Foraging tours with Avishag the Forager
Hello, nice to meet you — my name is Avishag, and I’m “the Forager”.
I want to share a small moment from around 2015 — a small moment that set off a long, meaningful journey that continues to this day, and that I wish upon myself for many years to come.
My family moved north. We first lived on a kibbutz in the Jezreel Valley before settling for good in Hararit, and in that first year we hiked like mad — every free moment exploring another corner, finding another hidden spring. On one of those hikes, on Mount Tabor, a slight Bedouin boy stepped out of the bushes holding an enormous mushroom. Without knowing me at all he walked over and proudly showed me the mushroom in his hand — soaked and scratched all over, but the smile never left his face. We didn’t speak; no words were needed. That anonymous boy, to whom I’m grateful to this day, planted a seed in me that grew and ripened.
I began exploring the world of mushrooms — bought books, joined WhatsApp groups that spoke of nothing else, and above all spent every free Saturday in the forests with my partner Shlomi and our son, hunting mushrooms. We were properly obsessed. Alongside it I grew curious about plants, and Shlomi, seeing the passion, signed me up for a foraging-guide course with Shimi Raf — a wild year that taught me a great deal, and not only about foraging. Later I became an instructor in that course myself.
Since then, foraging is what fills my life with gratitude, calm and abundance. I research it and live it: my kitchen is built on foraged ingredients — spices, drinks, salves and remedies. Foraging grounds me and heals me, and keeps me attentive to myself, to others, and to Mother Earth.