This is a summer post about generosity, serendipity, and okra. On a recent visit to my esteemed friends Abu Malek and Um Malek in Kfar Manda, inevitably I left bearing gifts – two plastic bags with produce freshly picked that morning – the lubia (fresh black eyed peas in their casings) and okra that Um … Read More »
galilee foods
Fig Season
Again, the figs are here. It seems like I’ve been waiting so long. To squeeze and rend their skins, gauge the sweetness in the filaments of flesh, and pop the delicate seeds between my teeth. They will consume my attention throughout their brief season. Ron has draped netting over our fig trees – the birds … Read More »
Cactus Spirit
I recently returned from a very eventful visit to the United States, which included, among family visits and presentations, a meeting with the wonderful environmentalist, writer and local foods pioneer, Gary Paul Nabhan. Several years ago, I read his seminal book, “Coming Home to Eat”, and his description of a visit to extended family in … Read More »
What to Expect from the Heavens
In the broadest of strokes, there are basically two seasons in the Galilee, a brief verdant winter that melds into a vast spring- summer-autumn stretch of dry heat. Yet at the cusp between the two – as those who have lived here throughout time have come to understand, one never knows what to expect from … Read More »
Making Hay
When I first started researching for my book, I had a conversation with a very distinguished food historian. As I enthused about the marvels of wheat, she warned me that people who begin to immerse themselves in the history of grain tend to bore everyone around them, as inevitably, no-one finds the subject as fascinating … Read More »