This winter started off on the left foot – first there were an endless string of hot dry days that lingered through December. Then came the disastrous Carmel fire. And then while the embers were still smoldering, came the first real winter storm – 3 days of torrential rain. I couldn’t even begrudge the 26 hours without electricity just thinking of the thorough soaking the parched earth was receiving.
And now, after a good week of sunshine, the landscape is undergoing its magic transformation – sporting a tender growth of vibrant green.
Two Bedouin women appeared in my yard today looking for fresh leaves of luf, and I knew that the edible wild plant season has begun.
I set off this afternoon for a walk to see what I could find. Where one of my favorite fields used to be is now a new residential neighborhood, and in one of the squares cut out of the sidewalk to support a tree, I found a lone, opportunistic wild spinach plant.
Down in the cauliflower field, some hubeisa (mallow) and purslane were mooching off the irrigation system, but the shower of pesticide that they shared made me keep my distance.
In one of the few untouched groves, I ran into Faoud and Iman Sabtan, Bedouin neighbors from Kaabiye, out picking luf with their little girl. Iman also picked some “chibs”, which is a plant that looks like celery and when you peel away its fibery outer layer, the inside is juicy and peppery like horseradish.
This is fabulous! I imagine many of these plants are hiding in untamed lots in Tel Aviv, too, but I just don’t know how to find them.
They are indeed, and if the lot isn’t too exposed to all that car exhaust, then you might see some little old ladies gathering them…