There have been several books that have profoundly influenced the way I see the Galilee landscape. One is the Hebrew Bible, and the second is Jarred Diamond’s “Guns, Germs and Steel”. Diamond explains how the confluence of topography, climate and indigenous fauna and flora in the Fertile Crescent gave rise to the transition of hunting … Read More »
foraging
My Name is Arum
After my culinary memoir “Breaking Bread in Galilee” was published, I realized I had neglected to include the scientific names of the edible wild plants along with their colloquial ones. If it is ever re-issued, I will remedy this oversight, and may even sketch each plant to fill out the picture, so to speak. In … Read More »
Spring Fodder
How to catch an acute dose of spring fever – open the bedroom window at 4 AM; when the chill, citrus blossom-drenched air surges into the room, inhale deeply until intoxicated. Winter is my favorite season here – the magical emergence of new seasonal growth that we experience from December, in other parts of the … Read More »
The Other Side of Paradise
On these late winter mornings, surveying each new day I feel like I am living in paradise. The weather is so temperate, the landscape lush and forthcoming, the wheat fields exude vitality. Back west, my family and friends are hunkered down in the cold and snow as I gratefully soak up the winter sun. The … Read More »
Wild to Cultivated to Wild
What a great pleasure it is to have a hakura, or kitchen garden, next to the house – particularly when its yields peak in mid-winter. Yesterday I stripped the hakura of just about all of the swiss chard to make a crispy filo-layered pie. Washing and trimming the fleshy leaves, I realized how viscerally I … Read More »