Where the wild things grow – a walk in the Wadi.

Wadi means valley and the town of Wadi Musa is made up of lots of small Wadis all feeding into the main Wadi that flows all the way into the site of Petra. In the search of wildflowers and the fresh green of Spring we drove over to a small Wadi near Atef’s parents house and went for a walk where the wild things grow.

The fruit trees were laden with blossom or budding fruit and their vibrant green Spring growth.

The old and the new. I think that the old pomegranates look so beautiful on the trees with their faded redish brown colour contrasting against the pinky red of the new spring leaves that turn lime green as they mature.

And the first of the new pomegranates forming on the branches with the promise of things to come in later in the year.

Along with all the fruit trees and new Spring growth, there were indeed lots of wildflowers.

I got a lesson from Atef on how to forage and eat some of the wild things growing. We foraged for what Atef called Shamaar which translates in English to fennel. But this wasn’t fennel as I know it from buying it from a produce shop with the large white bulb, but instead wild fennel. Wild fennel doesn’t produce a bulb and the edible parts and what we were after are the young fronds that appear in spring. The fronds had a very distinct sweet anise flavour and where tender and delicious.

The other wild thing that Atef foraged for us where the tender hearts of thistles. These took a bit more effort to forage with Atef having coax the thistle to give up it’s tender heart by stripping the outer leaves and skin of the stalk, all of which are covered with sharp spines, to finally reveal the prize. The inside of the stalk, or the heart, is tender with a texture similar to celery hearts, and is slightly sweet in taste. I really enjoyed snacking on these stalks.

The surprise of the afternoon was actually to find that the Wadi was not only home to where the wild things grow, but to where the Wild things are!

If it hadn’t been for catching the movement out of the corner of my eye I would never have seen this Chameleon. It was doing its utmost to blend into its surroundings.