Ashraf Al Shafaki has a blog called Egypt Farm.
He recently made a very interesting post about roasted watermelon seeds (that is if you can find a watermelon with seeds to roast anymore). He is interested in Egyptian heirloom fruits and vegetables.
The only example of an Egyptian heirloom I could think of was the Flat of Egypt beet (and only this after searching on the Internet).
Does anyone else have any ideas of Egyptian heirloom fruit and veg?
Egyptian onions (walking onions) perhaps?
After I made this post this also occurred to me, but looking around on the Internet I see these are actually from Iran!
I notice tigernuts are from Egypt!
I just came across this page someone put together with some foods of Egypt, just no variety names:
http://www.geocities.com/mariamnephilemon/Tjaneferet/TjaneferetsFruitMarket.html
I have some very small broad beans that an Egyptian friend of a friend gave me to cook with but I have sown them (!)…whether they are actually Egyptian I don’t know, but she said they are prized in Egypt for making Ful Medames.
Hi Pat & Steph, Interestng that you should write of Egypt, as I have been intending to write you about a green of Egypt. I am not surprised about this “coincidence” as there have been several coincidences relating to your writings and my own thoughts or doings. More on that later. For now — During the visit to King Tut’s in Knoxville that I have written you of, we spoke with the owner, she was drawn to our table from the kitchen which was very nice. Unsurprisingly one of he subjects we spoke of was food. I asked if there was something very special she missed from her birth country..she told me of this green . The reason I call it ‘this green’ is that I have misplaced the paper on which she wrote the name and also her email! I have the intention of finding a source for the seeds. The first letter in the name of the green I believe to be m. As I am Spring/Summer cleaning I know I shall soon locate the slip of paper. I will happily peruse the websites you have included..Wow..Egypt, this is great. THANKS as always. ps/ A HUGE storm has just come up. Perhaps some of our resident deer will fly (safely of course)off to other pastures!
I also have those small brown broad beans, they seem to grow well even in the warmer months. Very tall plants so they may need some support.
I haven’t eaten them yet, still working seed production so we can have a decent size crop next year.
Cynthia again-..Molokhia…may be it, it’s spelled other ways also. I sent something to your email. I remember Anwar Sadat’s wife writing that he ate garbanzos/chick peas every morning. Baker Seed’s Afghani black garbanzos are great! Okra a beautiful plant. Millet another delicious food which I think is eaten in Egypt..now I’m guessing. If only I could find my new Egyptian friend’s email address….
Thanks for your writings. Take care.
Here in Egypt we just love Molokhia! The word is the name of a plant and is also the name of the popular Egyptian dish made from it. The dish made from Molokhia is called “green soup” by non-Egyptians. It is made by taking chicken or meat broth (or both) and adding the green Molokhia leaves to it after having cut the Molokhia leaves into so tiny peaces using a special tool. Special seasoning including clover is prepared for this dish. Perhaps I ought to blog about this lovely dish some day.
I don’t have a suggestion, but I do want to try those roasted watermelon seeds – sounds yummy!
I don’t know of any specific cultivars but I’m reading Cabbages and Kings – the origins of fruit and vegetables at the moment and here’s a couple of things I picked up.
Chate- pickling Melons are mentioned in the bible as the vegetable the Israelites left behind in Egypt. They are also painted on Egyptian tombs (c. 1,4000BC) looks like a small green cucumber,.
Lettuces and/or their wild parents are said to originate in the area.
Kokopelli would be a good place to look but you can’t search the catalogue by text only title. SO you get Egyptian beetroot and Courge, Blanche d’Egypte (Vegetable Marrow White) but you would need to read the text of each entry to find the origins.
I was looking at Chate melons the other day, apparently also called ‘harry cucumbers’, with a taste also similar to cucumbers. I couldn’t find the seeds for them anywhere. The closest I came was something called a vine peach, that seems to be a modern day relative.
I have a similar problem searching through the Seed Savers Exchange listings, which are (at least officially) only available in a printed catalog and not electronically in any form. Searching regionally is very time consuming, and has to be done one vegetable at a time.
Eh – there are watermelons without seeds? Not here there aren’t, so if anyone wants some let me know and I’ll send them on. If I haven’t roasted them all in the meantime that is …
Hi Sue,
It’s nice to hear from you again! Thanks for stopping by and leaving the comment.
Most watermelons now are ‘seedless’ watermelons, which means they aren’t really seedless but rather have small and underdeveloped seeds. Just like seedless cucumbers really have seeds, just much smaller than normal ones.
Supposedly the seedless varieties of watermelons are an improvement because the ratio of melon to seed is higher, but I find the smaller seeds annoying because they are harder to find in my mouth and spit out. I suppose some people might disagree with me. I have fond memories as a child eating the older kinds, and I miss them. In US supermarkets they stopped selling the kind with normal seeds in the mid 1970s.
In Italy you might have different watermelons, but all I’ve seen here are the ‘seedless’ kind. If they could be grown locally, I might be able to find the odd normal watermelon at a market sometimes, but they don’t usually grow here.
If you have good luck roasting the seeds from ‘seedless’ watermelons, let us know! Sometimes the seeds are larger than others, so you might have better luck with some varieties than others.