• Tourism
• Excursions in the country
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Pizzas, springs and close to the center: a perfect summer vacation in the "near north"

South Carmel provides the desired dose of nature and yet without being too far from the city (Haifa, Tel Aviv, etc.). Especially when everyone travels to the water sites in the north in the summer, it is worth getting to know the "near north", where you will find fewer hikers but no less what to do

• The Carmel
• Binyamina
• Culinary tour

Ziv Reinstein

It's not exactly north, nor exactly center - but something in between - South Carmel provides the desired dose of nature and yet without really moving away from the city (Haifa, Tel Aviv and the like). Especially when everyone travels to the water sites in the far north with the family in the summer, it is possible and worthwhile to get to know the "near north" where you will find fewer hikers but no less what to do.

To this end, I teamed up with Mickey Lev, a pastry chef from Binyamina, and set out culinary tours combining fascinating encounters in the Nadiv Valley. Disclosure - I have known Mickey since high school, when he was a boy from Tel Aviv, who had no touch of food, except that he liked to eat. This is how he also tells about himself at the opening of the tour. "I worked for years in a family store for wedding dresses, I reached a weight of 120 kg, married plus three girls until suddenly something happened," he says. Mickey decided he was doing a remake of his life and leaving Tel Aviv (and moving to Binyamina), leaving the weight (and passing Gastric bypass surgery) and leaves the family business (and moves to do what he really loves - to cook.)

After studying in Israel and around the world, specializing in "Reviva and Celia" and seeing that the generous valley area has much to offer humanly and culinary, Mickey decided to lead culinary tours and workshops Cooking and baking, in which he not only cooks and tells about the food, but introduces his travelers to fascinating figures and people from the area.

Stories on the table , a culinary tour of Binyamina and the region. 050-5616778.

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For example, Ayala and Eilat Ben Moshe, a cute couple from Givat Ada who met at the Wingate Institute, and 15 years ago decided to produce wine. This is how "Reuven Winery" was born, where Eilat began producing 80 bottles of wine as an experiment. In honor of his father's 90th birthday, he opened a few bottles and saw that good. The first wine he produced in Eilat was named after his father as well as the name of the winery, Reuven, and "Dad also got to taste the wine after him in his lifetime," he recalls Eilat.

Today, in an old warehouse that was used to store pesticides and redesigned by Doe, they produce a total of about 3,000 bottles a year from Cabernet, Muscat and Petit Verdot grapes, and are happy to host groups and families for a tasting tour where they read wine poetry excerpts and provide tips on how to preserve and drink The red-white-pink liquid.

Reuven Winery , Givat Ada. Tour and tasting - 25 shekels per person (also on Saturday). 052-2840823.

Hummus which is a mixture of religions

A few minutes walk from the winery, still in Givat Ada, we arrived at the "Field Tree", an agricultural tourist center of Itai Tepperberg and his family, where a farmers' market has been held every Friday for the past six years. Farmers from all over the region come to sell their fresh, much cheaper wares than your supermarket, such as bread from Kafr Qara and vegetables from Beit Yitzhak.

At the winery, Mickey introduces us to Yosef Akawi, "El Akawi" (the Akoai), whose story is amazing. Yosef is a mixture of a Muslim father and a Jewish mother from Acre. He sucked the love for both peoples and both religions, and today lives in a torn village and is married to a Muslim and makes hummus the way they do - with love - and market travelers buy, hear and taste. Then they entered the winery's visitor store, where Itai presents us with a selection of wines and olive oil that he and his family produce, as well as new organic olive oil and special dipping spreads that Mickey immediately spread on fresh and hot rolls.

Field Tree , Givat Ada. Open Sunday - Friday, farmers' market on Fridays. 04-6288306.

Have you ever drunk coffee from a machine that costs tens of thousands of shekels?

At noon Mickey took us to his house, where he taught all the children and parents how to make the most delicious dish in the world - pizza. Everyone got dough in their hands, and on a wide table he made slices with his favorite toppings, and after a few moments Binyamina becomes Italy. Blissimo!

From there to the coffee of after, with Roi Ben Asher, original Binyamini, who was a PA in the army and fell in love with coffee. Six years ago he left his job in high-tech and opened a coffee shop. In a small shop he holds the best coffee workshops you will probably find in Israel. NIS, as "Victoria Arduino" she Mercedes "of coffee machines.

" Coffee is the drink most other drink after water, "explains Roy, when he gives a taste of a variety of types of coffee at the store, including the trend sweltering summer's world - Cold Bru - Which is said to be sold in the US more than Coke. And it's nice to know that there is also an ecological trend in coffee - people are starting to give up the more polluting espresso capsules and are also moving to Corona era deliveries and drinking more at home. Speaking of Corona, Roy also holds events for up to 20 people according to the procedures these days, and there is even a workshop in the woods.

Binyamina Coffee. Price for the workshop: Price 400 shekels per couple. 050-6441927.

Workshop sweetness

From there, a jump to a particularly sweet workshop, with Avital and her patisseries. Avital, who has been working in chocolate for 31 years, worked as a graphic artist and illustrator and when the graphics became computerized, she looked for something more creative and came up with chocolate.

In her workshop, which lasts about an hour and a half, she teaches about the sweet black gold. For example, what is the source of the chocolate (not Africa, but rather Ecuador) or who was the one who first added sugar to it (Isabella, Queen of Spain) or the first to add milk to it in 1912 (Henri Nestle, yes that one from the chocolate).

After a few minutes, put on aprons - and set off. Dozens of pralines or small, edible molds are spread out on the desktop, along with sweet toppings like candies, Ferrero Rocher cream, hazelnuts, pistachios, coconut, nougat, berries and what not - and Avital teaches how to pour the chocolate into the small patisseries, and even form a small creme brulee. And cute. At the end, you get a tray full of special pralines, each different and special from the other, and Avital packs it home, so you have something sweet on the way.

Avital's patisserie , Binyamina. Workshop price: NIS 110 per person. 04-6288689.

Life and the bicycle

In the evening, Haim Cohen from Binyamina, who rents bicycles and club cars, took us on a trip to the fertile Nadiv Valley. Haim, equips hikers on the map with great stopping points - springs in the Crocodile Creek, the new Gravitz Promenade and a sunset view in front of pomegranates and grapes waiting for the days of harvest and vintage of summer.

Bicycle life. Rental price: NIS 50 per couple.

The pool, the sunset, the art

We spent the night in one of the luxurious hotels in the area - the Alma Hotel in Zichron Yaacov - which was recently renovated for NIS 10 million, as part of which all 95 hotel rooms were renovated and redesigned, including the spa. These days, Alma has adapted to the purple character procedures in hotels, so that in the dining room the waiters as well as the guests walk around with masks, and the varied and colorful dishes everyone will find what they crave - from delicious jahanun on Saturday mornings, through a huge selection of salads to smoked meats.

One of the advantages of the hotel is its art collection, which includes dozens of sculptures and works by the best Israeli artists in the country. On Saturdays at 11:00 there is a guided tour for hotel guests, which explains the works and what is behind them. But the highlight of this period is the pool, of course, one of two in the hotel, which is really immersed in the Mediterranean grove of the Carmel and its beautiful view to the west. At sunset, a sight awaits you that is difficult to leave. The pool is large so that there is room for everyone without being crowded, and this coming October the entrance to the hotel will be allowed from the age of 12, so that families can still enjoy this coming summer.

Alma Hotel, Zichron Yaacov. Price per night in August at noon: starting at NIS 1,520 per couple. 04-6300111.

Walk to Caesarea

And those who have not yet fallen asleep, are invited to go on one of the night tours of the "Carmelim" association in the area. For example, the lantern trip to Tel Dor, where people gather at Dor beach in the dark and each child receives a lantern and goes for a walk along the beach, among the remains of antiquities of the city of Dor that still remain in the area. Just do not forget Althosh.

Another tour that is taking place these days is to Caesarea. Every Tuesday night, go out with lanterns from the aqueduct beach and walk along the famous aqueduct to the port of Caesarea, where you watch a demonstration of glassblowing as it took place in the ancient days of Roman Caesarea and end with ice cream in the mesmerizing sunset of Herod's city.

Tour prices: Tel Dor - NIS 35 per person, Caesarea - NIS 65 per person. For more details on the tours and other summer attractions in the area, visit the Carmelim website.