Hello everyone! I hope you’re all doing well and not feeling overwhelmed by preparations for Christmas, if you’re celebrating. I wanted to let you know about a series I’ve been doing throughout this month on Middle Eastern plants. If you follow me on social media @the_nostalgic_gardener on Instagram or on my personal FaceBook @Selwa Calderbank then you might have seen these! If you have, I hope you’ve found them interesting and enjoyable! If you’re not a social media bunny, I’ve collated a few here to give you a taster (I’ll post another 6 in a week or so here on my blog).

But before I go on, maybe you’re wondering why I’m doing this series…?

Well, it’s to tell a story about the Middle East through its plants: its rich biodiversity, its plant heritage and its surprising contribution – via plants – to Western culture, food, history and heritage too. During these dark times, perhaps plants can show us some things we have in common across cultures?

The olive, Al-Zaytoun, Olea europaea

The olive , symbol of peace and prosperity, and widely grown in the Middle East where I am half from (the other half is Lancashire 🙃)
🇯🇴 Here is my mum a few years back harvesting olives on her land in Jordan overlooking the Sea of Galilee
🌳 The trees grow to a ripe old age and hang on tenaciously through the centuries (the oldest – in Portugal – is 3,350 years old!!)
🇵🇸 in nearby Palestine many trees have been forcibly uprooted to make way for settlements and the like
💰 The olive harvest is a crucial source of income for Palestinians and during the brief ceasefire many farmers took the opportunity to harvest their olives. Now once again that’s impossible.
🇧🇪 Despite the very different climate, my own olive is hanging on in its terracotta pot on my front path in Belgium (second pic, May) but I have yet to make my own olive oil.

The pomegranate, Al-Rumman, Punica granatum

The pomegranate, Al-Rumman, Punica granatum is today’s Middle Eastern Plant.
🛖 one of the first fruit trees to be domesticated in the eastern Med – as early as the 5th millennium BC!
🚗 It travelled the Silk Road from its native Iran to Afghanistan and on to China
🧺 Pomegranate groves dot the fertile valleys of Jordan and in spring we would stop for picnics under the blossoming trees
💣The French word for pomegranate was pomme grenade, from where we get the military word grenade!
💰It was the ultimate luxury good of ancient times. Archaeologists found them in posh Bronze Age homes and in Pharaonic tombs
💪 The fruits are astonishingly healthy! Good for your brain, heart, kidney…even a natural breath fresher thanks to their anti microbial qualities.

🌳 They can be grown in Europe as these pics show – from Leuven University botanic garden in Belgium. BUT they need plenty of heat and water to do well!

Za’atar, Origanum syriacum

Za’atar, Origanum syriacum is today’s Middle Eastern plant! This herb is the authentic base ingredient of the classic Middle Eastern spice blend Za’atar. Have you tried it?
🌿 Origanum syriacum tastes like a marjoram and thyme, is actually in the mint family and is called biblical hyssop in Israel. Confusing, eh?!
🔍 It’s much sought after by foragers but can be hard to find
⚔️ It’s become politicised in Israel & Palestine. As a ‘protected’ plant Palestinians are now banned from gathering it in the wild. Hefty fines & even prison sentences are imposed on those caught foraging, often poorer families who have harvested the herb over generations.
💪 Za’atar is very healthy and makes for an excellent breakfast mixed with olive oil and spread on toast – swipe to see my breakfast this morning 😋
👩‍🍳 You can make your own blend easily! Mix dried marjoram, oregano, thyme, sumac, sesame seeds and salt in a blender.
🇵🇸 You can support Palestinian farmers by buying an ethical Za’atar blend available online & in some health shops

The almond tree, Al-lawz, Prunus dulcis

I spent 5 years of my childhood in beautiful Jordan and am certain that my love of plants began then: see how happy I look in this photo clutching a bunch of wild flowers 😁 One plant that made a big impression on me was the almond tree, Al-lawz, Prunus dulcis, today’s Middle Eastern plant! Let me tell you why:

🌸 I grew up on a university campus whose streets were lined with almond trees. After the beautiful blossom in February, the almonds would start developing into fleshy, green unripe fruits with the almond seed in the middle (pic 2). At this point they are delicious, a real delicacy, so my friends and I were avid almond foragers!
🌰 So the almond is actually not a nut! It’s known botanically as a drupe – with an outer hull and within that a seed encased in a hard shell (pic 3).
🌳 Native to the Levant and Iran, it was one of the earliest domesticated fruit trees
🎉 Almonds feature heavily in Arab food and culture. Glazed in a hard sugar coating in pastel colours they are popular at weddings, Eid and festivities.
5️⃣ is the magic number of almonds at weddings, symbolising health, wealth, happiness, fertility & longevity
🇺🇸California produces most of the world’s almonds but at considerable cost to the environment (especially water use and pesticides)
🐝 Bees play a massive role in Californian production as almond trees are insect pollinated. So every year 1.4 million beehives are brought to Californian orchards from other states: this is the largest annual pollination event in the world 🌍!
☀️ Almond trees like a Mediterranean climate but have been successfully grown as far north as Iceland!

Have you successfully grown almonds?

Cyclamen persicum

Today’s Middle Eastern plant is a dainty little ornamental one that’s popular at this time of year: Cyclamen persicum. It’s another one that I fell in love with in Jordan, where it grows wild among rocks in forests and shaded hillsides.

☀️ Native to Jordan, Palestine & Israel, Syria, Lebanon and southern Turkey
🦌In Arabic its name translates as ‘horns of the gazelle’ for its graceful appearance and its swept back petals.
🍃 Its beautifully marbled leaves are edible and were once used to make ‘mahshi’, a delicious dish of rice and meat wrapped in leaves or stuffed into veg.
🫣To avoid the heat they go dormant in summer and seem to disappear – they’re just hiding underground!
⚠️ They are illegally collected from the wild for the horticulture trade and have become endangered! Watch out for dodgy sellers on EBay!

Pics are photos of Cyclamen at Kew Gardens, Leuven botanic garden and in my own garden 🙂

The Carob tree, Al-Kharoub, Ceratonia siliqua

Today’s Middle Eastern plant may look strange and exotic but you have almost certainly eaten parts of it! The Carob tree, Al-Kharoub, Ceratonia siliqua has entered the food chain of many modern diets.

🌳 An evergreen tree native to the Middle East and the Mediterranean, it’s a member of the legume family (like beans & peas)
🥖 It’s linked to John the Baptist, who lived in a cave, wore camel hair and lived on ‘honey and locusts’. But some scholars say it was probably date syrup and carob beans. Others say no, actually locusts, which were available locally. Whatever the truth of the matter, the tree became known as St John’s bread or the locust bean tree.
🍦The pods contain up to 15 seeds – from which a gum is made, and this is widely used as a food additive, as a stabiliser and emulsifier, found in everything from ice-cream and sweets to salad dressings.
🍫 And the pulp from the pod is dried, ground & roasted and made into a chocolate substitute (carob is naturally very sugary!)
🥤 The Palestinians make a refreshing drink from it called kharrub whilst the Lebanese make a sweet molasses from it called debs el-kharroub which is eaten with bread like a Lebanese Nutella.
👑 The word ‘carat’, the unit for measuring gold, comes from the Arabic ‘qirat’ derived from the Greek for carob seeds, which were uniform enough to be used as standards of weights in olden days
🌳 You can grow a carob tree in your garden if you have a sunny spot with sandy well-draining soil but they are only hardy down to -5 degrees C.