On Saturday we headed north to Mt. Gilboa which lies right on the border of northern Palestine and Israel.  Paul and I, and Dave and Emily set off at the crack of noon in search of Shirsh Zallouh, also known as Ferula hermonis Boiss…wild mushrooms!

A group from the Embassy went about 3 weeks ago.  We hoped to mimic their trip, simply put:  find and collect mushrooms, sauté them with onions, and enjoy with a great bottle of wine.

This is what we were looking for...not what we found.

The mission was….............a complete failure. 

We got to the site (or what we thought was the site – Mistake #1) at about 130pm.  We were all hungry so we had our gourmet picnic lunch before the hunt.  (It was delicious and a lot of fun.  We had roasted red pepper tapenade, caramelized onions, Jerusalem bread, goat cheese, fresh dates and a bottle of Spanish rioja!)  The guide said to take a basket (like little red riding hood) to put the mushrooms in so the dirt and spores fall back to the ground.  Well we aren’t professionals or anything like that – so Dave carried a reusable grocery bag and Paul has a glow-in-the-dark pumpkin bucket.  Haha.  We spread out and searched the field, all four of us staring at our feet looking for fennel.  Yes, fennel.  Wild fennel.  (These mushrooms grow ONLY at the base of wild fennel plants.)  Mistake #2 – you shouldn’t be looking down for wild fennel.  It is about 5 feet high with bright yellow buds on top and wispy leaves all around.  You can’t miss it.  So if we didn’t see it in the field in the first 5 seconds we should have moved on.  It was like the hunting for sunshine in a cave.

We decided to drive a little further up the road and 5 minutes away Emily spotted a fennel plant (and remembered what they looked like.  The rest of us were basing our search on a google image displayed on a BlackBerry with no concept of scale.).  We quickly parked the car and ran into the field with renewed spirits!  No mushrooms.  This was the last weekend of the season and the Bedouins had probably already been through to collect these mushrooms close to the road…so we pressed onwards into the field.

Israel is usually very brown and dry and dead – but this is winter, or the rainy season, so things are as green as they get right now.  The fields were knee high with random weeds and grasses, some of them prickly, but despite this challenge (and my fear of snakes or other small creatures crawling in the grass where I wouldn’t see them) we persevered.  Emily and Dave and I found an orange tree and – happy to have some fruit to show for our 2 hours of efforts – we picked 6 or 7 oranges.  Mistake #3 – you should try one before you pick the next 6.  There are more varieties than we see in the grocery store and this isn’t Florida.  These were sour like lemons with really tough peels and lots of strings and seeds.

Anyway…no mushrooms in this field so we pressed on to a hill covered in fennel.  Rewind – the fennel in this field was only as tall as the other brush, so you couldn’t see it until you were on top of it.  So we press on.  To conquer this hill which we are sure will have mushrooms, we split up and scour the base of every fennel plant we can. 

Nada.  Nilch.  We are losers.  In my mind, the Bedouins won.  As we turn to leave, giving up our hopes of wild mushrooms, Paul yells out “I found one!”  (So it wasn’t a failure?!)  No…still a failure.  The mushroom was big…and slimy and wilting and full of little bugs. 

Okay…on a more positive note.  The mushroom part was a failure, but we had a great lunch!  It was a lot of fun and now we know where to go and what to look for next year.  And we know that we have to go at the beginning of the season.  The best part – as we were leaving it was close to sunset (but not yet dinner time) and a friend had told us of this great restaurant which happened to be right across the street from our little field.  We thought we’d try it out. 

We walked into this cute cabin with low ceilings and wood all around (which is odd for Israel given the general lack of trees.  Most construction is done with cement.).  After about 10 minutes they seated us outside on the patio, overlooking the valley.  Before they served the food, the sun set.  Beautiful!  The waiter put down a large placemat on our wood table and in English it explained how they use local food that is in season and try to let the flavors of the food shine (not covering them up with sweeteners or sauces) – perfect!  Despite not finding mushrooms, it was a very fun day filled with delicious rich food!  I can’t wait until next year when we can do it again…AND find mushrooms!

Playing Archeologist

Group sitting on top of the ancient wine press
just north of Palestine.

When I was in 11th grade I made a list of life goals.  Though I now can't remember all of them they included the following:  Learn a language (check: 2004/2005), Live abroad (check: 2004, 2005, 2010), See Machu Picchu (check: 2005), Publish my work (check: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010), Work on an archeological dig: CHECK! 2010!!!

My friend Katie organized a group of 8 of us to volunteer for a day, helping an NGO clear a path to and uncover a wine press from the Bronze Age (3300-1200 BCE). While I can't say that it was the most scientific of digs, it was an ancient site and we did get to play archeologists!

  

Despite my eagerness to go on the dig, I did not want to drive.  But alas, my high school days have returned and I am once again the only friend with a car. So I drove a group of us up North, just above Palestine, to the top of a mountian (apparently the lady leading us didn't realize that my little volvo is not an off-roader!). It was a dream come true! There as a large stone structure mostly burried in dirt and rock, a makeshift tent over the dig site, and various spots in the vacinity with carved stones showing beneath the brush. 

Paul and the strong men set to work moving large stones (the size of children) and clearning a path from the road to the wine press.  Katie and another friend were moving dirt from the wine press, and Emily and I were...moving rocks. Nothing fancy..until we discovered something.  We don't know what it was - if anything - but it appeared to be manmade.  While we imagined it to be a water irrigation system or an olive oil press, it could just as easily have been a toilet. 

Anyway, before too long we lost interest in the toliet and joined Katie at the wine press.  Sorting stones from plants from soil, carrying buckets of dirt from the site to the dumping spot - this archeology thing was losing its shine.  Then, I checked the box! As Emily carried away a bucket of stones, laying there covered in dirt was the handle from a pot! The first archeological find of the dig! I found it! Woohoo!!!  Emily and I carefully sifted through the soil and rocks and found about 15 small pieces of an orange ceramic pot with a zigzag pattern on it. We placed them all to the side on a tarp (for the real archeologist to examine).

My desires to work on an archeological site have been fulfilled - I'm done with that phase. Sifted through the dirt, moved some rocks, found a pot, checked off that box.