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The Third Potato Festival Will Take Place during Passover at the Northern Negev Desert |
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This year's festival will take place in light of the international events of the UN's declaration of the "year of the potato" The Besor Region at the northern part of Negev Desert will hold a potato festival on Thursday, April 24th 2008 in Mizpe Gvulot. During the festival, there will be activities for children based purely on potatoes, including puree sculpting, making personal stamps out of potatoes, cooking displays, humorous games and tours into the potato fields on a tractor-drawn cart. There will also be an exhibition of different strains of potatoes, with explanations of the differences between the strains and their suitability for cooking, baking or frying. In addition, there will be a display of agricultural tools. As part of the festival events there will be street shows, musical performances with a program of music from the Andean Mountains, a farmers' market and fashion displays of the area's Moshavim and Kibbutzim, who designed cloths from potato sacks especially for this event. Visitors to the festival will receive a gift bag of select potatoes given by the potato farmers in the Besor Region. The Besor Region is well known for its potato fields, spanning large areas in the region. Around 50 strains of potatoes grow in the fields of the Besor Region, out of around 3000 different strains that exist around the world. Last year's crops amounted to around 300 thousand tons of potatoes, out of which 180 thousand tons were designated for export. The potato festival is part of the agricultural tourism that has developed in the area during the past few years, based on crops. Information about entertainment sites and accommodations is available on the website: www.habsor.co.il. To watch videos of hiking routes in the vicinity of the festival:
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