Established by ESDU, The Food Heritage Foundation and its food tourism network (Darb el-Karam), have been featured in the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO) “Regional Report on Women in Tourism in the Middle East.”
Published in 2020, The report maps and examines the participation of women in the tourism sector throughout the region prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The five main areas of focus are: employment, entrepreneurship, education and training, leadership and community.
FHF and Darb el-Karam have been highlighted among several community and society-driven initiatives for empowering women and rural communities and supporting rural livelihoods by promoting tourism and food heritage.
Read the full report here (FHF is mentioned on page 72, ESDU & FHF Rural Tourism Coordinator Petra Chedid is mentioned in Annex 3):
Anjuli and Petra presenting FHF programs to the guests
The Food Heritage Foundation’s Darb al Karam received guests mostly from Europe with Lebanese roots on Tuesday August 7, 2018. Association Léba and Association des Druzes Libanais en France chose Darb el Karam to be part of their visits program to Lebanon and booked a traditional Lebanese dinner on the food trail in the West Bekaa. Petra Chedid and Anjuli Weigelt guided the group through the evening.
After arriving in a local hotel with a beautiful view over the Litani river the group visited spontaneously the Qaraoun Lake. The impression could then be digested and discussed at the dinner in a traditional and family run restaurant. Beside this FHF also offered two live cooking stations: local women prepared different kinds of delicious Manoushe on the saj as well as grilled potato kebbeh stuffed with labneh.
Delicious saj manakish
The meal was complemented by some Arabic and self-written poems by Abou Elias, the owner of the restaurant. He accompanied the dishes additionally with his “derbakkeh” and traditional singing. The guests immediately joined in the traditional and well-known songs and were motivated to dance in the middle of the restaurant.
Abou Elias entertaining the guests with folk songs and “zajal” on his “derbakkeh”
At the end of the evening all guests were satisfied by heaps of traditional and local food, old songs and dances especially Dabke. With this event, the Lebanese guests living abroad, explored their culture and got close to their roots. Most of them, particularly the younger generation did never visit the West Bekaa before. They were amazed and thrilled by its beauty and the hospitality of its people.
During the past few years, Josette Dijkhuizen has been working hard on a photographic documentary highlighting women refugee entrepreneurs in Jordan and Lebanon, in an aim to offer an insight and educate, but also to raise awareness for the beneficial effects of stimulating women entrepreneurship on economic and social problems in the world.
We met Josette last year, during her first visit to Lebanon, and got more acquainted with her project and activities and told her about our different initiatives aiming at empowering women. Unfortunately, due to the unstable situation then, she could not visit our projects in the Bekaa. However this year, we were happy to see her again and arrange a visit to meet with women entrepreneurs – hosts on darb el karam Food Trail in the West Bekaa, involved in preserving traditional food and cuisine.
With Lina at her table d’hote in Kherbet Qanafar
[quote]In the beautiful area of the Beqaa Valley, there is potential for unique products and services and we saw strong women entrepreneurs keeping food heritage alive and being a role model for so many others[/quote] said Josette after meeting with Lina, Grace, Nabila and Marie.
Nabila from Ain Zebde surrounded by Petra Chedid, darb el karam coordinator (on the left) and Prof Dijkhuizen and photographer Jeroen Berkhout (on the right)
About Josette Dijkhuizen
Prof Dr. Josette Dijkhuizen is a scientist and entrepreneurship consultant par excellence. She combines science with practice in her activities, which leads to publishing different books, but also to inspiring presentations across the globe. Josette was assigned as a UN Women’s representative in 2013 the year during which she started her own social enterprise ‘ENPower’ to assist vulnerable (wo)men from shelter homes, refugee and human trafficking, with the start-up of an enterprise. To know more about her program for encouraging entrepreneurship, visit her website http://josettedijkhuizen.nl/
Ms. Jeambey introducing the foundation’s programs to the audience
During the FCSI EAME biannual conference, held in Vienna for Food Service Consultants all over the world, Zeinab Jeambey, FHF food tourism expert, spoke about the importance of food tourism for rural areas in Lebanon and highlighted Darb el Karam as a unique food tourism destination in the Shouf Cedar Biosphere Reserve, where visitors have the chance to be involved with farmers and producers in harvesting and food processing activities and enjoy star dishes of the areas at tables d’hote and guesthouses.
On May 26th 2016, the Food Heritage Foundation was awarded the Green Phoenix Trophies of Sustainable Development for its food tourism project darb el karam.
This award is part of the 2016 Lebanese Sustainable Development Contest organized by LEBA association – France in collaboration with the Union of Jezzine Municipalities and ESIB (Ecole Supérieure des Ingénieurs de Beyrouth.
The ceremony was held at ESIB in Mansourieh where the competing finalists presented their projects. FHF president Eng. Mabelle Chedid, accompanied by the food trail coordinator in West Bekaa Mrs. Petra Rassi, attended the event and received the award.
The Green Phoenix Trophy 2016
darb el karam – Food Heritage Trail is a network of 9 villages in the West Bekaa and Higher Shouf promoting food and agricultural heritage through tourism. The network aims to highlight the seasonality and locality of foods and crops, the traditional processing methods and most importantly, the generosity of the hosts.
This generosity trail invites its visitors to meet the shepherd, the farmer and the food producer, participate in harvesting and pastoral activities and taste local culinary specialties. darb el karam aims to raise awareness about the origin of a food product or a traditional dish and its cultural and emotional ties to the destination.
On darb el karam, meet the farmer and eat traditional food (Olive season in West Bekaa)
Taste the traditional ice-cream made with goat milk!
The LACTIMED project, with financial support from the European Union under the ENPI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme, has prepared and published in 2015 a guide to all dairy products lovers!
Visit the local dairy unit and learn how different cheeses are made
The guide offers options of agritourism activities based on dairy products in 5 countries around the Mediterranean basin: Tunisia, Italy, Greece, Egypt and Lebanon! It describes the wealth of selected regions in each country, the dairy sector, sites and farms to visit, what to buy, where to sleep and eat etc.
The traditional Lebanese dairy products are described in this 78-pages guide and darb el karam – Food Heritage Trail is featured on page 57!
To access the electronic version of the guide press here.
Go for a hike with the local herder and his goats
Taste local specialties of the region in the guesthouses and the “tables d’hote”
On the winter menu at Noha’s guesthouse in Ein Zebde
darb el karam never ceases impressing its visitors in all seasons, in winter like in summer; impressing them with his hosts and their warm hearts and true smiles, the generosity and quality of the food, and the one-of-a-kind experience weaved around culinary activities and food heritage.
Homemade goat labneh and cheese, but also heart-capturing makdous at Sonia’s in Saghbine
Lovely Sonia surrounded by the beautiful ladies
A group of journalists with their families were invited to spend a day on darb el karam in West Bekaa. They started their day early in the morning with a traditional breakfast at Botrous and Sonia’s modest house in Saghbine. For this special occasion, Sonia has prepared, among other traditional foods, fresh baladi cheese and labneh from the milk of the family’s goats.
[quote]It has been a long time since I enjoyed a delicious baladi breakfast[/quote] said Reema while sipping her cup of tea.
Posing with “3ammo” Botrous and his goats!
After having coffee on the balcony overviewing the Qaraoun Lake, the group challenged the cold weather and went on a soft hike with “3ammo” Botrous from the mountains of Saghbine towards Ein Zebde where they met with Nabila who has set for a coffee break in the village plaza.
Coffee break with Nabila in Ein Zebde plaza
Before heading to lunch, the group joined Nabila to collect the season’s wild edible plants, enough to make fatayer (pastries), salads and other appetizers!
[quote]We need to do this more often![/quote] shouted Katia as she filled her lungs with fresh air, on top of the mountain.
Do you remember the name of this plant Rita? 🙂
Our visitors did not only have scrumptious meals highlighting each village they visited, but they also learned how to make the famous potato kebbe of Noha and the mouthwatering kaak of Lina!
The beautifully set table of Noha
“It was hard to resist the pumpkin kebbe of Lina”
All we can say is that Reema excelled at making potato kebbe!
It can’t be more cozy and warm around the stove!
In Kherbet Kanafar, Lina’s menu was all about pumpkin!
Geraldine Rué from lemonde.fr visits darb el karam during the mulberry season and participates in picking and cooking activities at Raymonda Nakhleh’s table d’hote in Kherbet Qanafar – West Bekaa.
During the past week, the Food Heritage Foundation took part of the Chef’s Cut culinary seminars in Lebanon, by providing cooking sessions to cooks from Ireland and Chili.
Making Shakshouka
The cooking sessions were given by two hosts on darb el karam– food heritage trail: Raymonda Nakhle and Lina Haddad; they were inspired from the traditional menus served at the tables d’hôte of both ladies in West Bekaa.
Sheikh el mehshe served with rice
The first session was given by Raymonda at the apartment kitchen of the visitors in Beirut. The chefs learned how to prepare shakshouka (stir-fried green pepper with onions) and onion tajine as appetizers, sheikh mehshi (stuffed eggplant) cooked in laban for the main dish and ashta with homemade honey and mulberry jam for dessert. Raymonda cooked traditional Lebanese recipes using local ingredients from her village and region.
Ashta decorated with mulberry jam, grounded pistachio and orange blossom jam
On the second day, FHF and the Chef’s Cut teams were hosted by Chateau Heritage winery in Qab Elias where Lina’s fall menu was highlighted: pumpkin kebbe (kebbit laktin) and pumpkin mutabbal as appetizers, pumpkin zenkoul as a main dish and hare’ osbao for dessert.
Alberto cutting and pealing the pumpkin
The chefs learned how to make kebbe and enjoyed making the small balls for the zenkoul, and everyone enjoyed tasting the various delicious types of wines of the chateau.
Lina preparing the kebbe stuffing
The objective of the Chef’s Cut culinary seminars around the world is to provide food lovers an authentic culinary experience with local people. FHF team and darb el karam ladies were delighted to be part of this event, and to share their cooking stories and know-how.
The group enjoying making zenkoul balls
Pumpkin mutabbal
After the cooking session, everyone savored the famous West Bekaa zenkoul
Eduardo Lima, photojournalist from Brazil, is documenting the different aspects of the daily life in Lebanon being affected by the Syrian crisis. Lima has been roaming around the country taking pictures of Lebanese and Syrian communities dealing with the impact of the Syrian war. Last week, he went on a journey with members of the Food Heritage Foundation to the West Bekaa, visited the community kitchen in Khiara and had lunch on darb el karam – food heritage trail.
Lebanese and Syrian ladies cooking together in Khiara’s community kitchen
In Khiara’s kitchen, Lima photographed the ladies while they were cooking “moujaddara” for lunch. He chatted with them, asked them how working in the community kitchen impacted their lives, and then he accompanied the field officer for pots distribution to the different families enrolled in the program.
The ladies gathered around Lima, checking the pictures he took of them
[quote]I am really glad I am including the pictures of the community kitchen in my project. I think the work you are doing, providing jobs and help is important for various things including recovering the self-esteem of those affected one way or the other by what is going on in Syria[/quote]
The van is almost full and ready to start the distribution!
After visiting some families, Lima and FHF team headed to darb el karam where they visited the olive mill in Aytanit. Lima was impressed by the work at the mill while Shakar, owner of the press explained the different steps of extracting oil.
At the olive press
[quote]The food and generosity remind me of the family gatherings I used to have at my grandmother’s house in Brazil[/quote] said Lima while having lunch in Lina’s table d’hôte in Kherbet Kanafar.
Lina’s mutabbal
Lina, with the help of her husband, has set the table and prepared traditional recipes from the fall menu: fattoush, mutabbal batenjen,kebbe b joz (walnut kebbe) and vegetable stew with rice. After lunch, the group savored pumpkin zlebye with a cup of tea and seasonal fruits before going back to Beirut and escaping the storm.
A cup of tea, fruits from the garden and pumpkin zlebye for dessert
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