Tis the season for garlic and matza

Fresh garlic season is upon us and every year I try to do the whole plaited garlic drying thing, but it never seems to last, at some point I find it gets mold or starts to rot, summers are too humid.

My plan this year is to try plaiting and drying some in the kitchen where we just double glazed our door, so hopefully better insulated against the humid summer weather, and freeze the remaining garlic.

Hedging my bets, but maybe this will be the year I succeed in drying out the fresh garlic and making it last?

Meanwhile I'm taking some of the fresh garlic greens along with the garlic itself to use in my chicken soup (well, it's really turkey soup, but same idea). I find they add great flavour and this time of year I use them instead of leeks. Putting up a big pot with kneidlakh (matza balls) for this Passover holiday weekend.

Usually this week we'd do a communal matza bake the traditional way, so much fun and a great way to get everyone involved from kids to grandparents.

The trick with matzah is that to be considered kosher for Passover the entire matza making process, including baking must happen in under 18 minutes. It's a mad race to mix the dough, knead, roll it out and get it in and out of the oven within the time limit or else it is considered leaven. Not only that, but everything must be thoroughly scrubbed down within that 18 minutes so that not even a dot of dough or flour might remain stuck to anything, hands, surfaces, utensils, not a thing. Would make a great tv game show.

It's a rubric that lends itself to team work and a fun community project, with everyone assigned a job, including someone to man the stopwatch, do a count down and call time.

Last spring we were under strict lockdown, only allowed 1000 metres from our homes, no mixing with anyone outside our households. Definitely no community baking, even some families who traditionally bake their own had trouble getting out to bring the fresh spring water used to make matza.

This year with Israel's high vaccination rates the covd situation is much better but in most places still no communal matza baking or else just for those who have been vaccinated, so children under 16 who are not yet eligible for vaccination can't participate, though some schools managed to have matza baking. Lets hope for next year for everyone.

I will miss using matza we've made with our community, but we'll be fine with only bought matza this year, both machine made (square) and handmade (round, think pita/matza hybrid). I see so much matza lasagne, farfel and matza brei in our immediate future.

Northern exposure

Things are gradually re-opening in Israel with covid rates declining for weeks, so headed up to Mount Hermon for a last chance to see snow before it's gone, and really, we got there just in time.

The melt was already underway with just patches of snow left in shaded areas on the lower slopes and even riding the cable car to the top yielded fields of snow interspersed with bare rock. There was enough though for some sledding, snow ball fights and of course snowman building. Always a thrill to be above the clouds.



Driving back down we stopped a few times to enjoy the first post-melt spring wildflowers - oriental hyacinth, from which the popular cultivated plant was domesticated, round-leafed cyclamen, more delicate than the common cyclamen found elsehwere in Israel and vividly coloured tiny delicate grape hyacinth in cheery clusters along the mountainside. 

At one point a jackal, majestic in its luxurious winter pelt, darted across the road in front of us, clambering over a rocky outcrop before pausing to stand and stare at us, eye to eye, in the fading late afternoon light, the last rays of the sun illustrating why this is known as the golden jackal. 



The approach road passes through the Druze town of Majdal Shams and is lined with food stalls selling regional farm produce, especially the famous Druze pita bread, a popular local treat. A visit to the area is not complete without enjoying some of the excellent local fare.

We stopped at the "Pita Queen" run by a delightful older lady who is a font of culinary and health advice.

We enjoyed watching her whip up some fresh Druze pitas, which are nothing like pita bread that you might find in a bakery, rather they are thin and papery, almost like a crepe and must be eaten hot and fresh from the saj (metal domed griddle) on which they are made.

Traditionally served with a smear of labeneh, olive oil and zaatar, or just olive oil and zaatar, sometimes a little chili pepper.

She offered us tea, made the local way with cinnamon and cardamom, gratefully received on a blustery spring evening. We sat in the car enjoying the view, warming our hands on paper tea cups and chatting to the Queen herself as she pottered around telling us about her wares. 



In the back of her small kitchen she had a pot bubbling away with a warming dessert of hot sahlab/sahlev, somewhere between a thick starchy-milky drink and a pudding seasoned with rosewater, maybe cinnamon, sometimes vanilla too, and topped with more cinnamon, shredded coconut and/or crushed pistachios and/or crushed peanuts.

It was introduced to the Levant during the period of Turkish Ottoman rule and today is a popular winter treat in countries like Israel, Lebanon and Syria. Authentic Turkish, Greek and Iranian salep is made from orchid roots but in Levant countries it is usually milk based with corn or other starch rather than orchid roots. Perfect to warm you up on a chilly day.

Piled up in front of her stall was assorted farm produce made by her family: wildflower honey, balls of labeneh in olive oil and lemon cured olives.

In season there are delicious apples from the orchards now in blossom, but this time of year she was selling Coke bottles full of cider vinegar from last season's crop (drink every morning for good health, fertility and weight loss), as well as homemade olive oil (drink every morning for longevity and good health). This is her daily regimen for getting in shape for the summer, when God Willing, her son is getting married.