A friend of Drew's named Hashel (the man pictured a few posts ago) let us tour his date farm while we were in Oman. When he explained the date palms to us he spoke with such care and tenderness, you would have thought he was talking about one of his children. He called the date palm tree "the mother of all humanity" because without it, the nomadic people would not have survived! It can grow where no other trees can, it produces such a wonderful and keepable fruit (you don't have to eat dates fresh, thus they were great for traveling across the desert) and every piece of the date tree, from the leaves, to the trunk, to the roots are useful. The fronds are woven into baskets, the fibers from the trunk and the roots are made into rope and, of course, the dates are eaten. He was very proud of his farm (and his honey bees!) and so excited to share some of Omani culture with us. It was a wonderul time to see some non-touristy Oman and how Hashel and his family live off the farm.
enjoy the pics!
I put the one of the camel crossing sign in so you can see how desolate the land is driving up to the farm, which is in a little bit of a valley and by a well, so they irrigate the farm from the well water and a tiny bit of rain water.
2 comments:
this makes me want to go back!! also, how do you do your pictures like that? i need to do that.. my posts are getting way too long! haha
mmm...i just ate a middle eastern date filled cookie this afternoon at our church's women's prayer tea (focused on muslim women)!
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