Shvil Izim

We visited Shvil Izim goat farm for the first time only a few weeks ago, during Chol HaMoed Sukkot, but have already been back again! I kind of fell in love with the place you see and, with a good friend visiting from the UK, I had the perfect excuse - not that I needed one - to go back for breakfast and to say hello to my favourite goat, Nechama!

The family goat farm is located at the foot of the Jerusalem mountains, in Moshav Tal Shachar, which in Hebrew means morning dew. Our first visit there saw us taking part in a children's activity where we saw how soft cheese is made, enjoyed a guided tour of the goat pen, and then had a little go at milking the goats. Afterwards we sampled several of the boutique dairy's yoghurts and cheeses, particularly favoured by my eldest son who rather gorged himself on them! Well, it could be worse...

Much as we enjoyed our visit, I wanted to go back to check out the restaurant. The restaurant's terrace overlooks the beautiful pastoral landscape and looked tempting. It offers kosher dairy meals,
with home baked pastries, fresh vegetables, and of course rich yoghurts and cheeses.

So back we went to enjoy a wonderful Israeli breakfast - a great way to start a relaxing weekend. The eggs were good and the fresh salad quite delicious. The best bit? The cheese and yoghurt of course, followed by good coffee and some freshly baked bread.

The goat farm's specialities include a Gouda, their own Soreq, named for the region in which they’re located, as well as soft feta, labneh and yoghurts, all produced from milk from their 100-goat herd.

The restaurant is located right next to the goat shed and so, after we had eaten, we had to go back to see the really sweet goats. They munch away on hay, grass and frankly anything proffered by the visitor (we are of course asked not to feed them). Two exciting additions since our previous visit were spotted, below.

Our final stop before we left was to the delicatessen to purchase both soft and hard goat cheeses, and a bottle of delicious strawberry yoghurt. All are produced on the premises without any preservatives and were a very healthy treat for my son and I over the subsequent weekend.
Shvil Izim, Moshav Tal Shahar - 08 949 5964.