Today, we had a jammed packed day! First thing, we took a tour of the date and experimental orchards run by Kibbutz Ketura. Our guide, Nadav, took us by Ketura’s algae plant. This business is a large source of income for the Kibbutz. Next, we crossed the street over into their date orchard. This is another significant source of income for the Kibbutz. Their tallest date palms are 35 years old and are able to withstand the desert climate and the salinated water they’re watered with. Each palm produces 140 kilos of dates per season. Multiply that by Ketura’s 10,000 individual palms and that equals 800 tons of dates harvested during a 2 month season! We also toured through their experimental orchards where they’re testing growing manula, neem, argon and balsam.
After a nice lunch in the dining hall at Kibbutz Ketura, we hopped on the regional bus to the Arava Research and Development Center. There, we were given a tour of the research and work that they’ve been doing. This included growing a variety of different fruit and vegetable fields, as well as more date orchards. Our next stop was for ice cream in Yotvata from Israel’s largest dairy farm. It was so delicious!
The final part of the day was taking the regional bus 45 minutes further south to the coastal city of Eilat. We enjoyed a tasty Israeli dinner at a place called Open Heart. Lots of pitas filled with falafel, Schwarma and Kebab were eaten. It was a very busy, but really fun day!
