Better than average tomatoes

Eli in one of Zeraim Gedera's net houses

Getting on a bus in Israel can be an interesting experience if you're not use to seeing lots of guns. Nearly everyone here has done military service and most of the young teenagers who have finished school and doing their military training seem to get on with their weapons slung over their shoulder. At times nearly 2/3rds of the passengers are carrying a machine gun of one type or another. Pity the fool who would attempt to hijack a bus here.

The black tomatoes that I couldn't stop eating

Back in Beersheba I met up with Dubi Raz (Agronomy Director for Netafim) who helped me out for much of my trip. He set up a meeting to go out to Zeraim Gedera's net houses where they develop new lines of tomatoes for their international markets. Zeraim Gedera is now part of Syngenta which seems to be a trend in agriculture for chemical companies to invest in plant genetics.   

I have to say some of the best tasting tomatoes I have ever eaten have been in Israel but the best of all were on this visit. There was an amazing array of different types and colours all tailor made for specific markets to places like Spain and Brazil. The guy responsible for these better than average tomatoes is plant specialist Eli Yehoshua who kindly showed me around. All the plants are grafted and he had some salt tolerant lines that looked good. I fell in love with a black tomato that he developed and couldn't stop eating the things. I left with a bag full and a big smile on my face.

Later that day Dubi took me out to Netafims factory where our drip tube was made for us over 27 years ago. I've got to thank Netafim for the opportunity to walk through their plant and see the advances in design since those days. There's a lot to making a drip than just putting a hole in a pipe.