Shavuot, the Jewish festival that celebrates receiving the Torah on Mt. Sinai, has always been associated with having a dairy meal. The origins of the custom go back to antiquity, and there are several explanations for it. Some hold that milk symbolizes the purity and sweetness of the Torah; as milk is to babies, so the Torah is to the Jewish soul.

Others give a vivid picture of the gathering of the Jewish nation at the foot of Mt. Sinai, waiting for Moses to descend with the Tablets of the Law. Aware of their ignorance as to the laws of kashrut, and wishing to achieve as high a spiritual level as possible, the Jews refrained from eating meat all the 50 days from the Exodus to Shavuot.

But I’m afraid that there is no commandment to eat delicious, decadent, sweet treets like cheesecake (see our recipe) or the trifle described below. Oh, well. My advice is: elevate eating with a blessing, and enjoy.

Easy Trifle for Shavuot

yield: 12 servings

Ingredients:

For syrup:

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

3 tablespoons brandy

For filling:

250 grams – 1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 – 1/4 cup sugar, divided in half

700 grams – 3 cups soft cream cheese

200 grams – 1 package ladyfingers cookies, or other light cookie

For garnish:

1 cup mixed forest berries: currants, mulberries, raspberries, etc.

1 small basket strawberries or 1 thinly sliced nectarine, or 1/2 banana or other soft fruit

Boil together all the ingredients for syrup except the brandy. Simmer 5 minutes. Take off the heat and add the brandy. Set aside.

Whip the cream with half the sugar until light.

In a separate bowl, whip the cream cheese with the second half of the sugar for at least 7 minutes, until it’s light.

Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese, mixing gently but thoroughly.

Dip the ladyfinger cookies into the syrup on both sides – a light dip, not to soak the cookies. Line the walls and bottom of your tray or serving bowl with the cookies, breaking some if needed to cover gaps in the container.

Pour about half the whipped mixture into the serving bowl, smoothing it lightly. Lay down another layer of ladyfingers dipped in syrup. Pour the remainder of the whipped mixture in and smooth again, lightly.

Garnish with fresh berries and fruit to your taste.

Enjoy!

More Shavuot recipes on Green Prophet:

• Organic Whole Wheat Bread
• Spinach and Mushroom Quiche

Photo of trifle by Miriam Kresh.

As noted in this month’s seasonal produce feature, purslane is popping up everywhere. Like dandelion greens in the US, this edible weed has recently become fashionable, appearing at upmarket greengrocers and anyplace with a claim to “organic.” As with expensive dandelion greens, smile and pass it by. Keep your eyes open – you’ll see purslane sprouting, wild and free, in a nearby empty lot or even a neglected windowbox.

Purslane makes a tremendous number of tiny black seeds that escape their pods easily, and it grows whichever way the wind blows.

Which is a good thing for us. Succulent, with a mild lemony/salty taste, purslane stems and leaves fit nicely into any salad, substitute for lettuce in sandwiches, and add superfood nutrition to stir-fries and soups. Verdolaga con queso, the traditional Mexican purslane dish, adapts perfectly to the Middle Eastern palate with a few crafty adjustments.

Choose tender new growth for this dish. Tough older stems may be set aside for pickling or for adding to soup.

Scrambled Eggs with Purslane and Feta Cheese

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 cups rinsed, chopped, tender purslane – stems, leaves, and flowers if any

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 large tomato, chopped coarsely

chopped fresh hot pepper to taste

1/2 cup feta cheese, cubed

4 eggs, lightly beaten

salt and black pepper

2 pita breads, halved

Sauté the onion in the olive till golden. Add the minced garlic; stir 1 minute. Stir in the chopped tomato and chili. Cook 5 minutes over medium heat or until the tomatoes soften.

Have ready your beaten eggs, but add feta cheese to the pan first. Stir it in to distribute, then add the eggs. Scramble the eggs loosely in the vegetable/cheese mixture. Season to taste.

Spoon into the pockets of warm pitas that have been cut in half.

Enjoy!

More about superfoods both wild and cultivated on Green Prophet:

Five Edible Plants You Can Pick Yourself

Make Your Own Sauerkraut

Herbel, Moroccan Wheat Soup

Photo of windowbox purslane by Miriam Kresh.

Miriam also blogs at Israeli Kitchen.

Fruit: The summer wave of colorful fruit has begun, to the rejoicing of cooks who love to put up preserves.  Apricots, peaches, and nectarines have entered the markets, and are already sweet enough to be worth buying. Strawberries are still with us, although getting seedy in preparation for disappearing till next year. If you haven’t made your jam yet, here’s our recipe. Kiwis are sweet and ripe.

Cherries have arrived, and farmers predict huge crops this year due to the prolonged winter this region enjoyed, which allowed the trees to “sleep” and blossom after the windiest weather. Last year’s crop almost didn’t exist, due to windstorms that blew most of the blossoms off the trees.

Avocados are still in the market, but getting expensive again as their season wanes. As expected in warm weather, all the melons are sweet and ready for eating.  Fresh green almonds have a different character now, because the milky interior gel has hardened into soft, pale kernels already. If you like them, buy now, for they will soon disappear. Loquat season is prolonged and abundant this year, with bigger and sweeter fruit than I’ve ever seen before.

Citrus fruit are still in evidence, with oranges, pomelos, and clementines for sale. Lemons are big and juicy; some lemon trees give two yearly crops, which accounts for their almost year-round presence. Good news for those who like to put up salty preserved lemons.

Vegetables: Tomatoes are expensive and will remain so for the next week or two, when a new crop comes in. If budget-conscious, look for smaller, less glamorous-looking tomatoes; they are just as good and cheaper. Depending on the day, cherry tomatoes can be cheapest of all.

The best bargains in vegetables today are cauliflower and all the cabbages, which are big, firm, and cheap. Okra is in season, although expensive. String beans, broad Italian beans and wax beans look fine now, as does sweet corn.

Parsley root and celeriac continue full and fat, but as summer temperatures rise, these roots will shrink back and won’t be worth bothering with. The same is true of celery, by the way. Kohlrabi, fennel, beets, turnips, and red radishes are very good now, at reasonable prices.

Summer loves white and red potatoes; time to make one of those Middle Eastern potato salads fragrant with olive oil and lemon. Cucumbers, corn, and eggplants are good now. Come really hot weather, get to the market early for decent eggplants. They are susceptible to heat and in full summer, they buckle in, languishing on the vendor’s stands.

All the peppers are good in May. Look for baby bell peppers for stuffing.  Grilled, and combined with grilled eggplant, peppers make a delicious dip, similar to muhamarra.  Here’s our recipe: just substitute grilled eggplants for the bread. Another well-loved Middle Eastern dish is stuffed zucchini – and zukes are looking good now too.

Pumpkins and butternut squash are in season. Combine one of them with a cob of local sweet corn, an onion, a tomato and your favorite herbs for a delicious soup. As every good cook knows, foods that come into season at the same time taste good together.

Two Middle-Eastern summer specialties are akoub, or tiny wild artichokes. They’re very thorny and labor-intensive to clean, so they’re always expensive. But as a seasonal treat, they can’t be surpassed, with their unique, delicate flavor. Any prickles that remain after cleaning soften upon cooking.

Melokhia, or mulokhia, has started its brief season. Here’s our recipe for traditional melokhia soup. The leaves may be rinsed, patted dry, and hung up by their stems to dry for future soups.

Herbs: Basil is back again. At the herb vendors, there are plenty of parsley, coriander leaf, chives, celery, and scallions. Still in evidence are sorrel, tarragon, wormwood, Swiss chard, spinach, leeks and lettuces. Mint continues especially lovely. Grape leaves for stuffing are now being sold in stacks. You may find bunches of lemon verbena for sale now.

Fresh ginger root is in every spice vendor’s and also at the herb stands. Ginger root freezes well and is easy to peel and grate. Just put the remainder right back in the freezer after use, because it gets mushy once thawed out.

Forager’s notes: The landscape is drying up, with winter’s juicy wild greens just a memory. But there is always something for the alert forager to bring home. Purslane, summer’s featured wild edible, has started to appear on the ground. It’s tender now, so if you come across a nice patch of it, bring it home for your salads.

For a sip of sweetness and to revive childhood memories, pluck a few honeysuckle blossoms. Honeysuckle can be made into wine: if you are determined and have access to a large quantity of pesticide-free blossoms, you can find the recipe online. To capture that elusive flavor more easily, just drop a handful into a jar, cover with sugar, and wait a week.  Rosemary is flowering, and it’s worth robbing the bees of a few blooms to flavor tea.

The dandelion of the Middle East is Taraxacum syriaca. It flowers sparsely and can only be found in hilly regions where winters are cold and consistently rainy. Dandelion is famous for liver support and as an effective diuretic. It’s also a natural superfood, loaded with minerals and vitamins.If you’re lucky enough to live where dandelions grow, pick the tender young leaves to marinate in vinaigrette before adding to salads. Older, tougher leaves are quite bitter, but a few cooked with almost any soup gives a delicious, not-bitter flavor. Dandelion roots are excellent in soups and stews. I used to make dandelion beer from the roots and leaves when I lived in the chilly north of Israel; there are recipes online. It was good beer, too.

Chicory shares all of dandelion’s medicinal properties, but is difficult to pick. The leaves are tiny, and the root almost impossible to dig out of the hardened soil where the plant is most often found. The fluffy blue flowers are a joy to behold early in the morning, though, especially when you catch just the moment when all of them open spontaneously at the same time.

Bindweed, the bane of farmers for its strong, thin vines that strangle crops in the fields, still produces beautiful pink and white flowers. Fill a vase with sprays of honeysuckle and bindweed for a wildflower bouquet to rest your eyes on.

Recipes starring Middle-Eastern produce in season now:

 Baba Ganoush

Stuffed Zucchini

Basil Pesto

 Photos of sour plums in shuk Mahaneh Yehudah, Jerusalem and of honeysuckle/bindweed bouquet  by Miriam Kresh.

Miriam also blogs at Israeli Kitchen.

Few can resist the lure of a crackling bonfire in the dark. Children certainly can’t. Tonight, Wednesday the 9th of May, fires will go up in empty lots, parks, and beaches all over Israel. On Mt. Meron, hundreds of families have already gathered near the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, camping in nearby fields and forests and building high stacks of old furniture, wooden boards, and whatever else will burn.

Up to 400,000 people are expected to visit the site over today and tomorrow. It’s Lag B’Omer (see this post with an explanation of this Jewish holiday).

It’s a holiday enjoyed by religious and secular Jews. Families look forward to exhilarated dancing around the flames, sing-alongs that last all night, and potatoes roasted in the embers. Yet because of carelessness around the fire, children are at risk. Hospitals around the country treat hundreds of children’s burns, splinters, injuries from exploding nails, and even scorpion and snake bites, every year.

Air pollution goes sky-high on Lag B’Omer, too, as housewives hastily pulling laundry off lines can tell you. The smoke and wisps of burned stuff blowing throughout neighborhoods make everyone close windows and turn the air conditioning on. Apart from the dramatic increase of particles in the air, celebrants outdoors may inhale toxic fumes from burning plastic and other materials in old furniture set aflame. In a report to the Jerusalem Post, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority raised another worry: beach fires may endanger sea turtles that lay their eggs on beaches at this time.

Dry winds are predicted for tonight, and there’s plenty of flammable dry vegetation around. Bonfire supervision is more crucial than ever. With the disastrous Carmel Forest fire still fresh in memory, it’s a good idea to go over some common-sense precautions:

• Make a small fire instead of the usual huge one.
• Or get together with neighbors to build one fire instead of each family making their own.
• Inspect the materials meant to be set on fire and make sure that there are no boards with nails embedded, plastic, asbestos, or other potentially toxic materials.
• Outfit kids with closed shoes to prevent puncture wounds or insect bites (spiders and scorpions come out in the dark).
• Give everyone plenty of drinking water to prevent dehydration.
• Lay a circle of large rocks around the intended bonfire area to contain the fire.
• Have ready to hand a first-aid kit and an old blanket for covering stray fire. If someone’s clothing catches on fire, roll him/her in the blanket and call an ambulance. If no blanket available, roll him on the ground.
• Memorize emergency phone numbers. In Israel: Fire department 102. Ambulance: 101. Police: 100.
• Bring a bucket of water to put the fire out completely when it’s time to go home. Or make a pile of sand near the fire ahead of time, to throw on it till it’s out. Stir the ashes with a stick to make sure there are no more live embers.

Traditional Lag B’Omer activities include nature walks and hikes, picnics in parks, and games with play bows and arrows for the little ones. All of them are safer, greener alternatives to bonfires. But if you can’t persuade your kids to give up their bonfire, be there to supervise their safety or appoint a responsible teenager to do the same.

More cautionary tales of fire on Green Prophet:

• Beirut’s Giant Tire Fire
• Tire Fire in Kuwait
• Worst Fire in Israel’s Modern History

Image of bonfire with potatoes roasting via Wikipedia.

Miriam also blogs on Israeli Kitchen.

Vegewarian (vegetarian- aware recipes like these) offer you an alternative to meat-based food. Here’s one for this week which brings Morocco into the kitchen. Home cooks in Morocco make a variety of  cereal-based soups and porridge from millet, barley and wheat (see our post about how important wild cereals are to our grain supply). Cracked-wheat soups are most often savory with spices, herbs, and sometimes meat, but this sweet soup, called Herbel, is an exception.

Like the rice pudding that Westerners are familiar with, this sturdy cereal dish requires two cooking times: once in water to tenderize the grains, and again in milk to make a sweet porridge. But wheat kernels, being a whole grain, are infinitely more nutritious and than white rice, giving you steady energy to last through the whole morning. And Herbel, made luxurious with orange-flower water and a touch of honey, is a delicious way to start the day – or wind up the evening with a comforting dinner.

Ingredients

1 cup – 250 grams whole wheat kernels
6 cups – 1-1/2 liters water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 cups-  1 liter milk
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon orange flower water
Cinnamon, butter and honey for serving at table

Israel’s wild wheat and barley are known to be the ancestors of our modern grains.  When Man  cultivated them, their genetic resistance to drought and disease carried over to cultivated varieties. This aided mankind’s struggle to grow predictable harvests and put fresh bread on the shelf every day.  Great, but all that’s history, right? One would think that with the modern world’s stores of cultivated grain, and seed banks to back up those supplies, our future food sources are safe. At least in regard to that essential staple, bread.

It’s not so simple. Threats to our food supply, and that of future generations, are now coming from man-made time bombs like Monsanto’s sterile GMO seeds. Monsanto is currently working on producing GMO wheat. In addition, according to researchers at the University of Haifa’s Institute of Evolution, global warming has already caused disturbing genetic changes in wild wheat and barley.  In a chain of dependency, science borrows wild grains’ genetic material to improve modern wheat and barley’s ability to survive a hotter, drier world. And to feed our hunger. The question is, how much longer will we be able to depend on them?

Prolonged drought has already caused half a million people to abandon their homes in Syria alone. More droughts are predicted around the world. Together with a rising world population and consequent rising food demands, science’s ability to transfer drought-resistant genetic characteristics from wild grains is crucial.

In a recent study led by Prof. Eviatar Nevo from the Institute of Evolution, wheat and barley grains taken from locations across Israel over 1980, 2008 and 2009 were green-house grown upon gathering. The grains flowered an average of 10 days early.

This sounds like adaptability and increased drought resistance on one hand – grains with welcome new genetic material which we can use to improve cultivated varieties.

On the dark side, the same study shows that grains grown in 2008 have less genetic diversity compared to those grown in 1980. It’s not clear if this  foretells the opposite – erosion of  desirable characteristics for grain survival.

Israel’s territory contains a multitude of ecosystems, but many have shrunk away because of too-few nature reserves, and those too small to preserve ecosystems in their entirety. In spite of ongoing conservation efforts by the Israel Nature Reserves Authority, there’s less open land in which wild grains can thrive.

“We have a large gene bank and are constantly trying to find ways to upgrade cultivars,” Prof Nevo told Haaretz newspaper. “The findings of the current research prove a need for much more massive action to allow wild strains to flourish in nature as well.”

This calls for special protection measures and  legal management of wild spaces. Will the government wake up and put the needed conservation legislation in place?

:: Haaretz

More on wheat and food from Green Prophet:

• Pest-Resistant Super Wheat From Israel
• Egypt to Grow A New Generation of Wheat, But Where?
• Afghanis Prepare For Food Crisis
• One-Tenth of Iraq’s Wheat Attacked By Killer Fungus
  

Image of grains from Shutterstock; Miriam also blogs on Israeli Kitchen

At the end of our post on 5 natural ways to keep your skin beautiful, we note how important it is to moisturize. Now, take a good squint at the ingredients on your moisturizer’s label.

There’s petroleum in one form or another. Alcohol. One or more kind of parabens, a preservative that has a weak estrogen-like effect. Mercury -  the American Food and Drug Administration issued a warning about high levels of mercury in skin products, as of this past March. To enhance the fragrance, phthalates; chemicals that may act as hormone disruptors.

To top the soup off, there’s retinyl palmitate,  derived from Vitamin A and which may increase skin cancer risk when the moisturized skin is exposed to the sun.

Yes, commercial moisturizers are so lovely and fragrant. But as with so many industrial products, you pay for fast satisfaction with your health. We’ve written about scary things in skin-care products in the past, and here’s an extensive list. It’s so easy to avoid the chemicals and make your own silky, fragrant moisturizer that it’s silly not to. All it takes is four ingredients, a small jar and some zip-loc bags.

Natural Hand and Body Moisturizer 

Makes 2 cups

Ingredients:

1 cup  good-quality water or strong, strained herb tea. Suggested herbs: chamomile, marigold, lavender.
¾ cup sweet almond, avocado, or  olive oil
3 tablespoons grated beeswax
5 drops essential oil of lavender or other favored essential oil (rose, jasmine and ylang ylang, while expensive, are heavenly)

Equipment:

A standing blender or a stick blender

If using a stick blender, you will need a jar or bowl with a 3- cup capacity.

1 small jar for daily use, washed in very hot water and absolutely dry

Small zip-loc or freezer bags

Rubber spatula

An improvised double-boiler: one smaller pot on top of a larger one containing water half-way up the top pot.

Put the beeswax and the oil in the smaller pot. Bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat to allow the wax to melt gently. When the wax has incorporated into the oil, remove the pot from the hot water and set aside.

Put the water in the blender jar or bowl. Blend it for a few minutes to agitate it.

Slowly add the wax/oil mixture to the water, blending meanwhile. Keep blending until you have obtained a smooth emulsion: this may take several minutes.

Blend in the essential oil.

Cover the cream with a clean cloth. Allow it to cool to room temperature.

Use the spatula to fill the small jar for daily use. Transfer the bulk of the cream to as many small zip-loc bags as it takes. Seal the bags shut and freeze the cream. Thaw it out as needed to replace the contents of the small jar.

Notes:

Wash and dry the jar thoroughly before filling it with newly-thawed cream.

The fragrance of the essential oils made fade with freezing. In that case, add a drop or two – no more – to each thawed batch.

As there’s no preservative in this cream, store the jar for daily use in the refrigerator. Very refreshing to apply cold cream on a hot day!

This cream is considered too heavy to use as a facial moisturizer, but some people use it as such and like it.

More on natural beauty from Green Prophet:

•  5 Things To Avoid To Keep Your Complexion Beautiful
• 3 Natural Masks and Cleansers
• “Scentual” Natural Perfumes

Photo of moisturizing face cream from Shutterstock.

Miriam also blogs on Israeli Kitchen.

The utmost natural and biodegradable toothbrush is a twig from the Miswak shrub and about which we’ve reported.

New York-based Lebanese designer Leen Sadder has even tried to make miswak twigs available commercially (read about it here). Yet it’s unlikely that Western society will let go of its colorful toothbrushes with convenient handles in favor of Miswak.

We trash our worn-out plastic toothbrushes in a minute, but they stay in landfills just about forever. To keep your teeth in shape and serve the planet, World Centric, a US-based company selling Fair Trade and eco-friendly products for daily food service, now offers a biodegradable toothbrush.

Made from a plant-based resin called Ingeo, the used toothbrush handle and carrier case break down in commercial composting facilities within 6 months.The toothbrushes don’t biodegrade in landfills. If you don’t have access to a composting facility, World Centric even offers a pre-paid envelope for mailing their used toothbrushes and cases back for them to deal with.

The toothbrush and case are certified compostable by the Biodegradable Products Institute. However, the bristles are still being made of nylon. The brush heads are made to snap off and separate from the handle for disposal. World Centric says they are hard at work developing compostable bristles in the meantime.

You may find World Centric toothbrushes in natural foods stores, or order them through their website.

I’d like to see compostable toothpaste tubes, myself – filled with a non-fluoride, Miswak-enriched toothpaste. How about it, World Centric?

More on keeping things out of landfills:

• Dubai Dumps Its Dumps
• E-Waste And The Middle East
• Jonathan Bloom’s Creative Ways to Avoid Food Waste
• US Office In Jordan Gets Green Building Certification

Photo of compostable toothbrushes by World Centric.

If you love the odorous bulb – and don’t mind your house smelling like a salami for a few days – now is the time to head out to the shuk and snatch up braided ropes of fresh garlic. Or braid your own, or simply hang it up to dry in a shady, dry place. It will keep for at least 9 months. Think of all the delicious recipes there are with garlic – like our za’atar pesto.

Prices are about the lowest they’re going to go, so hurry to buy now, because garlic season will soon be over. And with a stash of  dried local garlic, you can afford to ignore the bleached Chinese garlic in the supermarkets.

Fruit: Avocados are still going strong. Strawberries are wonderful now, with prices going down. Now really is the time to make strawberry ice cream and jam (recipe for strawberry jam below).  Cantaloups, honeydews and watermelons are all excellent, just in time for hotter weather that approaches. Fresh green almonds in their fuzzy pods are now sold in the shuk. Crack their shells open and scoop out the milky, gel-like kernel. It’s a taste like no other, and doesn’t last long because the kernels begin hardening within a few days of harvest.

Loquats are still falling off trees in neighborhood gardens, as are oranges, clementines, grapefruit and pomelos. For those who don’t have those trees, look for the fruit in markets. Small, squat peaches just appeared, but prime peach (and apricot) season will come in the next weeks. Lemons are still abundant. Bananas are good, with reasonable prices. There are local apples and green pears, but they seem to have come from cold storage. There are plenty of flavorless imported apples.

Vegetables: Cauliflower heads are full, fat, and white right now with good prices. Broccoli, however, looks sad and not worth buying unless you chance upon a new crop. Fresh, green ful (fava) beans are in, as are string beans, broad Italian beans and wax beans. For some reason, all those fresh beans are still quite expensive, although in season and looking good. Root vegetables continue good:  kohlrabi, beets, turnips, and red radishes. The exotic radishes such as daikon seem to be played out for now.

Cucumbers, zucchini, and corn are abundant and at good prices. Cabbages, both white and red, are very inexpensive right now – time to make saurkraut before the weather goes really hot. Artichokes are still available, but very much at the end of their season. All the nightshade vegetables are in and affordable: tomatoes, eggplants, and all the varieties of peppers. Fennel is in evidence and looking full and fat. Potatoes continue excellent, although the new-crop baby potatoes aren’t so new anymore.

Herbs: Are much the same as in March, with the exception of new za’atar (chop some up to top pita, as in our recipe), oregano, and savory. The herb vendors display the usual lettuces (romaine, iceberg, ruffled white and purple), Swiss chard, leeks, mushrooms, spinach, parsley, sorell, chives, wormwood, rocket, watercress, celery, parsley and green onions. Mint is especially big and beautiful now. Get a bunch of mint and put in cold water with a slice of lemon for a refreshing drink. You can also dry some for future teas, and put a few big sprigs in water to grow roots. Some markets carry fresh grape leaves now.

Forager’s notes: Local trees are full of citrus blossoms. Gather a small handful to flavor malabi or warm, sweetened milk. Plantain still hasn’t dried up. Wild oats are everywhere – pick the whole aerial part for a soothing tea, and to give to pet birds. Birds love pecking at wild oats, either fresh or dried.

You may find wild rocket (eruca sativa) for your salad. Capers have started to bloom – brave the thorns and pick a few buds that have opened just enough to show a white stripe. Place the bud in a little bowl of water and it will open into a beautiful white and purple flower in your home.

Wild hollyhocks are in glorious bloom: snip off a few leaves and flowers to dry as a cough-remedy tea for winter.  Hollyhocks also grow easily from seed, so if you see any dry brown seed capsules, take a couple and plant them in your garden or in pots.

Recipes starring Middle-Eastern produce in season now:

• Strawberry Jam
• Preserved Leons
• 3 Ways to Cook with Fennel
• Baba Ganoush

Photo of fresh garlic by Miriam Kresh.

Miriam also blogs at Israeli Kitchen.

Israeli polluters can no longer dump raw sewage, lest they get caught. Drivers often dump collected waste into open areas to save on fuel and avoid paying authorized landfills. One incident occurred in 2009 in which drivers dumped the contents of 50 trucks worth of sewage food waste near the Sea of Galilee, polluting the area’s groundwater. But will the government  put GPS trackers on all the country’s sewage trucks to monitor their whereabouts?

“The Kolhey Golan sewage and water company first began tracking its sewage trucks to maintain the sewage removal timetable,” CEO Rony Zigler said to the Haaretz newspaper: ”Then we realized the GPS could be used to supervise the trucks, preventing them from dumping sewage illegally and polluting the environment.

“We are about to issue another tender to operate sewage-removal trucks. One of the tender’s conditions will be to install the GPS on all trucks, to let us view their location at all times.”

Kolhey Golan has also proposed to the Environmental Protection Ministry that it grant licenses to sewage-truck companies only if they agree to install a GPS in every truck and monitor their driver’s movements to prevent illegal dumping.

The company manages the waste disposal of over 30 towns and villages in the Golan Heights. If the Ministry accepts the truck-monitoring proposal, all sewage in Israel, and possibly construction debris as well, will go where it should: sewage-treatment plants and landfills – instead of getting dumped near fields and water sources.

More on Israel’s sewage problems and solutions:

• Sewage Flows Where Pilgrims Once Trod
• Paper Made From Sewage Rolls Off Israeli Shelves
• Israeli Sewage Plant a Hot Art Venue
• Army Sewage Irrigates Nature Park

::Haaretz

Photo by Gil Eliyahu via Haaretz