zina's spring 'garden-bread'
“My city Nineveh is called the city of Al-Rabeen, which means it has two springs. Each year, we eagerly await the end of the cold winter and the coming of spring, with its breeze smelling of orange blossoms and wildflowers, spreading their fragrance everywhere.”
A creative soul, Zina’s love for spring has blossomed through her cooking, decorating bread with gardens of tomato flowers sprouting from olive soil.
ZINA’S IRAQI SPRING
The spring season in northern Iraq is different from the south because it is longer. My city Nineveh is called the city of Al-Rabeen, which means it has two springs. Each year, we eagerly await the end of the cold winter and the coming of spring, with its breeze smelling of orange blossoms and wildflowers, spreading their fragrance everywhere. I remember when I was little I used to go with friends and family to the wheat and barley fields. We used to play and pick wild chamomile flowers to store, which are used to make tea for health and treatment purposes such as relaxation and helping with colds. The wild chamomile is the national flower of the civilizations of ancient Iraq.
The spring season in Iraq coincides with national holidays and religious occasions. In the town of Baghdida, we hold religious ceremonies in the streets and in the ancient monasteries of the saints, where most of the townspeople wear traditional clothes and share traditional food such as dolma made of chard leaves and filled with spring vegetables. Traditional dances of joy and happiness pervades everywhere. I hope to see the same joy of sharing food and dances of different cultures in our beautiful city Melbourne.
