Adventures in Ajloun

Closeup of wild pistachio.
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After Thanksgiving, we had a hankerin' for some fall color and harvest scenery, so we headed north to Ajloun, about an hour away from Amman.  Usually in California, we head up into the hills to "Apple Country" to pick fresh apples and enjoy the red & gold leaves, here the harvest is somewhat different.

Along the way, we noticed produce sellers by the side of the road, with huge trays of green, black, and purple olives.  We stopped by one to ask if they could make olive oil.  They told us to look all along the road, there are actually dozens of olive oil presses, so we drove up to one.  There's tons and tons of olives in front, stacked up in 100-pound burlap sacks.  There's also a distinctive, acrid odor, which we later discovered emanted from a literal mountain of olive leavings that had been tossed out the building.  As we walked closer, we noticed the ground became very oily.  Azzam talked to a local man outside, who told him the price was about $60 for a 5-gallon tin.  Once we were inside however, the price for Americans turned out to be about $90.  Frustrated, we drove to another olive press.  Before we could get out of the car, a young boy came up and offered us his mother's "homemade" olive oil, pressed that day from their own olive grove.  So he got in our car, and we drove to his house, where we went in, met the family......  Hannah stayed in the car, which was promptly surrounded by about a dozen curious little boys peeking in at her.  We loved the oil, and came out with our new treasure.

fresh harvest of olive oil and wine

Beautiful little fall-flowering crocus. Locals use the pollen for saffron.
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We continued on to the Ajloun Nature Reserve, a beautiful place covered with live oak and native pistachio trees which had a beautiful red color.  We took a one-hour guided hike to learn about the local ecology and bask in the fresh greeness.  Jordan is like southern California, it's brown all summer then turns green with the first winter rains.  We came across an ancient Roman wine press, carved into the mountain stone.  Very refreshing.

Our next stop was the Ajloun Castle, built in the Crusader-era by Salah al-Din.  It was extraordinarily beautiful and well-preserved, it was getting cold so we took piping hot cups of cardomon coffee from the street vendor outside.  Our guide mentioned wine, and we asked where we could buy some local wine, so he pointed out a house down the hill, and told us to ask for "Atta."  "Atta" knows his wine, and turned out to be a toothless old man, who brought out his own homemade wine, beautifully prepared in an old beer bottle.  He took a swig, Azzam took a swig, his friend took a swig, then they all insisted that I take a swig.  So standing by the side of the road, with old men shouting at me "Blood of Christ!  Blood of Christ!"  I also took a swig.  Pretty hard stuff.  They insisted that I take a larger swig.  It started to taste pretty good.  Atta's toothless wife came out with a few more bottles, which we added to our olive oil collection and headed home.  Of course we stopped once again to buy fresh bread out of the wood-fired oven, then came home for our dinner of -- you guessed it -- bread dipped in dark-green olive oil, washed down with purple wine (blood of christ).