Goat with the Wind

Lunch on day #2 was a surprise. I was taken to a mountain in what looked like the middle of nowhere, and then informed that we had to figure out where the place we were supposed to eat was.  A restaurant?  Someone's house?  

After wandering around and asking a few farmhand/cowboy types were we could find "Goat with the Wind," we arrived at a 140-goat dairy with no electricity where a group of friendly volunteers from various countries served incredible food prepared right there on the farm.  It's near the town of Yodfat, about halfway between Haifa and the Sea of Galilee.  

The food to follow was quite something.  First some labaneh with zataar (a kind of oregano spice mixture that is commonly used to flavor foods in Israel, especially salads) drizzled with a very strong olive oil.

bread, cured olives, fresh goat cheese with rosemary (which grows prolifically here in every park and on the side of the road)

stewed tomatoes in a hot, clay dish with Halumi (a cheese made for grilling),

roasted eggplant salad with nana (mint) leaves, pine nuts, garlic and olive oil, then stewed tomatoes and zataar with the most amazing flavor you could imagine,

a chopped salad with red cabbage, cilantro, red & yellow bell peppers,

warm goat cheese topped with tasty, crispy things of unknown origin,

an array of hard and soft goat cheese made on the farm (the one full of black pepper was my favorite),

and dessert...two tiny brownies hiding under adorable clay cones.

We ate sitting under a carob tree, and the wind brought us gifts of carob beans now and then.

Last was delightful tea served in a very pretty pot.  Quite an incredible culinary experience in the most beautiful setting imaginable.