Showing posts with label Gardening. Show all posts

Monday, February 22, 2021

"These little seeds hold the DNA of my culture—a culture that’s being attacked, eliminated and destroyed,” says Sansour, a Palestinian artist, scholar and conservationist.

A Palestinian artist, Haya Kaabneh, designed the yakteen seed labels

for the Hudson Valley Seed Co.

"“These little seeds hold the DNA of my culture—a culture that’s being attacked, eliminated and destroyed,” says Sansour, a Palestinian artist, scholar and conservationist. “And so, when I share it, it becomes literally part of somebody else’s body and psyche. And in this way, we are not alone in our struggle.”

The Hudson Valley Seed Co. and its co-founder, Ken Greene, were in many ways natural partners for Sansour, who was dubbed “The Seed Queen of Palestine” by Al Jazeera back in 2018 when her seed library first started to gain international attention. Greene also runs a non-profit focused on seed justice. His company prides itself on selling unique varieties in a sustainable way and also on telling the story behind each hard-to-find seed...."

PLEASE GO TO THE ORIGINAL LINK TO READ THE ARTICLE IN FULL https://modernfarmer.com/2021/02/palestinian-seeds-come-to-america-stories-and-artwork-included/?fbclid=IwAR2n2lvc-QQXPcQAwZeJkPVQfxAvOvIVJVSs9fkkWZk-ftY6sm46Il3bhZA

Palestinian Seeds Come to America, Stories and Artwork Included

Vivien Sansour is bringing yakteen to the United States.

Photo by Samar Hazboun

Gardeners please note this company, the Hudson Valley Seed Co., has many wonderful seeds and also some good gardening tools. This is the direct link to the Yakteen https://hudsonvalleyseed.com/products/yakteen-1

Monday, December 27, 2010

Charity

I like both traditional and odd Christmas decorations. I like both handmade and store bought ornaments. I like all the many different ways Christmas can be celebrated in our homes- in different ways by different families... Every year I sort through the ever changing hodgepodge of gifts and purchases that are my holiday decorations in order to recreate Christmas anew for my own nearest and dearest.

Charity begins at home they say- in thought, word and deed- and I think that is very true. Start with a smile and a kind word- and move forward from there.

In today's world many different organizations raise funds to help those in need. Bell ringers stand by doorways and hope that Christmas shoppers will be generous with their funds. Even fashionable clothing retailers do what they can to help raise funds for those in need. That is how I ended up with this adorable paper mache "Story Ornament" Elephant this Christmas.

I found him in an Anthropologie catalogue while looking for a fashionable sweater to buy for my daughter for Christmas. I get a HUGE kick out of this little trumpeting elephant covered in newsprint words. Seems a fitting symbol for the deluge of words brought on by the information age- AND I very much like idea of helping Haitian artisans rebuild their lives, their homes, and their country.

(That particular Story Ornament Elephant is already sold out on Anthrolpoligie website)

When in Jordan this past September, one of my husband's relatives (cousin Mohammed's mother- a delightful women I had never met before) gave me a beautiful cross from Bethlehem.

Symbols make our world more interesting and interconnected. Art history books can devote pages and pages to the meanings of a painting. Some symbols are obscure and harder to fathom, others (like the cross, or the star or the crescent moon) are quite well known.

The last cross I received as a heartfelt gift came from my grandmother who gave me a book mark that is made of three book length long strands of narrow white ribbon, each strand of ribbon with a small golden charm sown onto the end. A cross, an anchor and a heart: Faith, Hope and Charity .

Charity is love- and generosity.

Dove of Peace

A friend from many many years ago sent me a link last month to a charity in Jerusalem that I find intriguing and exciting.... Palestinian artisans are making Christmas symbols out of the lambs wool from Bethlehem sheep.

Thanks to the Internet I was able to order some to give as gifts (as well as some to keep for myself) and they arrived here just in time for Christmas...and my heavens are they popular ! Every one who sees them and touches them is utterly enchanted. The workmanship is suburb. Each item is charming- and so very symbolic.

Sunbula is a Jerusalem-based nonprofit Fair Trade organization that supports Palestinian craft producers -- women‘s groups, artisan cooperatives and disabled people‘s organizations. By promoting traditional handicrafts locally and internationally, they support economic self-help efforts of those living in difficult conditions in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the Palestinian minority inside Israel.

Sunbula is Arabic for "spike of wheat," the flower that makes bread. As the name symbolizes, Sunbula helps people provide themselves with the gift of a more dignified life.

Each one of their product is made by hand with care, and in the spirit of preserving Palestinian craft traditions.

Go shop at their 2 fair trade shops in Jerusalem or visit their Online Craft Market for hundreds of beautifully crafted items Palestinian embroidery, olivewood carvings, home decors, jewelry, and more!

These felted wool ornaments feel good to touch- and they are so lightweight, and unbreakable. Although I suspect a naughty kitten might have fun pulling one to pieces... all the more reason so buy more than one just in case!

I like olive wood ornaments too, both for my own home and to give as gifts to friends and family.

Some holiday decorations are simple, others are much more complex, like this music box I got a few years ago- made in Palestine... turn the star and it plays the Christmas carol Silent Night.

In growing a garden for Palestine today, I have to keep hoping for peace, even though sometimes it seems that is getting harder and harder to do, with so many extremists, bigots and imbeciles (on both "sides") dominating the conversation at every turn. Thankfully there are many others- many better, brighter, more compassionate and realistic men, women and children who are hoping for peace too- a just and lasting peace for every one's sake.

There are good and decent people here, there and everywhere, hoping and quietly, gently doing what they can to help make Palestine a reality. A real country with real jobs for real people- not a rally cry but a sovereign nation state where Palestinians are fully free to rebuild their lives and homes... fully free to live in peace- and earn a good living. Fully free to simply be.

Today, here in America we can find and buy Palestinian crafts and souvenirs- but in time we might also be exploring sophisticated computer programs or security advice made in Palestine. There is no limit to what might be.... New inventions and new technology or new ideas that radically change our world and the way we do things can not be predicted. But we can help create an environment where more people are more able to make the most of their time and talents.

Lamb's wool angel floating on a puff of lamb's wool cloud

If you are an American citizen looking for ways to invest in a real Palestine be very very careful about what you invest in- and (who and) what you promote. Spend both your energy and your money wisely.

Times change- and life moves on. Sometimes it is in very unexpected ways. Sometimes the change is shocking- but sometimes it is barely noticeable.

And sometimes it is REALLY hard to find a family photo where everyone is actually looking towards the camera!

Christmas Eve dinner at my mother's house 2010

Every year we celebrate any holiday, no matter who we are or what we are celebrating, it is at least a little bit different than the last as our children grow up and we age... Some years the change is huge- loved ones die and we miss them horribly, wishing they were still with us.

Fact is money can not buy the best things in life.

For all the ornaments and decorations that I very much enjoy, my favorite Christmas ornaments are actually the birds in our garden.

A tree full of bluebirds

Friday, May 9, 2008

A good priority

...will return

by Ismail Shammout

Given a choice between blogging about our garden- and simply being in our garden, it is obvious which I choose!

I feel badly not to have posted more here. Every day I do think of it, of different themes I might explore. And then every day there are distractions, too many articles to read, too much laundry to sort, letters to write, poems to dream of, meals to be made, emails to answer, dishes to wash, doorbells, phone calls, errands to run... and family to enjoy... and then there is simply stepping out into our garden and letting go of everything to simply be in the garden- marveling.

It's already May.

Spring in Palestine
by Ismail Shammout

This week many people world wide are commemorating the ongoing Nakba, the huge tragedy where so many Palestinian men, women and children have lost their homes and gardens- and their freedom. There is a flurry of attention on the topic but only briefly it seems, as it is already being pushed aside again by other compelling stories, and a very dangerous status quo remains the same with Zionists very much owning and directing the conversation in America.... Zionists really are talented propagandists. They are also adept at knowing how to reach into America's mainstream to draw in sympathy and support for their "cause". Tragically most Americans simply do not understand what a scam it all is, and how much trouble and sorrow and confusion and suffering Israel creates day after day after day.

On yahoo pictures this week I caught a glimpse of a huge key, a giant key made of metal to symbolize the Palestinian Refugees' Right of Return.

There are also pictures of Palestinians holding keys, wearing keys, making wooden key souvenirs. Its a good theme- simply home and the right to return. No political party or religion can own it- or trade it way. It simply is, and obviously it is getting bigger and bigger.

(Blog Updated 7-20-2009 with new photo from http://www.badil.org/awda-award/award09/posters09.htm)

In our garden here the trees have been blooming. Some, like the lilac are fragrant, others like the dogwood are mainly visually enchanting. I like to stand under a blooming tree, surrounded and surrendered into its charm.

Sometimes, I take my camera out and try to capture at least a little of the beauty that I see. Every day is a little different, and this year I want to remember our garden in detail as best as I can. Every nuance and every nook. Our Black Irises already bloomed and today the taller ink blue Irises are on the brink of bloom, ready to soon ruffle out. And in the corner of the back yard where we had to cut down the Mulberry tree, I put a little flower fairy statue on the stump. This corner is now our fairy garden. My husband planted delicate flowers there for me this year and my mother suggests I add a small marble, as apparently fairies like marbles. So what was simply a stump is now an entire theater, with everyone adding a little something in to make it more even more whimsical and fun.

Our fairy garden is quite a contrast to our vegetable garden which is serous business. Already we nibble on the spinach leaves as a garden snack. The tomato plants went in last week and they have a long way to grow, along with the cucumbers.

Never can tell for sure what will take off and what will wither. My husband plants more than one variety of whatever he can to increase the odds that at least one will flourish. One patch of strawberries on the hillside is flourishing- spreading out and vigorously blooming and already starting obvious berries, while another strawberry patch planted at the same time has all but disappeared.

Our wild honeysuckle is blooming. Cameras can't catch the delicate scent, or the feel of the spring breeze or the sound of our wind chimes. Or the smallest of the small creatures that come to be in our garden. Or the patterns of the birds and the butterflies as they flit about.

It takes a long time to grow a good garden- and it takes constant care as well as a growing knowledge of what works where and when. Plant too early and a late frost might kill the seedlings. We planted the morning glory and moon flower seeds this month. Already they have come up, one thin stem with two leaves that seem to hesitate a bit, waiting, but soon enough they will become long sturdy vines growing every which way with tendrils reaching up to twine into anything they can reach. I adore the wall of flowers that comes with each morning glory seed, and all the many different colors of bloom that might be- but you never know for sure what might be where.

And in imagining a public Garden for Palestine, having walked through the key shaped entry, and stopped to admire the mosaic map of Palestine, and smelling the herbs, hearing splashing water, watching the birds... I'd have a fairy garden too. A small nook. A place for imaginations to simply have fun. But my little flower fairies would hold keys.

I'd have a metal shop somewhere on the grounds - a bit like how living history museums have exhibits where you can watch how things were once made. But this would be a place where large and small garden sculptures and birdhouses and benches could be made, anything really- not only for the formal public Garden for Palestine but also some for sale so that anyone who wants can have a garden gadget or work of art from the Garden for Palestine. Trade routes shaped historic Palestine in many ways all through out the years- for generations. Much of civilization is simply the exchange of things - and ideas...oil and spice... and flower seeds and bulbs... good thoughts planted and nurtured.

Good thoughts like the rightness of respecting and honoring hard work and home- and every child... every family- and every garden... respecting and honoring Palestine- both the people and the land.

Growing Gardens for Palestine