The Joy of Growing Chickpeas

Nof Atamna-Ismaeel

Stacks of plates covered grandma Wajeeha’s kitchen counter. Each plate was padded with cotton wool soaked in water, on top of which rested hundreds of golden chickpeas. Every day we peeked at the plates and witnessed how life gradually emerged from them – little green stems covered in small bright green leaves. Then it was time to take them to the field near the house and plant them in the ground one by one. Grandma would dig a trail as I scattered the seeds, one for every two steps, until all of the plates ran out of chickpeas. We watered the seedlings every two days and waited patiently. Grandma promised: “The taste grows along with the plant with every passing day.” The days passed slowly and the wait was long as we eagerly anticipated eating the delicious pulses. We watched the plants sprout, flower, and produce seed pods housing two minute legumes that grew steadily until they filled their casings, and the day we had all been waiting for had finally arrived.