Our lunch stop was a tour of a working olive tree farm. Did you know that there are not any truly black olives? Olives that are solid black have been chemically treated. Real black olives are actually purple. (Tuck that away for your next game of Trivial Pursuit!) Before lunch we learned about making pita bread and had the chance to make our own for lunch. I was elected to cut the pitas in fourths for serving - notice what an excellent job I'm doing, please.
In the high hilltop city of Safed we visited two ancient, yet active, synagogues. It was really interesting hearing our tour guide explain different aspects of the synagogue customs. Gideon, our guide, is an interesting guy. He himself in an Orthodox Jew but two of Gideon's sons have more recently become Ultra-Orthodox.
We're spending these two evenings at a Kibbutz in the Golan. Our group had dinner with a couple from the Kibbutz community. Our accommodations (check out the pix!) are part of a resort business run by the Kibbutz. The ideology of the Kibbutz is shifting away from pure socialism to more shared partnerships in which individuals in the community are allowed to acquire, cultivate, and protect their own property.
The weather forecast says the rain stops today! The rest of the week's temperatures are supposed to climb to more normal and sunny skies are due to return. The rain really hasn't slowed us down any and we keep reminding ourselves that soon enough we'll be complaining about the heat back home in Houston.
Pic descriptions:
1. Preserved stone street of Zippori
2. Getting a lesson on olive growing from our host, Shoshoni (whose late husband, interestingly, wrote the book "Top Guns" that was later turn into the hit movie "Top Gun.")
3. Pita bread creations waiting for the oven
4. Into the oven for baking
5. Yours truly working in the kitchen - amazing!
6. Our accommodations at the Kibbutz (what you can't see in this pic is the beautiful views of the Galilee valley below. I'll get a pic tomorrow.)
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