These are grim times here, where a disproportionate number of innocent people are enduring great suffering because of the actions of a few. Nothing new about that, and yet it is heartrending every time. In the pastoral Palestinian town of Arrabe in the Galilee near the Bet Netufa Valley, they are mourning a 14 year … Read More »
roasted green wheat
Wheat, and Zaatar, to the Mill
I’ve started to research in earnest for the paper I’m going to present at the Oxford Symposium this summer. The subject of the symposium is markets, and I will talk about the market in Nazareth as a site of pilgrimage, not just for Christians visiting the site(s) where the Annunciation is believed to have taken … Read More »
Relating to Wheat
These spring days, the roaring of combines rumbles in the background – rending thick fields of wheat into neat rows of shorn stalks. In the pre-industrial order of local agriculture, not only would this method of harvesting be unfathomable to a farmer watching from the side, but also the timing. Why would anyone cut down their good wheat … Read More »
Green Anew
How does one mark the arrival of spring when the entire winter is full of flowers? With more flowers for one thing, and the late-night fragrance of citrus blossoms teasing into my bedroom window. But there are other reminders that, over the thousands of years when survival for the people living in the Galilee was … Read More »
A New Article in Gastronomica
Over a year has passed since Ron, Balkees and I helped harvest green wheat to make farike. After that amazing experience, I wrote an article which was accepted for publication in Gastronomica magazine – that very fine journal of food and culture that is put out by UC Press. The article was accepted in the … Read More »