Al-falaHa (the villager/farmer)

My mom, always the villager. She was raised in Abu-dies, a village (a real village) of Jerusalem, but her childhood school was in The Old City where my dad was growing up. She had the city and the village running through her veins. But these days, it's the village. And whenever she sees greens that grew like weeds here that were a tasty treat back home, she goes nuts.

We were watching nephew Matthew at baseball practice and she was going to pick Khubezey (a weed here, greens there, that's sauted with onions, salt and pepper) but came across the Huwarney which is chopped raw and mixed in with yogurt and salt, chilled for a few days then eaten, bitter, with olive oil and toasted pita bread. Yum. And she got so...well, you can see her reaction in the pics. She had no idea she'd see it here. And look at that harvest!

Just thought I should share the genes, as a way of explaining-you know-for those of you who haven't met my family yet.

I spent a good hour of my Saturday afternoon pulling the flowers off for seeds as she and dad took the leaves.