I went on an edible plant fieldtrip this Saturday in the
mountains around Ain Zhalta. It’s an AUB
project, which aims at ‘Promoting the
use of wild edible plants to improve dietary diversity in Lebanon as a first
step, and to improve
collaboration and outreach activities in the region and slow down the
simplification of diets. (…) the region is blessed with great biodiversity and the population has
access to potentially many edible wild plants that could be easily harvested
and used. The harvesting and use of these wild plants is, however, on the
decline due to the eroding knowledge and environmental degradation.’ Source. There is a
study on it too.
You could eat this one, but no idea what it was |
The idea was
that we’d stroll through the fields with a couple of ladies from the ‘day’a’
(the village), and as they’d tell us on about the names of plants and point out
what was edible and not, we’d be gathering our lunch old-fashioned style. It’s
the trend now, I understood; Back to
nature, pick your own food from the land, fresh and without preservatives or
pesticides.
In Holland you eat what is available in the supermarket. In
Lebanon, a lot of the herbs and vegetables are seasonal and not cultivated; it
depends on local gatherers to bring them to the farmers market, and you cannot
find them in the supermarket, or if you do, not all the time. There is
something to be said for these indigenous specialties. I am not much of a
vegetable-like person, but when it is gathered in the wild, it has a bit of an
exotic touch to it.
I did find a tortoise |
I am, for example, a fan of aqoub, a plant related to the
thistle family, which taste mildly of asparagus, and – as far as I know – only grows
in the upper regions of the mountains, so I have to wait for someone to go to Tripoli,
where Bedouin ladies gather them in the fields, to place an order. It cannot
get healthier than that.
So I thought this fieldtrip might enlighten me on more
varieties, since I do so much hiking, I might as well gather my salad while
hiking. But from what I saw, pretty much everything is edible. They were
digging left and right, pulling out roots and shoots and cutting leaves, it all
had exotic names (which were slightly lost on me), and it can all be used in the salad or as a side
dish, or cooked and served with nothing at all.
I thought this an odd looking clump of trees |
I am afraid it was a bit lost on me. I am obviously not a botanic star. The names
are in Arabic, and do not mean much to me. Everything looked like dandelion to
me, or a variety of it. Except for the grass.
All the greenery looked alike, while some was to be
boiled, others steamed, and some eaten raw. I will never forget a potato dish
my mother in-law once sent me. I put it in the oven, and baked it nice and crisp.
The next day she asked my how the potato salad was. Oh. It was a salad?
And here's an interesting rock formation. |
I was a lot better at finding fossils and turtles. I did
learn something about turtles (starting with the fact that they’re actually
called tortoises) from a biologist who was also into wild herbs. Turtles are
much older than dinosaurs, which is clear from their rather old-fashioned
design; a shell and plated legs. They are one of the oldest living species in
the world and pre-date the dinosaurs some 100 million years.
In Lebanon we only have one kind of turtle, the Mediterranean
Spur Thighed Tortoise (Testudo graeca). They’re reasonably common, but do suffer
from loss of habitat. They can get quite old in
captivity, it seems
In the end I decided to focus on the wild leek. At least
this plant looks distinctly different from other plants, and I understand leek.
I was going to make leek soup.
A good hour later, I had tramped all over the fields, and gathered a total of two minuscule stalks. It was clear that my life as a gatherer would be a short and hungry one. In the end I was better at gathering leeks from fellow-wild-plant-aficionados than from the land.
A good hour later, I had tramped all over the fields, and gathered a total of two minuscule stalks. It was clear that my life as a gatherer would be a short and hungry one. In the end I was better at gathering leeks from fellow-wild-plant-aficionados than from the land.
My own harvest |
And with a total of 7 miniscule leeks (they were not much more
successful at it than I), I eventually baked a wild leek omelet.
nice pix and adventure.
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