Hello,
I hope this note finds you well.
Yesterday was Seedy Saturday in London, Ontario. Lots of conversations with lots of
gardeners. Displays and talks about
gardening. Seeds for sale.
I bought seeds from Kim Delaney of Hawthorn Farm (www.hawthornfarm.ca). Kim is brilliant and practical, understands
the importance of good seed and healthy soil.
I bought Aleppo hot pepper seeds ... casually, because Aleppo and Syria
are in the news and I thought growing those peppers would keep me mindful of that county’s difficulties.
Well, today I looked up the Aleppo pepper – which is a
common enough pepper to have its own Wikipedia entry – and got popular beyond its
origin border in the mid 1990s. It was
good to know that when it’s properly ripe it’ll be burgundy ... growing tips
are good. And it’s not a really, really
hot pepper ... so the pepper-sensitive in our household will be o.k. with it.
And then I looked at some of the other entries that popped
out of Google search ... and came upon a National Geographic article from May
16, 2014, which was about two weeks after “either one side or the other destroyed
the city’s water supply.” The city being
referred to is Aleppo. And the war situation
referred to is, of course, the war in Syria ... which is destroying lives,
buildings, infrastructure, and agriculture ... including the growing and trade
in spices ... including the Aleppo pepper.
As author Maryn McKenna wrote in 2014, “With 100,000 dead
and grave diseases such as polio spreading in the turmoil, the loss of a spice
might seem a small matter. But the peppers of northern Syria are not just a
flavor; they are a heritage.”
A heritage in food culture and family. To the Syrian growers and cooks, it won’t
matter that across the border farmers
in Turkey grow the same pepper – the Aleppo pepper – and give it a different
name, Maras, after the Turkish
province of Kahramanmaras.
Aleppo seeds are those kept by growers,
smallholders, householders, men and women in Syria. And those seeds in Syria
have a lifespan. What’s the lifespan of
pepper seeds? Four or five years? Who is saving the Syrian Aleppo pepper seeds
- who is able to grow out the seeds to have more seeds - amidst bombs and terror and loss and drought?
My little Aleppo pepper seeds are probably great, great,
great grandchildren seeds of peppers that came from Syria 20 years ago ...
getting over to Southwestern Ontario by whatever route it was. I didn’t realize the responsibility I took on
yesterday when I bought my seeds.
Food connects. Seeds connect. The practicality, the reality, of such small things is huge and pushes at my heart and mind.
Be well,
Why's Woman
How the Syrian Conflict Affects Your Spice Rack. by
Maryn
McKenna, National Geographic, May 16, 2014 http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2014/05/16/a-brutal-war-destroys-a-city-and-a-spice/
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