WINE ROUTE
From Ancient Farms to Family Farms
Starting a chilly morning with a cup of tea made of a fragrant oxeye; spreading a patir (lafa – a large flat pita bread) with labaneh (sour goat cheese) dripping with olive oil and green hyssop
| (an indigenous herb); sucking on a cracked green olive that has been marinated in a concentrate of pepper, garlic and sweetish oil; dipping a slice of freshly baked bread into the virgin oil made this year, polishing it off with a wedge of spicy goat | |  |
cheese which has just ripened and sipping a new wine from a local wineryÂ…. (DonÂ’t go out hiking on an empty stomach).
The Wine Route is actually a new series of settlements in Har Hanegev. Starting at the Mashabei Sadeh junction up to Mitzpeh Ramon, the trail consists of lovely spots where individual families have built their own farms. This is a joint project of the Ramat Negev
 | | Regional Council together with the Israel Lands Authority, the Jewish Agency and in conjunction with green (environmental) agencies, such as the Israel Nature & Parks Authority and the Jewish National Fund, which helped locate the sites for the farms and prepare the infrastructure within them. The project, which was launched a few years ago, has aroused interest among quite a few people from all over the country, all of whom are 21st century pioneers. |
They have created a tourism route – The farms afford a wonderful opportunity for an encounter with idealistic people who love the desert and have chosen to live there from the labor of their bare hands, alongside guest-lodging accommodations and developing tourism. These farms are an excellent opportunity to taste, smell and experience the ancient way of life, but with a more modern and updated look.
Har Hanegev – "The Land of Developing Agriculture" Throughout history, people here have engaged in
| agriculture. Hundreds of rural family farms had existed here in the Israelite period and later in the Nabbatean and Byzantine eras. Ten thousand acres of agricultural lands were cultivated by various | |  |
methods. The land was divided into family lots and near each lot a small farm building was assigned for the workers of the land.
So it was then, and also todayÂ… as we return to ancient times.
From Mashabim Junction going North (Road 222)
From Tlalim Junction going West (Road 211)
From the Tlalim Junction going South (Road 40)
