Photo: Na’ama Yehuda
Small and humble,
It fills bellies,
When there’s no
Choice of grain.
The green leaves,
The tiny fruit,
Pantry for
Times of pain.
For the Sunday Still’s challenge: #Close and #Green
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Na'ama Yehuda 
What is it?? Curious.
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It is Malva nicaeensis – a wild plant that grows in fields and empty lots and uncultivated gardens in Israel and the environs. The plant’s leaves are edible (often used in salads and/or omelettes or stir-fried), and the tiny sectioned fruit — about the size of the finger-pad of your pinky — is edible raw as well as cooked, and has a bit of a nutty flavor (it is fun to nibble on the sections bit by bit, as kids often do). The importance of the plant can be seen in it’s name in Arabic: it is called “khubeza” (which is derived from the word “khubz” – “Bread”), for how essential it can be in times of scarcity (and siege and war …). It is a pretty little thing, too, with pink flowers. It is a delicacy even when it is not necessary for survival. חוביזה (חלמית)
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A beautiful image of an amazing plant, Na’Ama. I’ve never heard of it, but I’m intrigued now. Lovely poem, and thank you for being a loyal supporter of Sunday Stills!
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yay! Also…Read my other reply to comments on my post for more details… 😁
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The mallow, one of my favourite wild plants. It grows so strong and healthy by the wayside.
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So many people don’t know anymore about edible plants that have sustained people for millennia. There are a few YouTube channels of Chinese ladies who are making the most of their countryside. It is fascinating to see their expertise and what might become ‘lost arts’ if we don’t keep them alive. As for that small staple plant I wrote about – we grew up foraging it, partially to help in times of tight-budgets and little income and partially because it was delicious and fun to pick in season 🙂
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I know of several plants growing wild that once were cultivated, that once filled our plates and our bellies, but now are considered *weeds*.
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Indeed! Dandelion is one!
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Yea, I found a great video on YouTube about the great days if the humble dandelion
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🙂 We have a lot to learn about the knowledge we’d lost! 🙂
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This is indeed true. So said, too. Yet I have seen experimental archaeologists prepping these wild foods and… so many take an age to prepare and then yield little for the effort…. though those were mostly the carb foods
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Indeed! I do believe it is worthwhile doing, and that the more we know – as a species – what we had known and forgotten, the better we will be. Herbal medicine, for example – so much knowledge that was passed on orally and never written down (in part because – at least in European societies and monotheistic ones – women, who were the main holder of healing knowledge, were kept illiterate and then persecuted wholesale for their ‘witchcraft’). Lots to re-learn and rediscover. I’m no expert in any of those, but I do like knowing the bits and pieces of information I’ve accumulated over the decades, many of them from childhood when we’d forage in the fields or go to the garden to pick wild thyme or rosemary or bay leaves or capers or grape leaves or … 🙂
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I do see a slow rise in this area. As far as herbal medicines are concerned, increasingly more are being tested and, where they pass stringent measures, they are recommended.
Food as a medicine is my main thrust. The first stage of which is to rid ourselves of mass processed dross!
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Totally!
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We have accord 🙂
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😉
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!יפה! אהבתי מאוד
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תודה!
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