great tastes. great stories.
It looks just like another box – except the aroma hints at something out of the ordinary. The packets of oregano, neatly packed by Bassatin Baanoub, arrived this week from Beirut. The smell is as miraculous as the delivery.
Earlier in September, tentatively asking about our order, we wondered whether our suppliers would be able to send oregano, olive oil and recipe books for Christmas orders. It seemed absurd when they had much more pressing matters to consider.
Of course both our suppliers were working hard regardless of the situation. Youssef Fares, on the point of starting the olive harvest in Beino in the north, admitted that “we need to move quickly.” Yasmina Zahar of Baasatin Baanoub, had already deposited the samples of the oregano with the laboratory in Beirut for testing.
Origanum syriacum and the za’atar mix are very special in Lebanon. Growing and exporting this native variety of oregano requires a permit from the Ministry of Agriculture. They also need to be tested in a lab before being exported. Quite a bit of paperwork in a country where there hasn’t been a government since the port blast in August 2020, nor a President since 2022.
Yasmina had left the samples in the lab in Choueifet, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which is by the airport, in early September. After a night of heavy bombing in the area, she anxiously called the lab wondering if it had been hit.
Amazingly the technicians, the lab and the samples were all unscathed. Looking through the paperwork now in Bristol, seeing the tests and the dates they were carried out, knowing what all of the staff had had to go through while doing their job, is really humbling.
Mohammad Yassin’s photo from Orient Today of the Choueifet area, by the airport in October.
Beirut was being bombed intensely in September, and still is today but it catches the headlines less. Many who work in Beirut having been forcibly displaced, have further to travel for work, and manage on little sleep thanks to the constant buzzing of the dreaded Israeli drones. But Lebanon doesn’t stop working.
DHL Express Lebanon were exceptional. They chased down urgent signatures for books and food stuffs, collected boxes, made boxes (olive oil can only travel in a plane in wood) and were in regular contact to reassure us at every stage of the delivery. Never once did they complain about what they were living through. We are lucky to be working with such exceptional people.
Just a reminder, that we will be donating 20% of our profits to Buzuruna Juzuruna from now until Christmas, both from online sales and those at the fairs and markets we’re joining.
a photo of Buzuruna Juzuruna’s peasant’s hut taken by Philippe Pernot
