Bustan Shoshan, Matsliah – Visitor Guide – Exotic Fruit Experience

Bustan Shoshan

Bustan Shoshan in Matsli’ah (near Ramla) offers fun and educational tours where you can pick and taste various fruits, including exotic ones. Let’s begin exploring!

Map

Bustan Shoshan is located in Ha-Banim Street 87, Matsli’ah.

Map of the area:

Free parking is available by the entrance.

Opening Hours

You can visit Bustan Shoshan only as a part of a tour. To join a tour, you must call or email (see Contact Information below) about a week in advance.

And the tours are held in:
Sunday – Thursday: 09:00 – 18:00
Friday: 09:00 – 14:00
Saturday – closed.

Bustan Shoshan
Bustan Shoshan

Entrance Fee

35 – 50 NIS per person (depending on the tour). And everybody above the age of three years old requires a ticket.

Contact Information

Phone: 050-5285154
Email: bustanshoshan@gmail.com
Website: https://www.bustanshoshan.co.il/
Facebook Page: link

About

In the center of the country, ten minutes from Highway 6, twenty minutes from Tel Aviv, you can find a magical orchard full of exotic fruit trees from all corners of the world. The Lily Orchard, established in memory of Amram, Ziva, and Aryeh Shushan, combines the vegetation of the Land of Israel with special exotic fruits whose trees were brought from all over the world. At Bustan Shoshan, you can walk among the green fruit trees, get a guided explanation, go through a creative activity or watch the sunset and sip on juicy fruits with strange names in front of the charming fish pond.

A movie in the visitor center tells about establishing this place and shows the various fruit trees.
The activity is suitable for all ages from 3 to 120. For families, couples, groups of children, groups of adults, workers’ committees, and summer camps. Tours depart from ten people and up. The tour must be arranged about a week in advance.

Source: official website

And here is a short video Bezeq prepared about this place:

At Bustan Shoshan

When the first lockdown ended, I searched for an open-air activity. I found Bustan Shoshan and sent them an email. They offered a tour on a Friday morning, and the rest of this post is the result of that visit.

The entrance to Bustan Shoshan
The entrance to Bustan Shoshan

Our tour started at the visitors center. First we watched a short movie and then prepared grapefruit juice.

Bustan Shoshan Visitor Center
Bustan Shoshan Visitor Center
Preparing grapefruit juice
Preparing grapefruit juice

Then we went outside and started tasting different things. Our first instinct when we think about trees and food is that fruits are the edible part. But that is not always the case.

Bustan Shoshan

In some cases we eat the leaves. But first, we need to remove the thorns.

Bustan Shoshan

And now you can eat it.

Bustan Shoshan

Sometimes we eat the stems (and not the fruit). For example, this is Hovenia Dulcis, the Japanese raisin tree, and you can eat the rachis.

Hovenia Dulcis
Hovenia Dulcis
Hovenia Dulcis rachis
Hovenia Dulcis rachis

As you can see in the following image, there are plants from all over the world.

Bustan Shoshan

Our guide was Shulamit (you can see her in the movie in the about section). She said that initially, Bustan Shoshan was created to commemorate her father. But when her mother and brother passed away, they decided to commemorate them in this place as well.

Memorial at Bustan Shoshan
Memorial

Our next stop was the mulberry tree.

Mulberry
Mulberry
Curry tree
Curry tree

Curry leaves are used in many dishes in Indian cuisine.

Curry leaves
Curry leaves

Then we ate some flowers. And they tasted like mustard.

Bustan Shoshan
Pomegranate
Pomegranate

Then we headed to pick some loquat. And what amazed us is that the size of their loquat. It is twice bigger than in a supermarket. As it turns out, at the beginning of the season, they pick some loquat. As a result, each branch has less fruit, and each loquat becomes bigger.

Loquat
Loquat

Since we enjoyed the loquat, when the tour ended, we asked Shulamit and purchased several kilograms of loquat.

Banana palm
Banana palm
Black Sapote (Diospyros digyna)
Black Sapote (Diospyros digyna)

Our next stop was by the Black Sapote tree. And since its fruits were not ripe yet, Shulamit brought a frozen fruit. And its taste resembled an ice cream.

Black Sapote (Diospyros digyna)
Black Sapote (Diospyros digyna)
Black Sapote (Diospyros digyna)
Eating Black Sapote (Diospyros digyna)
Carambola
Carambola

Then we entered the Pitango fruit maze and tasted several types of Pitango.

Pitango fruit
Pitango fruit
Kumquat
Kumquat

Towards the end of the tour, we returned to the visitor center and prepared pita bread.

Preparing pita bread
Preparing pita bread

Agrotourism Attractions

You can find similar attractions in the Agrotourism category. And here are a selected few:

Summary

The tour at Bustan Shoshan lasted a little more than two hours. We tasted and learned new things. And overall, we enjoyed our visit a lot. And if you love such attractions, then check out Agrotourism.

Have you ever visited Bustan Shoshan? Tell us about your experience in the comments below.

That’s all for today and I’ll see you in future travels!

Stay Tuned!

   

Additional Resources

Here are several resources that I created to help travelers: And if you have any questions then check out Useful Information For Tourists To Israel.  
Did not find what you were looking for? Leave a comment below, and I will do my best to answer your questions.

Lev Tsimbler

Lev from israel-in-photos.com. You can contact me at hi@israel-in-photos.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts