The historic Valley Railway once linked Haifa to the Hijaz line running between Damascus and the Arabian Peninsula. The Ottomans built it to give the Hejaz route access to a Mediterranean port and to compete with the French Hauran line. The stretch from Damascus to Zera covered 123 kilometers, and in 1903 the tracks from Zera to Haifa were completed. The Haifa–Beit She’an section opened in January 1904, spanning roughly 59 kilometers. After the establishment of the State of Israel, service on this line came to an end.
A walk through the fields with Mr. Barak Sagi in Kfar Yehoshua turns into a quiet masterclass in wild gathering. Our first stop was Iris Ben-Zvi’s organic farm, where the soil itself feels like a guide. Sorrel, Galium aparine, Lamium amplexicaule, wild beet, green arum, Chenopodium murale, and bright, lemony Oxalis — each plant adding its own note to the early-season palette, and all of them reminding how alive the landscape becomes when you know where to look.
