Volunteering at a vineyard!
At 4.30 on an early September morning we are on our way in our car, from the most western part of the Galilee inland, to Mount Zemer where we will volunteer at a small family-owned vineyard that needs help to quickly harvest its grapes, in the middle of these Covid-19 times.
The vineyard is situated a few kilometers from the border with Lebanon and around ~40 km north of the Sea of Galilee. We arrive an hour later, around 5.30, when it is still dark outside. Around 6 we are already out in the fields, starting to cut down the dark purple clusters of sweet muscat grapes while the sun slowly begins to rise over the mountains of the Golan Heights in the east. We have about three to four hours to pick before the, for the season, unbearable daytime temperature with its ruthless sun will begin to burn our heads and shoulders.
We cannot help but be impressed by the owner of Zemer winery, Ofer, who just a couple of years ago decided to use some of the land he owned to start growing grapes and thus fulfill a dream he had for years.
After we finished working, when the sun started to reach its zenith, we were invited to his simple factory and later on for tasting some of his wines. On the way back to the car with the wine bottles in our hands, which we received from him as a ‘thank you’ gift, we spoke about how amazing and inspirational it is to see people making their lifelong dreams come true. A proof that it is possible to choose new paths no matter where we are in life.
Today I learned not to be afraid to enter new, untrodden paths, to experience new things we have been curious about and simply to never stop being curious to learn new things….amazing discoveries can be made along the way….
