God Bless Our Broccoli

6 days ago
3 min read

Truly God bless our broccoli. Or as Bashiq said: “This is not just a vegetable; this is hope growing from the soil. The land itself is special and holds many memories.” Or as another friend termed it, “Bombastic Broccoli.”

All of you know that I am unswayable in my conviction that we tend a tiny portion of what once was the Garden of Eden, and reap its benefits and blessings. This week we will open a window into extravagant blessing.

Why broccoli, you may ask - particularly if you track with us on social media and see endless pics of the stuff: us cooking, kids eating. Why broccoli?

There are vegetables that we cannot grow out of deference to the Yezidi culture and tradition - lettuce, for example, also cabbage and cauliflower. Another why is in place. Some say that the prohibition on eating marked the Yezidis as separate from any other people. It was a mark of separation.

Others go back to the times of persecution and previous genocides (firman) where Yezidis hid themselves in the fields surrounded by low-growing crops, such as leafy greens. Other sources say that corpses were left in the fields, the blood seeping into the soil, thus making it ritually unclean.

Choose your own reason. About five years ago broccoli was introduced to Kurdistan and became an overnight winner. Until we began to grow it this winter, we needed to purchase it in the city. For the tent dwellers who craved something new, reaching the city was an impossibility, plus the price at a hefty (yes) $1.50 per kilo was prohibitive.

We tried our hand. Sami tended the seeds, the planting, the watering with utmost care, and between his green fingers, community prayers and blessings over every centimetre of growth - and, of course, the land’s ancient memory of broccoli - we will, by the end of the winter, reach 1 ton of delicious broccoli, which we are giving away as fast as it grows. We harvest each head of broccoli when it weighs between one kilo and one and a half kilos; after that it loses its taste.

Whilst the western world eats much processed food and kids snack on junk, ours run to the garden to pick, then take it to the kitchen, where it’s lovingly steamed for our students and patients. We have designated days of broccoli distribution: patients at the Hope Clinic, Sewing Hope ladies, special-needs kiddies and their families, orphans, survivors - each has their day, although I hasten to add anyone can walk into the garden and pick according to his need.

It has been a very special journey working with the Kids4Hope kindergarten, educating them how to plant the seeds, then the patience required to nourish and to wait. Broccoli has become a symbol of patience, care, and life itself. It reminds us, especially in the depths of winter, that the Hope Garden is not only about producing food, but about spreading kindness, generosity, and love in action.

I feel deeply blessed about everything that the Hope Garden offers: the soil, the plants, the land, the people, and the opportunities that it gives to serve others. I pray that it will continue to be a place of hope, sustenance, and growth to all who visit it.”

— Avya

This broccoli does not belong to us; it belongs to the entire community. Little Princess Alma’s mother came to pick, prayed a blessing over all our produce, returned to her tent to cook it, and brought it back ready for our students. It is an outrageous blessing and source of joy.

I am sure that by now, many of our American friends will have recalled President George H. W. Bush’s declaration, “I do not like broccoli, and I haven't liked it since I was a kid. Now I am President of the United States and I am not going to eat any more broccoli.”

Well Sir, ours is Edenic; ours is blessed to the place of being both bombastic and outrageous.

We, like Mum Layla, give thanks to God for his bounty and his graciousness of growth.