In the name of Allah most gracious most merciful. Verily,
Allah created the heavens and the earth, He is the one who gathers the clouds and
sends the rains to nourish the land such that we can enjoy the glorious bounties
of it. He is the one who splits the seeds and grants it life.
13 April 2014
There are many ahadith that encourages the planting of seeds:
If one is planting a seed and Qiyaamah approaches, you should finish planting it. The
one who plants a tree that animals, insects and human beings can benefit from
is rewarded by Allah for as long as the tree lives.
The thing about seeds is that it is so joyous to watch their
germination and development; they are our source of feeding the world and in all
forms they are excellent for one’s health especially when they have just
germinated into sprouts – they then contain super nutrients. It is also far
cheaper to plant from seed than to buy seedlings but it does demand some
patience in return. I am not even going to venture all the analogies for seeds,
except one Sufi saying about rearing children that goes something like this:
You can till the soil and plant the seeds with love and care but it may be that
the pruning and the fruits are not for you. You can but beseech Allah to send
the rain.
With modernity people across the world are fighting transnationalist
companies who, for profit, appropriates a very basic human right of access to
seeds by patents and developing exclusivist seed banks- to basically own the
rights of God given seeds with government approval nogal (I did say for
profit, ja?).
To stamp their own signature on seeds – they, Mosanto
genetically modifies seeds, patents them to sell back farmers who in turn have
to buy seed every year, instead of their normal practice of reseeding for
themselves. I am not going to even discuss the fallout of GMS on health issues
and how it has destroyed original seed crops.
Did you know that during the 80s with the crumbling of the
old regime in Russia, the American Department of Agriculture sent in special
teams who systematically find combed Russia, village to village, buying up different
varieties of fruit, vegetables seeds and who knows what else with the intention
of stealing it. Today one finds more than 30 new varieties of strawberries on
the market in America known as gourmet strawberries. 
I shudder to think what has happened in countries like Egypt,
Afganistan,Iraq, Syria, Libya – who appropriates the seeds while the country is
bleeding? When one thinks about it – just go to their local markets buy out
their seed crops and rename it, stick your name on it and sell it back to them,
sounds crazy right? We think that plundering and stealing only involves raw
materials, food is more valuable than gold today. Return on investment on
cabbages last year gave one 239% return on investment.
Let’s collect and share our own clean seed and educate and
lobby support from people and farmers and claim back the ni’mahs that Allah has
placed on earth for us. This is a basic human right, a right from Allah, a
right that we must insist on and be proactive about for future generations.
On another note, the weather is dry and hot - a perfect
breeding ground for mosquitoes – I don’t even want to talk talking about midnight
mosquito manoeuvres in the dark. It is perfect weather though for making
compost– Abu and Basil have stacked layers of straw, manure, dried leaves,
kitchen waste, straw, manure, dried grass cuttings into a stack that looks kind
of like a lasagne with no white sauce on top. This heat will speed up the
breakdown of bacteria and with the grace of Allah we will be able to enrich new
beds.
Personally I get a thrill out of planting seeds – coriander,
fenugreek, mustard, linseed, beans, peas, turnips, onions, leeks and flowers
such as black eyed Susie, lavender, forget me nots, nasturtiums, borage, Echina,
cacti and poppies. Fruit seeds that I have had success with has been lemons,
dates, mangos, granadilla, avocados and of late? I received a delightful few
figs from a friend, the dark red variety. So I sacrificed but a quarter of it.
I scraped it onto a piece of brown paper and dried it out and then sprinkled
them over some rich soil. Now tiny leaves are appearing in the soil. I sommer
look into my spice cupboard and grab the seeds that I have at hand. But let me
be the first to admit that I have had about 80% luck, but I will continue
trying to put in unusual ones. I have tried to plant ginger so many times but
after a while it disappears into the soil. Now I realise that I should choose plump and
robust ones with smooth. I should soak the rhizome in luke warm water until the
next day and cover them with soil but to leave the surface exposed. I am so
going to try again.
I intend to plant some cumin seeds as well as cardamom and
to learn from this process, I do believe it’s also possible to plant nutmeg
from seeds both male and female. And from time to time I sprout my own seeds
for household use such as lentils, mung dahl, peanuts etc. My kids have
developed a taste for it and don’t hesitate to sprinkle them on their cheese or
cold meat sandwiches. This is how I sprout seeds:
·
I use a plastic bottle
maybe the two litre variety or a big glass jar.
·
I soak the pulses (mung dahl or lentils) overnight
and then rinse thoroughly the next day.
·
The plastic bottle should
be cut down to half; tie a piece of muslin over the top it should be able to
breathe. With the jar on the other hand I would knock holes in the lid. I turn
it upside down and keep it in a cool dark place and rinse 3 times a day.
·
In hot weather a root will
form at the end of day one in cold weather maybe the next day.
·
By the 3rd day I
will bring it into the sun say on the window sill to allow to green. (Remember to
rinse the seeds every day.)
Then I divide them and place them into containers with a
damp serviette and refrigerate. Its shelf life is very short so don’t make too
much or better still make enough and share it with a friend. Try it you will be
surprised how easy it is to sprout your own seeds.
Make sprouts, plant seeds and eat lots of nuts.
Till later
Yasmine
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