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It is the peak of winter. At 1,000m in Lebanon, winter is harsh and beautiful.
We are preparing the land and selecting our seeds for the next harvest. We planted our green manure, and it will take care of our soil and its nutrients throughout the winter.
It has been a super-busy summer for us (and for the bees who flourish in the amazing available ecosystem because of our agricultural practices!). Our treasure of harvest of organic fruit and vegetables has been shared with so many people appreciating our efforts. We are thankful for that.
Our small project is not only about growing amazing food but also about how we do it and how that affects us all.
With our small initiative we aim to revive land that is very dear to us and in a model that is sustainable and that brings richness to the environment and society.
We believe that a holistic view of the farming practice is important and has shown to work for us. We experiment and learn as we go and hope to provide us all a small Lebanese haven of nature, health, and heritage.
We have been honored to host amazing people from all over the world (#WWOOF -ers from USA, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Germany, and Belgium). By the end of the season, we hosted our amazing first Lebanese volunteer, Dana! We are truly thrilled to feel the interest of the Lebanese community in our small project.
Lots of Love to Dana and to all the amazing people who volunteered to help us these last years.
Stay updated with our news on Facebook!
We also have a cute little form you can use to tell us the best way to deliver our harvest to you.
It has been busy at the farm…beautiful harvest of bouquets of fruit and vegetables. Also, we are now active on Facebook! So, we have been really busy in the best ways possible. Many thanks to everyone who has been supporting us along the way.
We have also made a few amazing friends along the way. We have two drop-off locations where you can pick up your order
1- The Kiosks of Cooperative Mar Semaan in Hadath El Jebbeh
2- DarmaJi community center in Batroun
We also have a cute little form you can use to tell us the best way to deliver to you.
Yummy treasures are in every corner of the farm...each with its full and unique taste. Without much effort, the most delicious fresh and cooked recipes can be prepared. "Let things taste the way they are" when it comes to these beauties.
The best guess of the coming couple of weeks includes the following:
Kale
Purslane
Amaranth
Radish
Rucola
Chard
Spring Onions
Plums
Pears
Blackberries
And don't forget the preserves :)
Each week, a new surprise becomes ready for harvest. Contact us if you are interested in receiving our products and we give you weekly updates/prices.
Kale Kale everywhere!
The right mixture of flora is essential for an organic farm. Specific flowers among vegetables, for example, can enhance growth, beauty or flavor. This is the concept of companion planting that we follow and which in July starts to unravel its colors and charm.
You can see an example below of a colorful mix of vegetables and flowers along with the lovely volunteer Katharina making sure everything is under control.
Last month, three new volunteers helped us and got to join us through WWOOFING: two for the first time (Judith and Katharina) and Alicia joined us for the second time :)
Katharina Diedrichs is from Germany. She wanted to visit a friend in Lebanon, and to our luck, she decided to combine that with a few weeks of farming tasks at our farm. She is still with us and is a great contributor to any task at hand.
Judith Leijdekkers is from the Netherlands. She had been to Lebanon for an internship and met "the most amazing, hospitable and inspiring people". She recently graduated and decided to visit her friends again - and to volunteer at our farm :) We were happy to host her.
Alicia Gaurad is from Switzerland and already volunteered in a great way at the farm in May 2018. So, by now, she knows it all and knows everyone! She studied political science and works and volunteers as a teacher as well.
Here are the three visiting Batroun.
In vegetables, we have a selection of green yummies like purslane (ba2li), rucola (rocca), Amaranth (2ottayfi), and others.. In fruit, our tasty small green apples (mghaazli), plums (khoukh), blackberries (tout aswad), and apricots (mishmosh) are shining. And do not forget our selection of preserves that varies from dehydrated fruit and vegetables to healthy jam and sauce.
Each week, a new surprise becomes ready for harvest. Contact us if you are interested in receiving our products and we give you weekly updates/prices.
Meet our Volunteers:
The last months, two new volunteers helped us and got to join us through WWOOFING. We are very grateful to their help and warm and interesting presence.
Stephanie Cooke is from the United Kingdom. She visited Lebanon to cycle all over the country. We were lucky to have a part of her travel at our farm where she helped with any chore that needed to be done. She amazingly made many friends all over the area and brought a positive vibe everywhere.
Josefin Åström is from Sweden, and was in Lebanon for an Arabic course. She saw a chance to go wwoofing, and we were lucky to have her. She helped in all farm activities, and was glad with "Lebanese tasks" - as she referred to them - where she got to eat green chickpeas, take part in the making of tabbouleh with parsley from the farm, and organize grape leaves.
Josefin Åström is from Sweden,
Our activities:
We cut our winter cover and kept it as green manure protecting the soil under the fruit orchards. read more about our agricultural practices! And stay posted with our news by signing up to our mailing list.
before/after pics of cover crop and green manure
With climate change and sustainability challenges, a contemporary view of farmers goes beyond food production and considered them as agro-ecological system managers providing services towards water, landscape, soil, and biodiversity.
At Ibrahim's Farm, our ecosystem has reached an amazing balance. Bees, butterflies, and ladybugs are the masters of the land. We expect them to flourish and be ready to protect our upcoming harvest. Wild clover and vetch (Vicia sativa - or what we call Baa2yi) was planted in winter and created an amazing colorful meadow under our fruit trees. It is actually our "green manure". You can read more about our agricultural practices!
We had the pleasure of hosting Alicia - lovely Swiss volenteer. Thank you Alicia for all your care & efforts.
"My point is to bring something positive to the country, with an idea of ustainability; treating the Earth well can be seen as something basic like the production of food :-) And in a personal aspect, I want to try to connect with nature, learn about plants and try to live away from cities, their noise, stress and other useless problems.
I have spent a pleasant time at Ibrahim's farm. The people I met are so nice, sweet, patient, open-minded, intelligent, humane, as well as respectful. I worked on many things on the farm and learned a lot. The place is lovely and has more than everything needed to feel at home. "- Alicia
You can read more about our collaborations! And stay posted with our news by signing up to our mailing list.
With Spring around the corner, we now prepare for 2018's harvest. If you have any recommendations, drop us an email! We are always happy to hear brilliant new ideas and enrich last year's harvest.
Today we also initiated out mailing-list. With our little farm run by four women, what a great day to start it on the International Women's Day! Our mailing list keeps you posted with our news that include our activities, seasonal harvest notifications, and any special offers we have. If interested, please sign-up!
We wish you wonderful International Women's Day and a colorful March,
The Ibrahim Family
