I’ve wanted to grow echinacea flowers in my yard for a while. This season I’ve got a large one growing in my front yard. Years ago, I grew some in the back, but that area has become too shady. Supposedly, they reseed easily, so I shouldn’t deadhead too much. We shall see.
I couldn’t decide which photo to post, so here are two echinacea photos.
Thursday Challenge theme is: FLOWERS (Colorful, Closeups, Gardens, Arrangements,…)
Today is a fast day on the Jewish calendar: Shiva Assur B’Tammuz (the 17th Day of the Month of Tammuz). I have been planning to post some nature notes of jacandra tree blooms and other nature in the Galil, but that will wait until next week. Above is a photo I took when I was in Jerusalem last month. The photo (near the main bus station) shows an example of the mix of architecture in Jerusalem, although if you really want to see the old, old of Jerusalem, visit my post on the City of David. Other posts on Jerusalem: Jerusalem Day and Jerusalem in Ruins.
What happened on the 17th of Tammuz? According to this Chabad article, there were five tragic events on this day, but I will mention this one:
The walls of Jerusalem were breached by the Romans, in 69 CE, after a lengthy siege. (Three weeks later, after the Jews put up a valiant struggle, the Romans destroyed the second Holy Temple on the 9th of Av.)
I’m going to re-post my watercolor from 2011 – you can learn more about its significance on the post Fox in Ruins.
This is no ordinary cactus – it is a sabra plant. We continued our journey up beyond the village of Meron and into an area above that had caves, rocks and flowers. I photographed this large green cactus, and my friend informed me that it is a sabra. Native born Israelis are referred to as sabras, because like the plant, they are supposed to be prickly on the outside and sweet on the inside.
Here is the sabra flower up close. Known in English as a prickly pear cactus, on Wikipedia I learned:
Prickly pears typically grow with flat, rounded cladodes (also called platyclades) that are armed with two kinds of spines; large, smooth, fixed spines and small, hairlike prickles called glochids, that easily penetrate skin and detach from the plant. Many types of prickly pears grow into dense, tangled structures.
The Hebrew word for the cactus fig is tsabar, “similar to and derived from the Arabic ‘صبار ṣubbār’.” It is reportedly also used as fencing. Have you ever eaten a sabra fruit?
As this lovely little kalanit plant was growing near the sabra, I’m sharing it as well in this post. To see more of those red poppy anemones, visit my post on my hike on the Peak Trail of Mount Meron.
For more Nature Notes:
I enjoy beets. Beets can make food a bright, natural pinkish red. I once used beet juice to color icing on a birthday cake – it was beautiful, and no one except my daughter and I knew how we got that lovely shade of pink. Here are two delicious ways to prepare beets, and then I threw in a bonus “beet soda” to cool you off on a hot summer day. Hope you enjoy these beet recipes.
An easy classic way to prepare beets.
Cover the beets in a saucepan with water, and cook until the beets are tender (use a fork to test). It usually takes about an hour to cook the beets. Remove the beets from the beet juice (you can use the beet juice to make beet soda as described in the bottom recipe). Peel the skin off the beets. Chop into bite-sized slices. Sprinkle with sea salt, olive oil, pepper and a fresh lemon juice. Garnish with parsley, cilantro, basil or whatever fresh green herb you have available. Tastes nice at room temperature.
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You have to make these a week in advance, but then you have tasty pickled beets to serve for several meals.
Wash beets carefully. While still raw (no cooking in this recipe), chop in half or quarters and then into thin slices. Put the beets in a glass jar. Add a tablespoon of sea salt. Cover with water. To weigh down the beets and make sure the brine covers them, I use a baby food jar. Cover the glass jar with a cloth and a rubber band. In a few days, it will begin to ferment (you will see small bubbles on top). You can taste the beets as you go along. In about a week, store them in the refrigerator. Serve at room temperature.
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Save the beet juice from either of the above recipes. Add seltzer, maybe a twist of lemon or lime, maybe a cube of ice, and enjoy!
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Do you cook with beets? What are your favorite beet recipes?
Meron, Israel: or is it Meiron, Israel? In any case, for many, when you say Meron, one thinks of the grave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai lived way back in first century of the common era. That was the period when the Galil first became famous. The middle part of Israel, where Jerusalem is located, was no longer a safe place for rabbis and other practicing Jews due to the growing strength of the Romans. So the Galil became home to many of these rabbis. My cousin (who has lived in the Galil for about forty years) once said, quoting someone else, what is there to visit in the Galil? Caves and graves. If you visit Meron, you can find both.
Do not visit the grave of Shimon Bar Yohai on Lag B’Omer (the 33rd day of the Omer). Unless you like crowds. Of course, it was well after Lag B’Omer when my friend and I visited. The area itself wasn’t terribly crowded, but when you go inside the room with the tombs, there were quite a few people. And I’ve been told that the yeshiva in Meron closed down the week before Lag B’Omer, and security takes over the yeshiva. People camp out all over the area. But as I said, it was not Lag B’Omer, so when we decided to explore the area above the houses and buildings, we had the rocks, trees and flowers all to ourselves.
When you drive up to the village of Meron, there is lovely little shop on the right. The name of the store is something like shizeefon or little prune. And that’s what they sell! Oh, and all sorts of dried fruits and nuts, but the specialty is the prunes. I bought a nice gift to bring back to our hostess in Beit Shemesh.
Pictured above is the building that houses the grave. As it is at other religious sites in Israel, there are separate entrances for men and women. My friend suggested I prepare some change in case someone asks for money, and I gave all my change away to the first requester. It turns out there were several people here asking for money (by the way, if you go to the old city in Jerusalem, it is a good idea to have spare change available – lots of needy asking there as well. You can give U.S. money, if that’s what you happen to have). The biggest words on the sign say “In Modest Dress” – so I always bring a light cotton sweater to wear on top of my t-shirt. I wear skirts almost all the time anyway.
I didn’t take any photos inside the room with the tombs (his son Eleazer is buried here as well). I had to put away my persona as tourist and switch into religious mode – it seems what one does here is say tehillim or psalms. Others were praying Shaharit, the morning prayer.
I took photos of nature on our hike above the village, but I will save those for another post. You can visit my post of flora of Mount Meron. Meanwhile, if you have photos of Jewish subject matter on your blog, there will be an edition of JPiX, the Jewish Photo Bloggers Carnival, posted on this blog on June 30th. You can submit posts to JPiX using the form on the JPiX page.
