Below are some charities that are currently trying to provide life saving aid to innocent civilians in Gaza.
UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East):
https://www.unrwa.org/
PCRF (Palestine Children’s Relief Fund):
https://www.pcrf.net/
Anera:
Here is a link to an interview at a timestamp where they discuss what UNRWA does and how it is pivotal to life in Gaza: https://youtu.be/qJlp0TpmuW4?t=470
Instagram: @bellgrowsak
https://www.instagram.com/bellgrowsak/
#zaatar #freepalestine #gardening
0:00 intro
0:22 growing zaatar
4:03 why I am boycotting Bakers Creek Seeds
8:22 cooking zaatar manakesh
Zat is a plant it is also a delicious Middle Eastern herb Blend I try to like every time I walk by the place that I have it try and touch them a little bit this year I’m growing zapa so zad is an herb it’s has a flavor profile between margam thyme oregano this variety is oreganum serum I’ll
Write that on the screen or down below this is a plant that is native to the Levant region of the Middle East so Palestine Jordan Syria Lebanon around that area it grows it’s a wild plant it grows native so it’s not going to survive any cold weather it’s a tender
Perennial for me growing it indoors I will probably keep it perennially just as I do with time and with rosemary if if you’re growing this Outdoors I’ve read kind of a few different pieces of information that says it is Hardy to zone 5 I’m really not sure about that it
Seems like maybe that’s a little bit too cold for it to survive or at least do well in that area but most of the information that I’ve read says atardi from Zone 8 or 9 to 11 or 12 one of the biggest culinary uses for Z is in this
Spice blend that’s also called zad it typically contains like a mixture of CH oregano sumac um sesame seeds so later in this video right after I plant some more zapa plants I will be cooking with this I’ll make Z minut is it’s this like fluffy flatbread with this spice with this herb
Mixture and olive oil on top for some growing information it says there’s no special requirements but germination is typically slow and erratic I’ve seen as I was doing a little bit of research seen some things that say surface so when I was planting this I did cover it
Lightly with like a tiny bit of soil on top and it’s come up just fine and to be honest I found that the germination wasn’t that slow or erratic a decent amount popped up I did like sprinkle a bunch in here um but a decent amount
Came up in like within a week which is great some things take way longer to germinate this was you know pretty satisfying and I’ve been leaving it to grow for a little while I don’t have my seed starting area set up so it’s just been by the window it’s kind a little
Bit leggy I also had a lamp on top of it and typically I do like to have a fan going across my seedlings just so that it makes the plant a little bit more resilient these have kind of flimsy stems right now because I don’t have a
Fan on them I try to like every time I walk by the place that I have it try and touch them a little bit I don’t know if that sounds a little weird but just to build up that strength for them to make them a little bit more resilient so that
Their stems don’t snap so I like to sew just a bunch of seeds into one container and then separate them out as it gets bigger it saves space especially for these maybe a little bit slower growing plants like herbs all herbs typically kind of are they definitely have enough
Space to stay in this for a while longer I’m probably going to be separating it out sometime soon I’m just a little bit worried now that I’m going to break the stems uh it’s a little bit harder to do when they get leggy but also something
To do when they’re a little bit leggy is just bury that like exposed stem at the bottom in the soil that way it kind of protects them from falling over and breaking and also just looks a little bit nicer they’re all tangled up now because they’re so long and laggy but
I’ll get that done quite soon honestly I might even do it today while I have the time and while I’m focusing on these plants but I also wanted to talk a little bit about where I’m getting these seeds I got my seeds from territorial Seed Company I’ve bought seeds from them
Before and they’ve all done super well for me there were a few other places that I saw them I just trusted this brand I also saw them being sold on Baker’s Creek seeds but I am no longer going to be purchasing seeds at all from them they are sourcing their Z seeds
Directly from Israel and right now I’m choosing not to support any company that is supporting Israel Israel’s actions are causing a huge humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza they have been occupying Palestine for almost a century now so the violence against Palestinians the horrible conditions they’re made to live are nothing new and this escalation
Recently is just something that should be condemned by everybody if you’ve been following the news about the humanitarian disaster that’s been going on in Gaza you’ll know that the US the UK have cut funding to Ana unrwa this is the UN agency that was created specifically for Palestinian
Refugees in 1948 there was the nakba which in Arabic means the catastrophe which was the violent Mass expulsion and disposition of Palestinians from their land the Nea is something that didn’t start in 1948 it didn’t end in 1948 it is ongoing these Palestinians that were forcibly and violently removed from
Their land are not able to return back to their homelands to their own like properties their family properties their family homes their family farms and then OA of course was condemned by the UN every year the UN also condemns the illegal settlements that Israel is implementing in the West Bank and the
Military blockade that has been ongoing since 2008 on Gaza underall is one of the biggest source of aid for these Palestinian refugees who have nothing their land has been taken away from them all the fertile land most of the fertile land in Palestine what’s taken by Israel there’s so many restrictions on the
Things and the people that are able to come in and out of Gaza fishermen are not allowed to fish more than a certain small distance away from the shore and now not at all these people people have no homes anymore in the last couple of months 50% of all buildings in Gaza have
Been damaged or destroyed there’s over million people just crowded into these dense dense areas now intense that they’re setting up there is not nearly enough food for them and they rely on Aid just day by day to survive so cutting the funding for it has been just
Like a massive blow it’s one of the biggest sources of aid for these people they cut funding literally the day after after the icj the international court of justice ruled that Israel must prevent genocide and they must allow more Aid to get through so all that to say is
There’s no way I’m buying seeds from baker’s Creek who is supporting that government that is doing this who every day you hear more and more genocidal language coming from the politicians mouths and truly for me the fact that like billions of dollars are going to this government in war and Military
Support is terrifying I’ll do the little things that I can I encourage all of you that want to do something too and that bu seeds on a regular basis to not buy from Breakers Creek as well send them an email send them a letter asking them not
To Source their seeds from a state from a government that is committing genocide most importantly contact your representatives asking them to reinstate funding for Ana I’ll also link below some Charities that you can donate to I saw on social media like there’s protests from Israeli citizens not
Allowing Aid to get through they just don’t want those people to have anything and it is just a really horrifying state of like inhumanity I definitely subscribe to the notion that we are at a point in you know civilization where we have the Technologies to allow every single
Person on this Earth to live comfortably and with dignity and it’s just I don’t know know incredibly disappointing incredibly sad that we can just allow people to suffer in this way in a lot of different places I know it’s not all just in Palestine and in Gaza right now but this is
Something that our country is supporting with full force in billions of dollars okay now that that rant is done I’m gonna go ahead and start making the Z on minute is let me just clean up my workspace get all the ingredients ready and I’ll show you how I do it it’s a
Very simple recipe okay I’m putting my hair up for this just because I’m going to have to use my hands please excuse my double chin that you’re going to inevitably see as I do this so I’m going to start off making the dough this is supposed to be
You can use like any bread recipe but let me just tell you like how it’s supposed to end up it’s supposed to be a light FL fluffy dough you roll it out into a flatbread there’s a lot of different recipes you can use just Google Middle Eastern dough recipe if
You’re interested in that I’m going to be making a slightly healthier version maybe that’s what I read and more importantly a much quicker easier recipe so I tried this I cooked this the other day and it turned it and it turned out really well the bread was not as
Flavorful as I remember it being so definitely use your own recipe if you’re not interested in this literally there’s just two main ingredients to this which is self-rising flour and yogurt so the self-rising flour is important cuz you want it to be fluffy the yogurt also
Helps to make it fluffier and you don’t need to leave it to rise or you know you’re not putting in any yeast what is it called when you know dough Rises you let the yeast do its work you don’t need it to proof so the recipe calls for equal parts of
Self-rising flour and plain yogurt I’m using plain Greek yogurt I’m putting in a tiny bit less yogurt because when I made this before I noticed that it was really wet the dough was and it was very hard to work with and I ended up adding actually a bunch more flour but then I
Was thinking maybe that’s why the bread didn’t taste as good did I put too much flour in it we’ll see I don’t know much about baking I’m not an expert Baker or bread maker so and then just mix the two ingredients together I’m going to use my hands in
Just a second but it’s very wet now and everything just ends up sticking to your hands if it’s too wet add more flour again oh some things also to add to this are salt I think I missed that last time I don’t know how much salt salt
Always such a pain for me to measure out cuz how am I going to crank that thing into like a little teaspoon I’m not going to do that I’m also trying to figure out if there are great like neck exercises I can do to get rid of this double chin
You guys know any let me know okay it’s coming together it’s definitely a dough I think I am going to add a little bit more flour so it doesn’t stick so much to my hands when I’m working with it or I might also oil my
Hands I’m also going to add I’m going to be shaping the dough on this surface I’ll add a bunch of flour there and don’t be afraid of kneading this Dough because it’s self rising flour something about the gluten how it has like I think a lower gluten quantity so kneading it is
Better okay this is what it looks like it might honestly be too sticky I might be adding more flour to it as I start to work with it maybe too much flour and I don’t have a rolling pin because I don’t cook very much so rest assured if you
See any recipe for me it’s an easy one if I can do it you for sure can do it so I’m just going to take a handful of this dough and press it out into the shape that I want to oh also a few things I forgot to do
Preheat your oven to 350 have a baking sheet out with some parchment paper on it okay and it’s super difficult to work with this dough so going to be adding in and more flour okay let me try this again it’s not perfect but it’s kind of flat and it’s kind of
Circular so I’m just going to I’m just going to finish up the rest of these and then I’ll show you what I do here’s what I ended up with are they perfect no will they taste the same yes and then the next thing I’m going to do is make
The zad and olive oil mix I’m going to eyeball this but I think a good ratio of how much softed and olive oil to use is 1 and 1/2 to one one and a half of this Zer mix and one of the olive oil and this was the olive oil I was
Using to dip my fingures in to work with this very sticky dough I found that actually to make it work best I spread olive oil on this before each one that I um pushed out and that helped it to not stick so much okay sorry I just had to clean up a
Little bit um so yeah soft out olive oil and you can go ahead and break out your nice olive oil for this I don’t have any so I’m just using like my general one that I use for like all cooking okay you can do this however you
Want really if you like olive oil put a little more if you don’t want it to be super thick with the seasoning but this is how I like to use mine this is the consistency of mine and then I am going to go ahead and spread this on
Top of each like round of this dough again this is going to depend on your taste preference how thick you want to lay it on but just know it’s a lot of flavor so you really don’t need to put a lot on you can spread this quite thinly
And you can always add on a little bit more after it’s done cooking okay I’m actually going to make two of these with cheese that’s also another way I used to eat menish so you can have SS on menish and then you can have cheese ones and I’m just using the cheese that
I have on hand this um Mexican style blend the oven is preheated to 350 I’m going to put this in maybe for 12 15 minutes and see if I need to add a little bit more time after that it really depends on how thick you rolled out or you know pressed out your
Dough so I’ll see you after that and if you have any extra of this like blend the zad and olive oil you can use this to dip any dough that you have around if you like eating bread just on its own which I do or another really
Yummy way to do this is just to dip fresh vegetables in it you don’t even need the olive oil in it if you just dip it into the powder if it’s a fresh vegetable and it has a little moisture on it it like sticks to it and it’s
Really good okay these are in the oven for I think 16 17 minutes and they could maybe go a little bit longer but I think these look perfect this is how it looks on the bottom the D seems a little bit white and not golden but this is how I remember it looking
When from when I was a child I could probably wait a little bit longer for this to cool but I’m pretty impatient I’m going to go for this small one and this is how I remember eating it just folding it in half and eating it kind of like a sandwich
So good it’s exactly how I remember eating it the dough is a little bit different this time is better than the first time that I tried it a few days ago and I think it’s because I stuck more closely to the one to one proportion of flour to Yogurt although I
Did still use more flour certainly very yummy it’s a good vegetarian dish too I am trying to eat a little bit less meat I am trying to eat a little bit healthier and this seems good I mean even though it does have like olive oil slathered all over it but
Olive oil is supposed to be good for you right I am super happy with how this turned out the taste of the zapa is exactly what I remember even just the scent of it from when I opened this jar I hope you guys try it even if you
Don’t make the Z on minute each and if you just end up trying this herbal blend it’s really yummy really great with just vegetables dipped into it fresh vegetables I’m so excited to start growing tomatoes and cucumbers again so I can do that but that’s it for this
Video thanks so much for watching I’ll see you in the next one bye
1 Comment
important topic..great looking dish!