This is one of the best field trips EVER. Neot Kedumim is a sort of national park/out door museum. I'm not sure how to describe it. We had a guide who showed us how we can "taste, touch, smell, see, and feel the Bible." As we walked through the gardens we really did taste, touch, smell, see, and feel the Bible!
The plant above is a caper plant! You know, the stuff you eat with fish sometimes? The part that you eat is actually the bud of the flower. The flower is so beautiful (below).
We got to herd sheep and goats! It was so fun and not as difficult as I imagined. Although it was nice having 20 people helping. I don't know how one shepherd can herd tons of sheep at once.
We found that it was best to lead from behind. They won't follow a person, they follow each other. If you can gently tap them on their sides and get them to all move at once, they will. They sure like to stick together.
Below is a hyssop plant which smells wonderful. It tastes strong and mint-y when you eat it off the branch. It's a fuzzy leaf. People use this spice all the time for cooking, dipping bread in, and tea. It goes into a combination of spices called Zatara. Love it.
We got to mash some up ourselves.
This is a fig tree. I love figs. We were surprised that we could just pick them from the trees and eat them! They were mild and sweet.
This man is a Torah scribe! He gave us a little demonstration on the requirements for Torah writing. For instance, there's no white out or crossing out mistakes. You need to cut the mistake out of the parchment and patch it up. Also, the skin that you're writing on needs to be from a kosher animal.
This was a beautiful Torah scroll. You're not allowed to touch the part that you read, only the scrolled part.
These are the ingredients that go into the ink. There's pomegranate, resin, charcoal, and some other things that I can't remember but it sure looks pretty!
