Desert Wine

It's been a quiet week.

The highlight was the excursion we took on Tuesday to the Negev. Tours for locals is very popular here. There are tours for kids as part of their school curricula, tours for army draftees as part of their basic training, tours for workers as a company benefit and all kinds of tours for people in the third phase of life, which sounds a lot better than seniors citizens.

Even tho we were told the tour would begin at 730AM, it left about 45 minutes late. Naturally the first stop was a coffee break. We finally got to the first real stop - the Pula Reserve - which is a biosphere between the cities of Kiryat Gat and Sderot. There are many areas like this in Israel - unique biospheres and micro-climates. This one happens to be on the Israel Trail, which is a walking trail that goes the entire length of the country from Metulla in the north to Eilat in the south. Or if you prefer, from the Lebanese border to the Egyptian border. The anemone, the signature Israeli wildflower, is in bloom in the Negev at this time of year, and Pula is one of the places to view them. There's another fascinating plant that grows in the area. As the guide explained, this is the plant that made it possible to transition from nomadic hunter-gatherers to sedentary farmers. It sounded a bit exaggerated to me, but the explanation made sense. When burned, the plant reaches a temperature of 1700 degrees celsius. This makes it possible to soften the local limestone to a powdery substance, which, when mixed with water, forms plaster. The plaster was used to line cisterns to store water, thereby making it possible to have a water source.

We continued to the desert city of Arad and visited the local history museum. One of the town's original founders was our docent. Located roughly between Beersheva and the Dead Sea, 20th century Arad (as opposed to the biblical Arad located nearby) was founded in 1960, intended to be the first planned city in Israel. At the time there were good jobs and the city's micro-climate made it an ideal place to treat asthma. Well, that was then. Asthma was cured and the jobs dried up as factories closed. Tourism didn't really take off they way they hoped it would, with 4X4 jeep tours of the desert. Today the city is run down; the population is 22,000 and they keep losing people to the big cities where opportunities abound. We had lunch at the city's only hotel, although I can't imagine who stays there.

From there we went to the Large Machtesh. A machtesh is a geological phenomenon, similar to a crater, unique to Israel. It's formed when two mountains collapse into themselves, forming a valley or crater. There are 3 in Israel (Ramon, Large and Small) and the word has never been translated. We took a short hike into the machtesh to see yet another geological phenomenon: huge boulders that look very much like petrified wood, but there are no growth rings or any telltale signs of fossilized bugs and insects. They also have quartz-like characteristics. Yet the chemical analysis doesn't confirm what their composition really is. A mystery for the ages.

Our last stop was of all things a vineyard. Yes, in the middle of the desert. It turns out that 2500 years ago grapes thrived in this area, and were supplied to vintners. When the Muslims conquered in the 7th century alcohol consumption was banned, wine was no longer produced and the grape market dried up. Even back in those days it was all about the economy and jobs. When archaeologists started to explore the region and found wine amphora they realized grapes and wine had been produced here. Researchers from Ben Gurion University in Beersheva figured out how it was possible in the harsh desert conditions and voila, by using those same ancient methods an industry was re-born. We had a tasting and the wine was surprisingly good. Hopefully the bottle I bought will make it back to the States.

Shabbat shalom from Jerusalem,

Peggy and Sid