Our Demonstration Sites


In Israel, we have four demonstration sites. Our own two-acre demonstration and training farm, where we implement intensive small-scale sustainable high-value farming, is part of Hava and Adam, a regional educational eco-farm located between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Tree Garden is a 1/4 acre farm in northern Israel and an example of how smaller plots can become a sustainable family business. Seeds from Zion are Israel's leading experts in the saving and growing of wildflowers, and Oaks back to Nature rehabilitate a degraded oak forest using a professional oak tree nursery. The courses and workshops given at each of the sites are part of our international projects. 

Below is a more detailed description of the sites:

 



Hava and Adam Farm

Based on the principles of sustainable high-value agriculture we produce high yields of more than 80 crops year-round, sell directly to customers and restaurants from the neighboring communities, and exist in harmony with the surrounding natural environment.

The graduates of our 6-month Sustainable High-value Agriculture course, based on the combination and hands-on training and theory, establish their own successful environmentally-friendly farming enterprises. Our short courses and workshops deepen participants' knowledge in specific aspects of growing and venture into the areas of agro-tourism, post-harvest processes, and nature & agriculture-based art, enabling the creation of income-generating businesses that thrive side-by-side with farming. 

You are INVITED to come and visit us! See how we work, join our training, examine the technologies and precision agriculture capabilities we have in the fields and on display and join us for a hearty meal made of our own produce in the beautiful open dining area where volunteers and interns from all over the world prepare meals as part of their learning.  



The Tree Farm

Ten years ago Asaf and Roni Mininberg began their new life in the ecological farm they created on a ¼ of an acre in northern Israel. The Tree Garden and the Wooden Spoon are two intertwined businesses – Asaf produces and sells the vegetables he grows and Roni specializes in cooking healthy, nutritious, and creative food made from the same crops and from the herbs and plants she that she finds in the fields and forests around the farm. Both partners offer courses and workshops on what they love to do.
 
Asaf’s main course, Creating Your Own Vegetable Farm, consists of weekly meetings over six months, enabling graduates to begin their own small-scale farming businesses or productive backyard gardens. In a combination of lectures and hands-on training, the main modules of the course are garden planning, plants and planting, plant protection, harvesting, and the creation of a seed bank. Each course hosts 4 expert guests that talk about their own enterprises and ways of farming.
 
The farm’s produce is sold every Friday on Market Day which includes a tour of the farm. Local and regional events are hosted on a regular basis – musical performances, agricultural festivals, and 10-course vegetarian meals created by Roni.



Seeds from Zion

We grow, save, and preserve Israel’s wild plants since 1948. In our nurseries and fields in the village of Kerem Maharal we cultivate wild plants in all their forms - seeds, bulbs, and young and mature plants and trees.

Working with the Israeli Ministry of Nature Protection, Israel Railways, and the National Transport Infrastructure Authority, we lead numerous projects of saving bulbs and plants before projects begin, providing them with their natural conditions in our greenhouses and fields.  

Our customers include farmers aiming to rehabilitate their lands and increase the number of bees in their fields, landscape designers, municipalities, and wildflower lovers who integrate them into their gardens.

The USDA together with Israel’s Plant Protection Authority approved the export of over 40 seed species to the United States. The seeds are used in our rehabilitation projects in California.




Oaks Back to Nature

Hasharon oak forest is coming back to life in the past five years with the Oaks Back to Nature project created by Ofer Bindel, joined by his team of close friends and tens of volunteer groups from private and public sector organizations, schools, and military units. The team planted 1,600 trees and plans to plant 1000 more – when the forest regains its estimated original number of trees.

Living on a farm nearby the degraded forest that was mostly cut down at the beginning of the last century under Ottoman rule, and further degraded by desertification in the past 40 years, Ofer decided to set up a professional oak nursery. In 2014 the rehabilitation of the forest gradually began, planting 2-year-old oaks that grew from the forest's kernels, getting most of their water from a drip irrigation system installed underground. The trees are protected by special structures until they reach the age of 8. To bring back the animals that reside in the forests, small ponds of water are distributed between the trees. 

The project receives the professional support of KKL, an arm of the Jewish National Foundation responsible for Israel’s forests. Private and organizational donors contribute to funding the project.