedaliah has married into rabbinical aristocracy .    Devori is the daughter of  Rabbi Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik, and the grand-daughter of Rabbi  Meshulam Dovid (Reb Dovid) Soloveitchik , who is Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Brisk (one of the two) in Jerusalem . The Soloveitchik's are a rabbinical dynasty descended from Rabbi  Yosef Dov (HaLevi) Soloveitchik (The "Beis Halevi") and his son Rabbi  Chaim Soloveitchik ("Reb Chaim Brisker"). Rav Chaim's sons Rabbi  Yitzchak Zev (Reb Velvel) Soloveitchik ("The GRIZ" The Brisker Rov) and Rabbi  Moshe Soloveitchik seem to have gone in different hashkafik directions. Whereas Reb Velvel's descendents are predominantly right wing hareidim, Rav Moshe's branch are leaders in the Modern Orthodox/National Religious hashkafa – most notably Rav Joseph Ber Soloveitchik ("The Rav") ...
Read more

Hoax Letter Sent to Synagogue

Image
            (Beis Tefillah Synagogue, Ramat Beit Shemesh) The following hoax letter has been sent to members of the Beis Tefillah Synagogue board of management, as if it was written by Rabbi CM [ed. name respectfully withheld] who serves as their rabbi: I think that as long as David Morris sets policy for L.A [ed. Lema'an Achai ], and is their public face,  I will not allow L.A. to use the Shul for fundraising purposes. This will change if: 1)David M apologizes publicly for stating,and insinuating again and again(in many forums,but especially in his childish Tzedek Tzedek blog) that , as a group ,  "Rabbis" (of RBSA ) are guilty of aiding and abetting and enabling child molesters.(And that of course that leaves LA to come to the rescue of our children.) OR IF  2)LA  publicly , clearly,and unambiguously disavows such statements .They must say--we clearly,and unambiguously ,disavow  statements or...
Read more