Last June, and seemingly a decade ago, I visited the cities of Sakhnin and Arrabe, for meetings with two NGOs. At the time, I learned about the work being done by the Towns Association for Environmental Quality on behalf of the Arab farmers of the Bet Netufa Valley. I was also treated to the wonderful … Read More »
olives
Tipping the Seasonal Scale
In the Galilee the year is divided about equally into two seasons. The first, which starts in the fall, can be called the rainy season, although it is more accurately described as the period during which rain may or may not come. In the second season, quite surely it will not. As one would expect … Read More »
No Rain, No Luf
It is dry here. So dry. By this time of year, we could have expected several serious bouts of rain, and at least a stirring of growth in the brown earth. Instead we get the vaguest of clouds and downpours of thirty seconds that barely darken the sidewalk. On a walk last weekend in the … Read More »
Long-lost Relations
Last week I got a call that was entirely unexpected, from a man inquiring about a culinary tour. Nothing unusual about that. But then he went on to explain that we are, in fact, related – that my mother’s grandmother and his father’s grandmother were sisters. My mother does not have a large family, and … Read More »
Green or Black?
Living by Galilee Seasonality is full of ritual – with the same tasks carried out year after year under a delightfully never-exhausted series of circumstances. Now, after the drenching of our first substantial rain, it is time to harvest olives. The first green olives are for curing, and later on, when the fruit ripens and … Read More »