The Call for Ingenuity - Sokhneh Farms
The call for ingenuity is answered when one embraces a true challenge.
What happens when you inherit a plot of land not particularly healthy for agriculture? For Karim and Laith at Sokhne Farms, they’ve decided to commit to making it a blooming paradise of flowers. At least for now.
As part of my efforts to learn about agriculture in Jordan, a friend recommended I meet Karim Azar, an accomplished chef and one of the owners of Sokhneh Farms.
Within a few hours, I was sitting with Karim at a cafe talking agriculture, food, and everything in between. “I hope you get into agriculture at some point”, says Karim. “It’s fun”.
“If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere” is the attitude I see from the efforts of the farm.
It’s hard to pinpoint the values they hold at Sokhne farms. What comes to mind is the following:
Experiment patiently. They love to try new things and see what works for the land. They grow plants such as loofah, passion fruit, olives, cactus and figs. Each year yields new failures, and therefore, new lessons. Agriculture pushes you to be patient. They know this is a long term project that will yield results with patience. If one thing doesn’t work this season, you’re going to have to wait until the following year to try it next season. “فش طولة بال زي طولة بالي”, says Karim to me.
No chemicals. There are agricultural solutions that don’t require us to spray and sterilize everything.
Leave them to grow. Karim likes to keep things as they are. Let weeds grow in between. Let the flowers roam wild.
Clean the land organically - they discovered that sunflowers are some of the best cleansers of top soil from heavy metals and contaminants.
What has emerged from their efforts at Sokhne farms are people who are committed to treating their land with a true conscience, while making it financially viable.
