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The Spice of Life My day at the Local Center for Health and Community* typically starts with some almond milk, possibly chocolate almond milk, or a green smoothie made from freshly foraged plants around Kibbutz Neve Eitan. I like to think of it as hippie bottle service. Inevitably, someone will ask me if I’m hungry  and the answer […]

By: Tali and Uri Mayer Chissick In one of the coldest nights this year, a snow storm in Jerusalem and freezing cold outside, our home-cook and the photographer Assaf spent a night baking sourdough breads in Klil in Galilee, with Anomarel Ogen. Anomarel is one of a dying species of craftsmen who consider their craft […]

Every product in our Local Delicatessen has a story. We know the producers, talk to the farmers and generally – learn a lot from the people who bring us our food. This is our story of the sprouted burghul. A few months ago, in winter, our friends Amit and Adi sent me (with a mutual […]

The History of this region – Israel… Palestine… Levant… Middle-East… – is rich with changes, diverse cultures and many culinary upheavals. The journalist and literary critic, Yuval Avivi, interviewed Dr. Uri Mayer-Chissick as he was preparing for a lecture about the history of local food, followed by a tasting meal of the ancient flavors. His […]

The food blogger Veronica Yudkevich‎‏ visited us about a month ago for a meal and an interview. here’s what she wrote: “I went to Neve Eitan to meet Uri in his deli and was fortunate to meet his crew as well – Tali, Anat, Roman and Ifat – together they make this place what it […]

Our project of eating locally has just gone global with Uri‘s lecture on TEDx. We encourage our friends and costumers to buy from local and small businesses! Take a look :

(Written by Uri Mayer-Chissick) I am not an expert on Halacha. However, my post is going to deal with the way the Halacha deals with nutrition. I have learnt this subject from Rabies that I met – the subject is complicated and fascinating. The people that come to my lectures and foraging tours are varied, […]

(Written by Uri Mayer-Chissick) You don’t have to be a microbiologist to come across germs. I “meet” them’ for instance, when I use fermentation processes, when I suffer an infection or disease, when I prepare compost and even when I digest food (and enjoy it!). There are around one million germs in a drop of […]

(by Uri Mayer-Chissick) I remember them from my childhood – when I was ill, or had dental problems (which didn’t happen) or when food was rotting – it was germs (sometimes Karius and Baktus). One must not cough near babies so that the germs won’t pass over; one does not drink from the same cup […]

For many years now I have been roaming the fields of our country, studying local agriculture, its history and present. I try to understand the pros and cons of every agricultural system, from modern monoculture to dry farming, permaculture and more. I am dealing with questions of crops, environment, marketing, economics and community.

I have a thing with sandals. They represent simplicity and naiveté to me. In summer I wear sandals made in Israel (Source Sandals) in Tirat Carmel. I take care to buy their sandals since I visited the place and was favorably impressed. For my wedding, I looked for (and found) biblical sandals, the old style […]

Very often I have to deal with questions about life expectancy at meetings, lectures and courses that I give, when I talk about the evolution and history of nutrition, or about ancient medicine, or gathering wild plants. It is an important question that made me delve more deeply into the subject, so that I can […]

A few years ago we lived in a farm in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado for a whole summer. One of my duties was to take care of the irrigation system.

For years I have been dreaming about a mud-oven. Dreaming and talking to anybody who would listen. An oven made of mud, heated with wood, big enough to cook in for a whole community. It all started when I met Anamorel in his mythological bakery, Rifta, that was built around a real wood oven. When […]

More than 800 years ago, Maimonides wrote a 40 pages letter to Salah Ad-din ‘s son. The letter deals with the ways a person should use to control his health. This letter and its interpretation and commentary are the center of my research program and the community studies that we lead on the subject of […]

One of the most troubling claims that I hear as a nutritionist is: “It is genetic”. For example: “I have high cholesterol, but it is genetic…”, “I suffer from migraines, but it is genetic…”, and recently even “I am sure to have diabetes, but it is genetic…” . Misuse of genetics is common.

Every year we host our family for a special festive dinner. We actually get to do it twice – on Passover evening and New Year’s eve. This year’s seder night was no different with a great mixture of family, friend, local wholesome food and local wine. I decided to let the pictures do the talking… […]

(By Uri Mayer-Chissick)  On Friday, (23.3.12, the first day of Nissan), My Local Year ended. As of yesterday I can eat food from all over the world. So what is going to change? Nothing.

Uri Mayer-Chissick is a nutritional consultant, an expert on edible wild plants and a historian of food. Read about  Nutritional consultation here. What is so important about the History of Food and Nutrition? Napoleon Bonaparte once said that an army marches on its stomach. You might agree that there are times in which it takes […]

Each season brings with it colors, flavors and scents to the table. Ancient doctors explained that food that grows in every season is exactly what our bodies need for that season to stay balanced Tali and Uri Mayer-Chissick  The Earth’s course creates slight changes in the angle the sun hits the ground twice a year. […]

Local food is most suited to earth, to us, and hummus fits bill We don’t always notice where our food comes from. There are tomatoes and potatoes that come from America, citrus fruits that come from the Far East, and there is beef, which comes from cows that prefer a chilly climate and a pasture […]