Blooming in November - False Yellowhead or Tayun Hadavik - The Last Blooming Flower of the Summer

 November 2021 כסלב תשפ"ב

The last blooming flower of the summer

November and barely any sign of rain.  We feel it even more so this year, as the festival of Succot ended in September, and we’ve been expecting and praying for the rain to fall ever since. The Jewish holidays already feel like they were ages ago, the donuts for Hanukkah have been in the stores for a month, and it is dry, dry, and dry.  The landscape is a sea of brown.  While out walking in the forests and hills around Modiin, there is nothing to quench my thirst for green unless I lift my eyes up to tree level.  In June and July, I enjoy the dried thorns whose beauty I have discovered over time.  By now, however, the annual herd of sheep and goats have been let loose to graze on the surrounding nature reserves and munched their way through every last stalk.  These herds are brought to the area by the local authorities in order to reduce the foliage to prevent forest fires.

There is one plant, however, which gives a welcome flash of green and an added ray of sunshine with its yellow flower.  You won’t find it in a forest or on a natural hillside as it tends to prefer places where we humans have interfered with the land.  The false yellowhead or tayun hadavik in Hebrew grows at the side of roads, old building sites, in the cracks of pavements and alongside dirt tracks.  It likes its soil to be bland and without many nutrients so it prefers the meek offerings of a bit of dirt left over after we have finished with it.  

Because it pops up in all sorts of cracks and disused areas it would be classified by most people as a weed. However I am part of a growing population of plant lovers that likes to state loudly and insistently that a weed is just a plant growing where it is not wanted.  I believe that each ‘weed’ has just as much importance to nature, sustainability, biodiversity, food for animals, pollen for bees and medicinal and beauty properties for humans as the most precious orchid.

Its Hebrew name translates as ‘the sticky clay.’  This is because it favours growing in clay soil and clay in Hebrew is tin, contained in the word tayun.  Davik, sticky, is a reference to its leaves which are indeed sticky.  These leaves keep many an Israeli schoolchild entertained while out hiking in nature.  They love to pick the leaves and stick them on each other declaring that they have given their friend a ‘medal’ in the form of a sticky, smelly green leaf!    Unfortunately the invention of dry fit t-shirts has rendered this activity useless.  Nothing sticks to dry fit!!

Did you notice that I called it a ‘smelly leaf’?  The tayun is indeed very pungent, with a smell I find hard to describe.  Just brushing past the plant while walking will release an aromatic, antiseptic, medicinal smell which I deeply dislike.  In an interview in Maariv newspaper in 1986 the Poet Yehuda Amichai said of the tayun: “The smell from the tayun is the true smell of the Land of Israel, a little sweet, a little bitter, also dry, also strong and also desperate.”

The tayun is part of the Daisy flower family or also known as the aster, sunflower or officially the compositeae family.  Knowing what family a flower comes from can help in identifying it and understanding its character, just like in a human family.  In Hebrew it is called the murcavim family, which literally means complicated (I’m sure we all know complicated families!).  It has this name because the flower is generally (but not exclusively) made up of two types of flower.  You need to look very closely to see the first part.  This is normally the flat, middle part of the flower, called the disk in English.  In Hebrew, it’s called tzinoriim, which means pipes, because each disk is actually made up of hundreds of tiny pipes.  The outer flowers, which look more like traditional petals but are actually individual flowers, are called ray flowers because they resemble the sun’s rays.  In Hebrew these are lashoniim which means tongues!   The whole flower looks like a yellow daisy.  The tayun davik has a cousin called tayunit hacholot  and can be found growing in sandy areas, as its name suggests.  In English, this is called camphorweed, and its yellow flower is actually much more impressive than the one found inland; the sea of gold adorning Israel’s beaches at the moment is the camphorweed.

The tayun hadavik has been described as a mobile pharmacy.  It is said to aid and heal 40 different medical conditions!  The juice from the leaves has antibacterial properties and makes a good poultice for a wound.  The plant also has anti-inflammatory properties, and it is recommended to put the leaves in a hot bath to ease aching joints.  You can steep its leaves in hot water and drink two glasses of this a day to reduce blood pressure.  I must confess that as I can’t tolerate the smell, I haven’t been tempted to drink it yet, and it’s hard to imagine ever choosing a brewed, strong-smelling inula leaf over a nice cup of English tea!  Despite the smell I still appreciate these little rays of sun on my walks, a nice change from the brown dusty landscape.

Blooming in October – Sea daffodil or Sea Pancratium Lily - Chavatzelet Hachof - חבצלת החוף

October 2021 חשבן תשפ"ב

Sun, Sea, Sand And Flowers

Growing up in London a visit to the beach was a big deal.  It was at least a two hour drive, there was often terrible traffic, the beach pebbly and hard to walk on and it would generally be cold and windy so we would sit huddled around a thermos of tea in our jackets.

Here I am so lucky to be only half an hour drive from one of the most stunning beaches in Israel – Palmachim.  It isn’t just a beach; it is also a nature reserve so I get not only sea and sand but also intricate rock formations, dunes and cliffs sprouting plants and flowers.

The plants that grow along the coast are often from the same families that grow inland but are different species that are adapted to coastal conditions.  They are often hardier, more succulent and more resilient in order to stand up to the constant assault of wind, sand and salt.  It makes me think of the old school life guards who are tanned and ruddy and look like they are part of the landscape.

September and October are the perfect season to go to the beach as the crowds have gone but the sea is still warm enough to swim in.  An added surprise to a visit to the beaches up and down the coast now is the discovery of the sea daffodil or sea pancratium lily or in Hebrew chavatzelet hachof.  The shorter daylight hours have sent it a signal to poke its head out of the ground already in August. Only a very determined flower will bloom at this time of year as it has to tap into its underground energy source to flower when there is no rain. This source is an underground bulb and all flowers that have bulbs are called geophytes. It is also clever enough to bloom when no other flowers are in flower so it has exclusivity from the pollinators.  The only other competition out there is the equally determined white squill and that flowers inland.  Even during the rest of the year very few flowers can grow this close to the beach.  The sea daffodil grows mainly up to 100 meters from the sea which means it is particularly tough.

The sea daffodil can be spotted on the low dunes overlooking the beach. Its stalk is thick and juicy looking with a white waxy sheen which protects it from the coastal elements.  It can grow up to 60 cm tall.  The flower has six delicate outer petals forming a star shape around an impressive white crown and if you lean in close it has a slight fragrance.

A little added surprise is the bud of the new flower alongside the open bloom.  This bud has a lovely green and white striped feature which is beautiful in itself.  The fruit grows quickly and looks like a small green peach. 

If you like the beach at the hottest time of day then you will be disappointed to find that the sea daffodil is closed. I love the beach at sunset which is when the flower opens up and it stays open during the night until the late hours of the morning.  This is because along the coast the winds are stronger during the day which makes it hard for the pollinators to pollinate so it is pollinated at night by moths.  

Moving inland you will find another type of pancratium called the small flowered pancratium, bat chavatelet katanat prachim.  Even though it is not as impressive as its cousin it is still a beautiful site to those of us thirsty for flowers after the long hot summer. It grows in mountainous regions and this year at Neot kedumim Biblical Nature Reserve we have the most impressive spread I have ever seen.  That could be because unfortunately our flock of sheep and goats were stolen from the reserve during the pandemic and the foliage is being spared from grazing.

Small flowered pancratium

Bat chavatzelet katanat prachim

The clue to the Hebrew name is in the root of the word.  Hidden inside chavatzelet is the Hebrew word batzal which means bulb.  As with most Israeli flowers they are also used as girl’s names.  However, names come and go depending on the fashion and there are probably not many women in Israel called Chavatzelet under the age of 70.  

There is no book with more beautiful flower and plant metaphors than The Song of Songs and the sea daffodil gets a deserving mention: 

 “I am rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys”. Song of Songs 2:1

The Hebrew version states “chavatzelet” but all the English versions translate it as “rose”.  This typifies the difficulties of translating plant names in the Bible.  It isn’t just a problem of translation but also a question as to whether the Bible is even talking about the same plant that we know now.  There are still many question marks regarding certain flowers and plants from the bible which will probably never be resolved.  I know how it feels.  After 30 years of living in Israel I still find that things get lost in translation.  One of my favorite language moments was watching a British comedienne trying to explain to an Israeli audience in Hebrew that things had gone ‘pear shaped’ (British slang for ‘gone awry'). Now that certainly got lost in translation!

Blossoming in November – Carob Tree, Locust Tree, St. Johns Bread – Charuv – חרוב

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November 2020 כסלו תשפ"א

I first met the carob tree nearly 20 years ago when I had just arrived in Modiin, long before I ‘discovered’ nature.  I had joined a tour of the hills around Modiin to learn a bit of its history with one of those ‘salt of the earth’, ‘craggy’ Israeli guides.  My only memory of this tour 20 years later is sitting under a carob tree eating carob syrup.  Subconsciously this led me to where I am today – teaching people about nature through its tastes and smells. 

On the first day that Neot Kedumim opened after second lockdown I went to visit. While walking around the area it was impossible to miss the strong musty smell (more about that later) coming from the carob trees. They were in blossom and after ten years of admiring the beautiful leaves and enjoying its fruit I had never really noticed the flowers.  I was especially struck by the range of autumn colours they came in - a spectrum of yellow through to red. They were stunning and I knew that my November blog had to be the carob blossom (see my almond tree blog about the difference between blooming and blossoming!).

When guiding I’m often asked which is my favourite tree. Very simply in a country that is so hot, it is definitely the carob tree as it gives the most shade. Also it has a very thick, reddish trunk which reminds me of tree trunks in England. Its leaves are dense and evergreen and come in the form of leaves and leaflets – a botanical phenomenon where one leaf is made up of lots of little leaves.  When the Torah describes the 4 species used on Succot it mentions “……branch of the leafy tree.....” Leviticus 23:40.  It was up to our sages to decide which tree this was referring to. The carob was considered as it was so leafy but then dismissed as its fruit was too ugly and the myrtle won the “leafy tree competition”.

The carob tree grows as either a male or a female tree and they need to be near one another so that a bee can take the pollen from a male carob tree in order to fertilize the female one.  It is hard to spot the difference as the flowers are quite similar but one very strong characteristic defines the male carob flower – its smell.  WARNING SEXUAL CONTENT: The smell is very similar to male semen and once you know that you will always recognize it when passing a carob tree.  There is an urban myth that Bedouin men would take their fiancé to a male carob tree and if she recognized the smell then it was a sign that she had sexual experience and she would be executed!

Tree planting is one of the main activities we do at Neot Kedumim Biblical Nature Reserve and I will always tell the story of Honi HaMaagel during a tree planting ceremony:

One day Honi was journeying on the road and he saw an old man planting a carob tree. He said to the man “Why are you planting a tree that you won’t live to eat its fruit?”  The man replied:  "I ate carob from the trees that my forefathers planted for me, I now plant these for my children."

Honi sat down to have a meal and felt sleepy, he slept for seventy years. When he awoke he saw a man gathering the fruit of the carob tree and Honi asked him, "Are you the man who planted the tree?" The man replied: "I am his grandson." 

Shimon Bar Yochai sustained himself and his son for 13 years while living off the fruit of the carob tree.  The fruit contains protein, fiber and sugar and therefore makes the perfect natural energy bar – Nature Valley’s competition.  It is very sweet but can only be eaten once it has turned fully brown on the tree then you eat the whole pod and just leave the seeds which are very hard so careful not to break your teeth.

The seeds of all carob fruit are all almost identical in size and in weight, each weighing about one fifth of a gram.  They also don’t dehydrate so their weight stays consistent.  Because of this they were used in ancient times to weigh gold and precious stones and in Greek the carob is called Karat!!  Yes that diamond on your finger is hopefully the equivalent in weight to a carob seed!

Not sure that diamond quite makes it!

The carob tree in Hebrew is Charuv.  One reason is that it grows in very dry conditions, which is known as ‘Charav’ in Hebrew.  The fruit also looks like a sword, which in Hebrew is a ‘cherev’.  In English however the tree is called the locust tree or St John’s Bread!  Both are in relation to the Christian prophet, John the Baptist, who lived in the wilderness and ate carobs (his bread).  However due to a confusion with the Greek translation many believe that he actually ate locusts!

Carobs can be used to make a substitute for chocolate although I just don’t get why anyone would do that!  They also make a wonderful honey by boiling the pods for about 5 hours until thick syrup is formed.  It tastes a little bit like burnt silan (date honey) and is wonderful on yoghurt!

Picture: Ilana Cohen

Blooming in July: Wild Artichoke - Kinras Suri - קנרס סורי

July 2020 אב תש"פ

It’s near the end of July and I'm so happy to be back writing this blog.  I didn’t write a blog for June even though so many flowers were calling to me!  June was spent developing my new business “Nature ‘n Nosh” and everything was put on hold.  This blog was part of the inspiration behind my new business.  I discovered that I love not just flowers, plants and trees,but every little detail about them. I have also been moving more and more into the world of foraging and what part of the plant is edible and when.  Nature 'n Nosh is not a straightforward foraging tour but the whole world behind what you are eating!

In July there are a lot less flowers around, it is very hot and we are feeling it as much as the nature around us is feeling it! The best time to go out is that magical time as the sun starts to set, the fierce heat goes out of it, and even the driest shrubbery takes on that delicate pink tinge.  Suddenly poking up from the pink dried grasses is a deep shade of purple, so rich that it looks like it has been mixed in a paint shop and then enhanced with a magic wand! This is the Kinras Suri – Cynara Syriaca, or Wild Artichoke.

Little tendrils of purple point upwards just like the head of a blusher brush.  However you would not want to hold it’s ‘handle’ as this is very thorny.  Before the flower blossoms this thorny handle is green but by the time the flower comes out it has turned a fantastic shade of pink providing a beautiful ‘vase’ for the purple flower. This part is what you would recognize as an artichoke. As the stalks can grow to two and half metres high this is a very prominent flower on the brown horizon.

The scientific name is from the Greek – cynara means spiny plant, and the Latin cinara is a kind of artichoke and also the name of the island of Cinara now called Zinara in the Aegean Sea.  In the Hebrew the name Kinras is mentioned in the Mishnah Kilayim 5:8 “Artichokes (Kinras) are kilayim in a vineyard”  Kilayim is the Jewish laws of not mixing plants and seeds together.  In this case it seems that wild artichokes should not be allowed to grow up in a vineyard.

While it is flowering you can eat the inside of the stalk and the ‘heart’ at the bottom of the thorny section.  It is better boiled as this makes it softer but it is quite tasty to chew on as is.  Yes exactly like the cultivated artichoke – as this it it’s forefather.



I was only introduced to artichokes when I met my husband, I never ate them while growing up in England – although he is also British so I guess they must have sold them there.  He taught me the very complicated process of eating the tender tip of each leaf after dipping it in vinaigrette, then pulling off the ‘witches hat’ which is the softer leaves at the center, carefully digging out the hairs and finally getting to the finale – the heart.  This is eaten mashed up with more vinaigrette and relished all the more by the effort required to reach it.
My first son was a true artichoke expert from a very young age and it became a staple on our Shabbat dinner table every winter when it came into season.  Many friends and neighbours have been introduced to it by us over the years.


This blog is dedicated to Woody, my very dear friends dog, who unfortunately has passed away before his prime.  We looked after  Woody many times over the years and his naive love for everything and everyone was so heartwarming and a lesson to all of us.  When walking him in nature he had a tendency to head straight into every muddy puddle and to roll in anything he could find.  He would often need a bath on his return and I would return him to his owner smelling much sweeter than when I received him. He will be sorely missed.


How to cook and eat the perfect artichoke!

 - Trim off the stalks and tops of the leaves, this makes it easier to wash them.

 - Rinse between the leaves thoroughly and then put in a pan to soak with lots of salt to draw out any bugs or dirt.

 - Put in a pan covered in water and boil on a slow boil for about an hour to an hour and a half, depending on the size of the artichoke.  They are ready when the leaves pull out easily.


 - Dip the fleshy part of the leaves in your favorite vinaigrette dressing, or into mayonnaise mixed with mustard or just dip in salt.

Blossoming in May: Pomegranate - Rimon - רימון -The Jewel in the Crown!

May 2020 סיון תש"פ

I am very excited to be finally writing my first blog about one of the 7 species. I feel that my whole introduction to my love of nature started with the 7 species and ten years later I am coming back to them to give them credit where credit is due. Ten years ago I started to study to be a guide at Neot Kedumim Biblical Nature Reserve, not really knowing much about either nature or the bible. The seven species, being the core of the Biblical plants, formed the main part of my initial studies. Once I conquered those seven I was hooked and the rest is history.

Seven Species

The Seven species are the seven main agricultural products presented in the Bible to the children of Israel while they are in the desert. It is a promise of what to expect when they cross over into the land of Canaan. They are wheat, barley, grape, fig, pomegranate, olive and date. These seven species will provide the Israelites with a full balanced diet and importantly are a message to a predominantly shepherding community that will become farmers and will be staying in one place to work their own land. If you ever want to remember where these 7 species are mentioned then refer to Deuteronomy Chapter 8 Verse 8 and you will learn what the children of Israel ate.

If I was to stop any person on the street and ask them which of the seven species is the most beautiful, delicious and striking I would assume that most would answer that it is the pomegranate. As spring turns to summer we are starting to tire of looking down at the yellowing less inspiring flora on the ground and look up to that flash of red among the leaves on the pomegranate tree, a promise of things to come.

The pomegranate flower is blossoming now. (A little interesting aside: trees 'blossom' and flowers 'bloom'!). The flower is actually made of two parts, similar in color but contradictory in texture and sheen. The cup part is actually the starting of the fruit, with the crown already perfectly formed at the top. One can envision the adult fruit this will become. I actually think this looks a bit like an ice cream cone. Out of the shiny waxy cone come the delicate petals of the flower, thin and almost translucent. Inside the flower is a dense clump of yellow pollen, probably very attractive to passing pollinators. The petals actually fall off very quickly leaving the fruit to start to develop and swell.

We then just watch it grow and grow with anticipation until September or October when the fruit will be ready to eat. The pomegranate is traditionally given the blessing of the first fruit on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. This provides a dilemma for me every year. Rosh Hashanah can fall any time between early September and mid October, depending on the Jewish Calendar of that year. When it falls in October it is very hard for me to see all those gleaming pomegranates in the supermarket and have to hold back buying them until Rosh Hashanah.  We spend Rosh Hashanah on Kibbutz Alumim, and our first taste is the pomegranates from my brother in laws tree. Delicious and definitely worth the wait.  

Autumn!

Winter!

The contrast between the pomegranate in the summer and winter is very stark.  We don't really have a traditional Autumn here in Israel as many trees don't lose their leaves, let alone turn red. However a pomegranate orchard will give us a real fix of Autumn as the leaves turn various shades of gold to red before they fall off.  The tree will then be left bare and unimpressive throughout the winter, not worth a single glance.

After ten years of guiding tourists I can honestly say that there is nothing that impresses them more than when I pick a big red pomegranate, open it up exposing dozens of ruby like gems and share it out among them. Of course this is always followed by the all important question: How many seeds are inside a pomegranate? Most know the myth that it is 613 after the number of commandments in the bible. When my children were young we whiled away time on Rosh Hashanah counting them. We once counted 623, another time 684 and then the kids got bored.

Photo: Sara Oren, Neot Kedumim

The pomegranate is so much a part of our history and culture. The spies came back to the children of Israel carrying giant bunches of grapes and pomegranates on their shoulders. I don’t understand why the pomegranates got such a raw deal by not being included in the Ministry of Tourism logo, if I was a pomegranate I would go out and demonstrate outside the Ministry. Its beauty is an inspiration to poetry and is mentioned many times in the greatest love poem of all time – The Song of Songs. “Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with all choicest fruits” 4:13. “Your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate.” 4:3 “If their blossoms have opened, and if the pomegranates are in bloom— there I will give you my love” 7:12

The pomegranate is elevated in importance as the High priest wore robes decorated with bells and pomegranates. We know longer have the High Priest or the temple but every synagogue has silver decorations topped with a crown and bells which adorn the Torah Scrolls. These are called ‘rimonim’, the Hebrew word for pomegranate.
Ironically the rimon, for all its beauty, was the name also given to a hand grenade, and it is easy to understand why. The English word, grenade, is also derived from the ancient French word for the fruit ‘pomme-grenade’.

Pomegranate is so healthy it’s ridiculous. It has plenty of good antis in it: anti ageing, anti oxidant and no good uncles. (Groan). Pomegranate juice has been found to have three times the antioxidant activity of red wine and green tea!! So sucks to you wine connoisseurs and pompous tea drinkers.

I love buying a giant cup of seeds in shuk Machane Yehuda or Shuk HaCarmel. I know they are over priced but who can resist those cool juicy red pearls on a hot day. Any salad I make during the season is enriched by sprinkling it with the seeds. 

Photo: Michele Levy

For my first 20 years of Aliyah my cooking was based on Ashkenazi recipes mostly by Evelyn Rose however I gradually adjusted my cooking to more locally sourced ingredients.  My favorite Israeli chef is Yotam Ottolenghi, an Israeli chef who is very highly regarded in England where he lives.  Here is a recipe by him for tomato and pomegranate salad.  I couldn't make this recipe because pomegranates are not in season here but my friend Michele, who lives in London and has her own cooking blog 'LoveLondonLoveFood', kindly prepared it for me.

Tomato and Pomegranate Salad:
https://ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/tomato-and-pomegranate-salad

Photos courtesy of Yasmin Maissel

Editing courtesy of Elizabeth Kay From HaChamama Shel Elizabeth

PS:  I started this blog a year ago this month so from now on you can start looking back at previous blogs to see what else is flowering this month:
Check out the wild carrot: https://flowerfuninisrael.blogspot.com/2019/05/

Blooming in April : Corn Poppy – Pereg Agsani – פרג אגסני – The Princess's Earrings

April 2020 אייר תש"פ

I’m so excited to be able to write about reds! Not because it is one of my favourite colours but because it is the colour at the beginning of the rainbow spectrum and at the end of the rainbow in the Israeli wildflower spectrum. Readers of my blog will notice that I have often referred to the spectrum of colours that follow the Israeli seasons. I started in Autumn with the white squill (chatazv) , moved through the pinks in the winter with the meadow saffron (sitvanit), cyclamen (rakefet) and almond (shaked) and then moved onto the yellow in spring with the groundsel (savion) and the mustard (chardal). Now we are verging into summer the last of the reds is out, the poppy or pereg in Hebrew. ‘The last of the reds’ means it is preceded by two other red flowers, the anemone (calanit) in February and the ranunculus(nurit). The calanit being the national flower of Israel always gets all the attention but I must confess to poppies being my favourite red flower.

                                                                                                                                                  There is a lovely story I use in guiding (as do most nature guides in Israel) to help children differentiate between the three red flowers. Even adults tend to enjoy it.

Calanit

Nurit

It tells of three princesses who are all invited to a ball in a grand castle where they will meet their prince charming. Unfortunately when they emerge from their bedrooms in their finery they discover that they are all wearing the same red dress.

Every teenager’s nightmare! Instead of throwing an immature hissy fit they confer and work out a solution. Each of them will make a small change so that they can be different from one another. Calanit (anemone) will wear a pearl necklace around her neck, Nurit (ranunculus) will wear shiny red lipstick, and Pereg (poppy) will wear black earrings. Problem solved. Of course it has a happy ending and they all find their prince charming. I find this story doesn’t work so well in English as who would ever call their daughter Ranunculus? Not surprisingly my daughter is named after a flower - Yasmin, however Poppy is also one of my favourite names.

Photo: Galya Levy

Another little tip to identify it amongst the reds is that they grow in order of the Hebrew alphabet – Calanit, Nurit, Pereg. This also doesn’t work in English so it is lucky this blog is about wildflowers in Israel.

Now we understand according to the story that the poppy is a bright red flower which has perfect little black earrings on each petal, its stalk is also thinner and taller than the anemone. Its petals are wafer thin and sometimes they are almost translucent as the sun’s rays seep through them. My favourite part of the poppy is when it goes to seed. It literally creates a miniature salt and pepper pot which empties out its seeds when tipped over. In April there are fields of poppies so it is a perfect destination for a Passover trip however none of these fields are near Modiin where I live. I am happy to make do with the occasional scattering while walking in my usual haunts.

Mini 'salt' shaker

I first discovered that poppy wasn’t just a little black seed when I started to watch The Wizard of Oz. I would watch it Christmas Day growing up in London and each time hope that Dorothy and her friends wouldn’t stray off the Yellow Brick Road into the field of poppies but they always did. Sleep would overcome them according to the wishes of the Wicked Witch of the East. Then I would have to sleep with my door propped wide open until around Purim when poppy became just something you ate in hamentashen.   By the way, the reason we have poppy seed in humantaschen is because the Yiddish word mohn sounds like Haman from the Book of Esther.

The corn poppy featured here does not produce the poppy seeds that we eat as food which are also the source of opium. That is a different breed of poppy called papaver somniferum. The opium from this poppy was widely used in this region during the Ottoman period. It is now illegal to grow it in Israel but there are some that escaped and grow wild. A reliable source knows where to find some near Hadassa Ein Kerem , unfortunately that would not be recognized as an ‘essential journey’ in these restricted times. Next year anyone?

The name somniferum gives a clue to poppy seeds being used as a natural sleep remedy. Up to only a few decades ago mothers would give babies milk that had had poppy seeds soaking in it. Before you go running to the supermarket modern day poppy seeds are manufactured to not contain any narcotics. 

I feel that poppy seeds were a strong part of my childhood. My mum is crazy about seeds (maybe she was a bird in a former life) and every Friday night she would eat up the remaining poppy seeds that fell from her challah. 

Once the poppy season finishes so too does the wildflower colour spectrum and come May onward the flowers come out in a mixture of colours, generally much more muted.  However this applies to flowers straight from the ground or on bushes, not to trees.  Watch this space for a bright coloured tree flower coming up next month!

Photos courtesy of Yasmin Maissel

Editing courtesy of Elizabeth Kay From HaChamama Shel Elizabeth

Blooming in April : Redbud or Love Tree – Clil Hachoresh – כליל החורש– Looking for Love

April 2020 ניסן תש"פ

Pesach is over, the weather is beginning to change and warm up and we have been blessed with one of the most beautiful springs in years. We have had so much rain, the Kinneret is full, the flowers have been blossoming and the surrounding countryside is green and lush.

One of my favourite yearly spring sights is a corner of Neot Kedumim where the red bud (clil hachoresh or love tree) tree starts to blossom above a carpet of cyclamen flowers (see December blog). The bright fresh pink of the newly blossoming red bud tree blending with the pale pink expanse of the cyclamens never fails to take my breath away. This year because of lockdown I didn’t get to see that image and despite trawling through old photos I couldn’t find one. I will have to wait another year to see it but that time will come and we will have moved on from this crazy period in our lives.

Cyclamens in January

Clil Hachoresh in April

Here is the clil hashoresh in April at Neot Kedumim next to a photo of the cyclamens in the same location in January.  Now imagine the pictures merged as one image!

I love street lamps in trees!

The red bud tree is the first plant in my blog that you will find growing around your city. It is a wild indigenous tree that has been cultivated and is found in abundance around urban areas. I believe that is because it has a beautiful flower but mostly because it provides excellent shade in the summer due to the density of the leaves. Even in my 100 meter radius I could still enjoy the beautiful blossoms growing in a garden down my street.
The red bud is actually more commonly known as the Judas tree. It is believed to be the tree that Judas Escariot hanged himself from after he betrayed Jesus. It is said that the flowers turned from white to red with blood or shame. Just yesterday I went for a longer walk as the rules were relaxed and I actually came across my first ever white flowering Judas tree!  It is possible the name Judas tree was a corruption of the French name 'arbre de Judea', the tree of Judea referring to the Judean Hills where it was found.  The tree is also called the ‘love tree’ and further down the blog you will realize why!

It is called the red bud (strange as the flowers are always pink) because of the vibrant pink flowers that adorn its branches and trunk. They particularly stand out as, like the almond tree, the flowers blossom before any leaves appear meaning that they are particularly stark against the bare brown of the branches and they even grow directly out of the trunk.

The flower has a characteristic design – a small pink tongue points down and then three petals form a crown above it. The redbud in bloom is so stunning that at this stage I just urge you to go out and find it and enjoy it. Nothing I write can capture its beauty. 

During the blossoming period the petals will fall to the floor creating a pink carpet around the tree. The leaves will start to grow and they are also worthy of attention. They are shaped like a perfect heart and are rich, dark green. Hence the name ‘love tree’.  Your challenge is to find the 'love tree' by it's unique shaped leaves even when the flowers have finished.  I learned in my research that the tree also flowers again in October and November but it goes unnoticed as at that stage the leaves cover the blossom.  This year I'm determined to spot it.  The fruit of the tree start of as green pods turning brown as they ripen.

The redbud flower is simply delicious; it is slightly crispy with a strong sweet flavour which then has a slightly oniony after taste. I have been spotted in the neighbourhood eating flowers off this tree and some people might find this eccentric. I believe that the nutritional benefits outweigh being considered weird!   It is full of vitamin C and antioxidants which is often the case when something has a strong pink or red color.  Just note only eat from cultivated trees in gardens as trees in the wild are protected. They are a great addition to shakes, salads and the colour looks great in a fruit salad. 

Below is a recipe for a simple and delicious citrus fruit salad which was served by my friend Monica at Book Club and was gobbled up in 5 minutes. I added in the redbud flowers. Looks and tastes beautiful. Betayavon.

Chop up all different kinds of citrus fruit.

Mix with mint sugar: 1/4 cup of sugar to 2 tablespoons of chopped mint

Scatter with redbud flower blossoms

Photos courtesy of Yasmin Maissel

Editing courtesy of Elizabeth Kay From HaChamama Shel Elizabeth

Title courtesy of Elise Rynhold