Foraging Tours in Israel Give People a Taste of Local History
Known as “the Israeli locavore,” food expert Uri Mayer-Chissick has written two books—one about Israel’s edible wild plants, the other about local foods in the Levant—and he lectures and consults on a wide variety of related topics, including traditional natural medicine. His master’s thesis was on the history of food preparation, and his PhD from Haifa University was on traditional medicine in the Medieval Arab era. But in a sense his career truly began about 15 years ago in the kitchen, not the classroom, when he met his wife Tali. “I started cooking for her,” said Mayer-Chissick, 38, “and I decided I want to know more about where my food comes from, who grows it, what people ate through history.”
His academic and personal interests have since grown into a family business. The couple now live and work together with their two daughters on the Neve Eitan Kibbutz near the Jordanian border, just south of the Sea of Galilee. They offer a variety of programs and events that promote healthy eating and healthy communities, including foraging tours where Mayer-Chissick shows people what kind of edible plants are growing all around them. “I’m dealing with culture,” he said. “How can we preserve the local traditions of the land of Israel?”
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