Midnight Travels: Day Five - Zappori Village

On Sunday we rented a car in Jerusalem and drove north to the Lake Knerret (Sea of Galilee) region with the help of a GPS Carol loaned to us and a half a dozen books and maps. Driving in Israel can be an adventure but with only one wrong turn so far fairly uneventful. Highway signs are in Hebrew, Arabic and English. There is an interesting variety of English transliteration for the same place that can be a bit confusing or amusing depending on your circumstances. We had several routes we could take to get to our first destination Zappori Village which is also called Zapori, Tzapporri, Sappori and Sheppori depending on the map, sign or mood of the transliterater. The route we chose was going Highway 1 which turns into Highway 2 through Tel Aviv. We could have chose a toll road Highway 6 but the car rental company charges 50 Shekels. Apparantly you drive through an electronic toll gate and it matches your license plate up with your registration and you recieve a bill. I am told that the rest of Israeli drivers pay 17 Shekels. A Shekel by the way is currently worth about 25 cents.

We arrived in the afternoon and checked into our little stone cottage for the night built in 1949 and renovated by Mitch and his wife Suzy owners of the Zappori Village B&B, a collection of small rentals set on a farm where Mitch and Suzy produce a variety of foods from olives and olive oil to honey and jams and wine. After settling in we took a walk to the local grocery for an ice cream. A short path led us through the hills surrounding Mitch’s place where we encountered an old columbarium and views of the monastery and a sheep farm. Zappori is located near the city of Nazareth and is near a significant archaeological dig of an ancient Jewish city. The sleepy rural town has several B&B’s that seem to cater to visitors of the Ruins nearby. It has a boutique food industry and next door to the B&B is the Ellis Dairy Farm with a sign out front that actually reads “Diary Farm.” While in Tzur Haddassah I found a tasty goat yogurt drink that I had every morning. Luck would have it that yogurt I liked so much was from the Ellis Dairy.

After a short nap, Nick and I made our way over to the Dairy for dinner which Mitch called ahead for reservations. After being escorted by Mitch’s dogs down the street we were handed off to 5 dogs at the Ellis gate and they escorted us to a small modular structure where we were invited to take a table “any table, but not that one” as we were just about to sit down.
Yoav Ellis moved with his family from Texas 24 years ago and grew upon the farm where they not only make the yogurt products but also an assortment of goat and sheep cheeses. He said it would take awhile to prepare dinner as it was just him making and serving and we told him we had all the time in the world. It was worth it. Yoav started us out with homemade lemonade for Nick and a local beer for me. Our appetizer was a crunchy potato skin with melted goat cheese and a sprinkle of chives. This being a Dairy restaurant no meat was served. I got the assortment of Ellis made cheeses with a garlic foccacia toast, local olives and Greek salad. Nick had a goat cheese pizza.

It was a terrific meal and afterwards Yoav sat with us and we talked. He said the economy had affected a business he had of distributing the family cheeses to Israeli delis. In two weeks he was heading for Alaska to seek work. Next morning I told Mitch and he thoughtfully looked at me and said “I’ll have a talk with him.”