Rish LaKish Olive Press

Deli or food maker · Jezreel Valley religious council

Rish LaKish olive press, Tzippori, Tzippori

A family olive press in Moshav Tzippori that makes organic, biodynamic olive oil from ancient and young groves below ancient Zippori, in a straw-bale building, with tastings, tours and workshops

Rish LaKish is the Noy-Meir family's olive press in Moshav Tzippori, named for the Talmudic sage who said he had seen the land flowing with milk and honey of Zippori. Its groves mix ancient trees around the antiquities of Zippori with an organic grove of 1,800 Barnea, Coratina and Koroneiki trees planted in 2012, all farmed organically and in recent years biodynamically, and the oil is cold-pressed in two-phase Italian machines without added water. The press stands in a former chicken coop rebuilt from straw bales, plastered with mud and sealed with olive oil, beside a compost toilet, a biogas system, an organic vegetable garden and a natural paddling pool. Ayala Noy-Meir, an agronomist and certified olive oil taster who judges competitions in Israel and abroad, has run it for eleven years, and its site says the oils have won prizes in Israel, Italy and Greece, among them Israel's best organic olive oil in 2020. By booking, visitors take a tour with a tasting of oils, fresh pitas, cured olives, local za'atar and herbal tea, or workshops in olive oil ointments, curing olives in the picking season and green building, and the place hosts events of up to 50 people.