While family and friends in North America are already in sweaters, here in the Galilee the temperatures are still in the 30’s (high 80’s F). It’s not that we don’t sense the passing of season – the evenings are significantly cooler, and fat, billowy clouds have started to reappear in the sky after months of … Read More »
Culinary Historian
Defying Closure
Looking out my window at the full-grown green olives weighing down the branches of our tree, I am reminded that the Jewish New Year does not begin neatly at the end of one traditional agricultural year and the beginning of another. These olives, last of the summer fruit to ripen, will only be harvested in … Read More »
Post Ramadan Post
The entire month of Ramadan has passed by and I never managed to publish a post about this very culinarily charged period. For those of you who don’t know, the month of Ramadan is observed by Muslims with daily fasting. Because the timing of Muslim holidays is calculated using a lunar calendar, the date that … Read More »
Timeless
Living in the Galilee, I am occasionally gifted with transcendent moments of timelessness – where the landscape and the scene that unfolds within it have more to do with thousands of years of history, than the blink of an eye of the latest decades. At least once a summer, together with Balkees and Muhammad, Ron … Read More »
Pining for Fakus
Summertime – and fakus are in season. Fakus are like a downy, zucchini-skinned cucumber but tangier, crunchier and more refreshing than your average cuke. They are eaten raw, without peeling – their fuzz is as inoffensive as that of a peach. I first encountered fakus in the “baal” vegetable field of friends – who grow … Read More »