EXCLUSIVE – This will be a busy week for Souk el Tayeb, Lebanon’s first farmers’ market, which will be staging events in Beirut and all round the rest of the country.
Tomorrow, Wednesday March 21, the First Day of Spring, also happens to be Mothers’ Day in Lebanon, and Souk el Tayeb will be celebrating the event with a market featuring gathers farmers and producers from Byblos and the surrounding region (3pm-7pm),
followed by the screening of Hamdara (Humming), a family movie about Lebanese food traditions directed by Nadine Touma and Sivine Arriss. The day will come to an end at é café (8 pm) with a Mothers’ Spring Dinner, Rabih el Oum, prepared by mothers from all the regions of Lebanon.
Saturday March 24 will be ‘Fair Trade Day’ at Souk el Tayeb Saifi, an event organized in collaboration with Oxfam UK to introduce the concept of fair trade to Lebanon. A fair trade workshop for farmers and producers has already been held (March 7), and a lead-up press campaign is planned for Thursday March 22 and Friday March 23.
The event consists of a round table on fair trade at the market, and the launching of a fair trade brochure and ‘face & stories’ postcard-portraits of eight farmers and producers.
On Sunday March 25 the one-day event, Zaher el Laimoun, will be staged in an orange orchard in Saida, the capital of South Lebanon, famous for its orange and citrus growing and for its orange blossom water. It will consist of a regional Souk el Tayeb (9am-2pm), El Tayeb, a competition for the best southern dish (three categories), a screening of Hamdara, and, finally, a picnic under the orange trees.
Many thanks to Kamal Mouzawak, Slow Food leader in Beirut and organizer of Souk el Tayeb, for his kind collaboration.