# The Produce in Israel



## sensualspirit (Jul 7, 2010)

Hi there,

I'll never forget the quality of produce in Israel from my high school days. I have NEVER tasted produce like it since & I miss it as I love veggies.

So recently I was shocked to learn that all of the produce is hydroponic. Is this true?

I'm not an expert in hydroponics, but I thought that hydroponics meant no taste.

Does this mean the produce is naturally organic?

Hope everyone is doing well.


Michelle


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## isradutch (Dec 25, 2012)

Not sure about hydroponics however I will tell you that every time I visit Israel I can easily feel the contrast of how tastier the veggies in Israel are.


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## sensualspirit (Jul 7, 2010)

Yes I know, that's what I'm looking forward to.

Why did you leave?


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## isradutch (Dec 25, 2012)

sensualspirit said:


> Yes I know, that's what I'm looking forward to.
> 
> Why did you leave?


A tempting job offer ...
So... Are you on your way to relocate?


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## sensualspirit (Jul 7, 2010)

Ahh, are you in IT?

How long ago did you leave?

No, not yet, I'm still deciding.

My main concerns are:

1. I am a holistic person & so everything I buy is all natural or organic or almost that. Not just talking about food.

I don't buy the regular mainstream stuff, so I order online from the US all the time & I know when shipping to Israel the cost of the shipping will be a lot, but what concerns me more is how much I have to pay in duty & taxes.

I have asked around & so far no one knows of any mail forwarding company that exists or cuts down on the costs.

I also don't know if they allow non kosher food. Not all the products I buy have a hechsher on it.

Like here in Panama things are shipped to Miami, then to Panama & while it is an expense, it's not that expensive in the end unless it's really heavy or a large package.

2. As you know, it's very expensive there, so that's my main reason for not going yet.

I'm a netrepreneur, but my biz has crashed in the last 1 1/4 years since Google screwed everything up.

I'm putting the fielders out there to see if maybe someone has a new biz idea I'd be interested in partnering with them on. So far nothing. It's hard to even contemplate starting a biz there since I haven't been there in ions. 

It would have to be something I have an interest in.

I really wanted to live closer to nature & a quiet area (the North as you know) & I know if I partner with someone, they will be in Yerushalyim or Tel Aviv.

Do you know some people in the North I can speak to?

I would like to go visit for a few months just to make sure I still resonate with the country, but I just can't afford it & many expats are harsh in demanding EVERYONE visit a potential new country first. Not just expats there, but even in Latin America. It's like their mantra.

My stance on that is even if it makes sense which I agree it does, if you don't have the money you just don't. Not everyone is so well off that they can afford to pay for 2 households for 3-6 months.

Going for even 3 months isn't enough IMO. I didn't know I hated Panama until month 7-8. Prior to that I was still optimistic, & on a high from just being here.

The move will be a huge expense as I have boxes of things & I have to buy all the convertors to convert the electrical items I own. Some guy told me to get the $100 ones. I was like $100 for EVERY piece of equipment I have?

That would run me over $1k. LOL

Do you go back & visit?


Michal


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## Vinnie (Jan 9, 2013)

I know panda update ruined lots of businesses, in their effort to 'humanize' the search, they caused heart burn to lots of humans. Since you are an IT entrepreneur, you can afford to move to quiet place, but I guess you need a biz partner who is also willing to move to that place.

Before you come up with that idea, why don't you start blog on an IT topic of your choice. I know it is a long drawn process before tangible results start trickling in, but it is the most effective to develop yourself as a top consultant and earn a steady stream from the blog.


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## sensualspirit (Jul 7, 2010)

Panda & Penguin. Nothing humanistic about their search now. It's terrible. 

I now use Yahoo so I can get good quality search results. The search results on Google give me outdated sites that have been abandoned or forums where the last time anyone posted was in 2009.

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

I'm not an IT person. I'm an entrepreneur turned netrepreneur.

While I'm not adverse to starting an offline business, I would rather stick with online so it cuts down on expenses, traveling to work, etc.

As for a blog, I own tons of blogs. Way too many & they haven't been developed as I'm too busy doing too many things.

Right now I'm concentrating on helping businesses with financial services like merchant accounts, small business loans, cash advances or pre-paid debit cards.

You didn't answer my questions 

Hope you are doing well.


Michelle


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## Vinnie (Jan 9, 2013)

This is surprising that you rely so much on Yahoo. I always thought non Google search engines have got a lot of catching up to do with Google. Probably because of the fact, I have been using Google for more than 10 years and it was the first search engine I ever knew, I am slightly biased towards it and not based on facts.

So you help businesses setting up their online payment facilities? thats great, you are focusing on a niche. BTW which question I did not reply?


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## sensualspirit (Jul 7, 2010)

Oh trust me, I used to love Google too, until they did what they did & ruined my business & many other's.

Then I started to notice the terrible search results.

Whatever they did put them in my bad books. I'd been hearing stories in the last 2 years so my positive opinion of them was declining, but then once they came out with all these rules now that shouldn't have to apply to EVERY company online, I got really mad. I'm over it now, but I'll never support them ever again & I'll teach anyone who listens what they have done.

They monopolize pretty much the entire Internet & you know that when one company has that much power it can be really dangerous & it has been.

Many companies went bankrupt in the last 2 years b/c of their algorithm changes that happened about 5 times in a span of 3-4 months.

And if they had totally eradicated sketchy type companies I could "maybe" see some value, but they didn't.

In fact many great solid companies (including mine of course) were swept away, while sites that are no more than one person operations were put in the #1 spot. And that would be fine if that site was of top quality, but they weren't necessarily any better. Even sites that had been abandoned or their content was old were suddenly top dog.

I spoke to my survey software company about 2 weeks ago & they told me they had to close up one department b/c now no one can find them on the first or second page, & this company is a quality company. I LOVE their customer service & product.

So, if you want those kinds of results, sure, go for it, but that's not what I look for when I search online. I was searching for a client last week & about 6-8 results in a row were from Trip Advisor. Hey I love Trip Advisor, but I do NOT like it when every single search result is from one company. 

It's been said they are favoring the large corporations & trying to weed out the people who don't spend money with them.

I had 2-4 questions in post #33, you will have to re-read it. I don't have time to go thru there & retype everything for you.

Take care


Michelle


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## Vinnie (Jan 9, 2013)

You asked question in post #33, was it in a different thread because there is no post 33 in this thread?


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## sensualspirit (Jul 7, 2010)

LOL, sorry, I was reading the number of posts I have. 

It's #5 from Dec. 30th.


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## Vinnie (Jan 9, 2013)

Yes indeed I am also in IT, a programmer. I hope I have answered your question now.


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## sensualspirit (Jul 7, 2010)

I just want to update this thread now that I've been here for almost 8 months.

It can maybe be the smaller city I'm living in, but the produce is NOT like it used to be although many will disagree with me.

They say it's because the good stuff gets deported, but I'm not sure how true that is.

First off I think they spray WAY more toxins on the produce now than they did back in the 80's & 90's & that's part of the problem along with whether they are growing only hydro.

Most of the produce is cheaper in price, like I just spent $8+ USD on tons of Kolorabi & radishes earlier today. The Kolorabi & swiss chard is not too bad, but it isn't as good as I would have expected it. I'm a foodie.

I've tried to make an Israeli salad around 3 times now & each time it came out terrible. The tomatoes don't even smell like a real tomato. I buy the Roma b/c they smell marginally better, but have little to no taste 

The lemons are as hard as rocks.

I don't live near a farm, Kibbutz or Moshav, & I have no car, so I'm stuck buying from the small veggies guys who are better than the supermarkets, but still NOT the quality I expected.

Sometimes the dill doesn't even smell like dill. Same with the Nana (mint).

The spices don't even smell that great either & they have TONS of spice shops that are combined with nuts. They have HUGE bowls of spices laid out which look pretty, but that's about it.

I buy the Simply Organic spice line from the US & their spices are 10 times better than anything here.

It was a big shock for me as I was expecting sooo much. It took me several months to come to terms with the fact that one of the reasons I came here was not my reality.

Even the restaurants aren't great although, I will admit I haven't been to tons outside of Afula.

2 places in TLV were ok (one was Japanese), but not all restaurants in TLV are great.

In my town of Afula, there's NOTHING. There's 2 chains (Cafe Cafe & Mandarin) & one doesn't have half bad chicken schnitzel & a side dish of bulgar which is interesting. Their lentil soup is ok, but watch out for screws, as I had a horrific experience with metal screws, & the other one (Mandarin) is all dairy & only their broccoli quiche I found great. Very expensive.

There's one so called "French" restaurant here, but it's VERY expensive & wasn't worth the trip back & so far none of the restaurants will replace a salad with anything else, so they aren't there to please you.

There's 2 meat places I haven't tried yet & EVERYTHING else is either pizza (TONS of ****ty pizza), falafel which is ok, but not healthy or schwarma. It's all JUNK.

Speaking of schwarma, it's no longer LAMB. It's cheap turkey which is tasteless, although someone said it's better in TLV.

I had a great chain place (Banddora) I was eating from that had beef & chicken schwarma & I loved the beef one. 

Then 2 weeks ago the food arrived cold & didn't taste right. I then proceeded to have a terrible experience with the owner today. She & her staff were NASTY & I started raising my voice as I was promised a replacement & she refused to give it to me.

It's not just that there's no customer service here, they really do NOT care about you other than if you give them money. One of the things I noticed when I moved here is the greed. I can feel it now whereas I never felt it years ago.

Even if you do give them money on a consistent basis, that doesn't mean they will applaud you as a customer. Today I heard you have to sweet talk them into getting whatever you want from them & while I'm never nasty when I have a problem with a company & I'm almost always nice about it unless it's a HUGE problem, putting on a fake smile & stroking someone's ego isn't within my DNA.

The Russians treat you better, but there's not much I like when I go into a Russian supermarket & I have yet to find a Russian restaurant despite the TONS of Russians in Israel. Russian is the 3rd (sometimes 2nd) language on all companys' IVRs.

Israelis are also like Panamanians, where they blame everyone else for their mistakes or decisions & are nasty about it.

Now, in TLV I went to a restaurant after Pride Parade & while I didn't like the food, they actually saw I didn't like the first dish & offered to exchange it. Can YOU believe that??? LOL

The chef just doesn't know what he's doing (I can tell), but at least they tried which means a lot to me.

That's TLV where it's more North Americanized because it's THE tourist area & where all business people go to do startups.

But the restaurant food is just way too expensive. We are talking even MORE expensive than I'd find in Toronto or other major cities in the US.

$9-10 for a small piece of desert, soups that are close to $8-10, a small quiche that I paid close to $20 in a tiny cafe in Haifa & the portions are no longer BIG. Although I will tell you that I haven't been to many restaurants in JL which is where my previous experience was years ago. I had a large Nicoise salad there which was ok, but again, the prices are the same or higher than in North America.

So all of this was quite a shock for me even months after I got here, & I just wanted others to understand my experience.

Have a lovely night.


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## Claudine M. (Aug 30, 2016)

I already know I can't afford Isreal. Now I think even making such a big sacrifice as to go there and then find the food so awful? Would be a terrible experience. 

Thank you for sharing your experience honestly, its great to know these kinds of things before making such a big relocation.


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## sensualspirit (Jul 7, 2010)

Claudine M. said:


> I already know I can't afford Isreal. Now I think even making such a big sacrifice as to go there and then find the food so awful? Would be a terrible experience.
> 
> Thank you for sharing your experience honestly, its great to know these kinds of things before making such a big relocation.


Wow, I forgot about that post LOL I have another year's worth of experience living here. I'm leaving to go back to the States when I get the money together which has been challenging b/c I'm so sick here I can't do the work I need to do.

I even started a crowd funding campaign to raise money to help me, as I'll have to re-buy 90% of everything I own.

But I thought France is expensive.

A lot (not all) French people return to France after making Aliya here.

There are a few things that are good food wise, but overall, no.

I did manage to find better tasting tomatoes which of course are more expensive. The potatoes are great here, although I normally never eat them as they aren't healthy for you.

One thing I've noticed that others say they don't have a problem with is moldy veggies.

I've now narrowed down my illness to mold poisoning, Lyme disease, or both & of course I won't ever find any doctor here who even knows anything about these 2 deadly illnesses. In fact they will argue with me that mold isn't toxic & that no on here gets Lyme.

They aren't smart here. Do they NOT realize that us expats come from different countries?

One person said they had to fight with the doctors to get the Lyme test done.

I don't believe most people here when they talk. Many people lie, or I don't know what they do. They say one thing one minute, then 20 minutes later they contradict what they said before.

They all claim they don't have moldy veggies, but I sure do. I even take pics every time I find my veggies going moldy straight from the fridge & I upload them to my crowd funding campaign.

Maybe it's just Afula, I don't know.

But the mold isn't just from the veggies, almost all apartments here get mold. I had a HUGE mold issue during the winter as it rained sooo much. Of course my landlord blamed it on me not opening the windows when it was biting cold outside.

I just learned that Haifa has the HIGHEST Arnona costs over every other city. At least that's what the unemployment counselor said. She thinks that's why the restaurants there are sooo expensive. I went to a Lebanese restaurant & this fabulous dish was $28-30 USD, can you believe that???

There are many more things I have been encountering:

1. The construction is terrible here. If you live in an area where everything is brand new & you can't see ANY land, then you are probably safe, but if not, then even if they are not building today, within 6-12 months chances are they will start building. And I'm not talking one building, in my neighborhood where there was only ONE building being built when I moved in here in Nov. of 2015, they finally finished that one a month ago, but since then I've had renovations non stop in my building until the winter came around, the one next door, a new building next to the other one & now they are prepping to start building 4 more buildings, plus 2 more buildings across the way (not on my street) are now making a racket.

That's constant noise pollution, not to mention HUGE amounts of dirt coming into your apartment even if the windows are closed.

I'm sure I breath in this grit/dust non stop. It doesn't matter if I wash it off today, b/c within 1-4 days it will be gritty again & it will ruin your computer & other equipment.

2. The ISPs here don't know what they are doing. I already switched from cable to DSL & I've had non stop problems with both since I joined them.

Now the DSL company (Bezeq) is blaming my computers for their issues. They refuse to do anything more to fix the problem.

This means I can't work even when I have the energy to work b/c I need clean fast Internet that won't cut out even if it's for a millisecond.

They also keep lowering my download speeds every time there is a problem saying they can't give me that speed even though I originally signed up for the 100 download speed.

Again, this shows they don't know what they are doing.

I've spent more time dealing with them, then living my life.

There's other things, but I won't go into them here.

While I'll miss some aspects of Israel, I have to leave b/c I have gotten so sick since being here. Plus I just don't resonate with the people. I like discussing intelligent conversations, but I am not the type that likes arguing about everything just for the sake of EGO & having to argue.

Plus I've learned more about the conflict since I started studying it & I was shocked at what I learned. 

And I'm not a conservative person (far from it) & like my unemployment counselor said, most Jews are conservative. They don't believe in nature & holistic & she's right. 

She also said if you come with lots of money & you are rich, your experiences will be totally different than if you are poor or lower class.

I can't even get things here I would normally get in the US like I need to go for infrared sauna sessions to detox. One guy wanted to charge 200 ILS which is around $60 USD which is NUTS. In Canada it was like $30 even though that was years ago.

I need intravenous Vitamin C & no doctor will give it to me unless I see them first & they charge like $600 USD to see them which of course doesn't include the Vitamins. I can't afford that.

So it's not just the restaurant food here that is expensive, it's even me trying to get the holistic things I'd get back in the US.

How long have you been in France & why are you looking to leave?

Be well


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