In the rural reaches of northern Jordan, local dishes are replete with produce from orchards, olive groves and kitchen gardens strung with vines
His son, Yaman, appears from around the corner with a wicker basket, gesturing for me to follow him. We leave the courtyard of their family home, walking under a cloud of crimson pomegranates hanging above the front gate. In the garden, I’m greeted with a sweeping view of the 2.5-acre estate where figs, pomegranates, olives, plums, apricots and lemons grow against a backdrop of seemingly endless valleys and woodland. All my senses are singing: golden sunlight dapples the ground under the vast canopy; dried leaves crackle beneath our feet with every step; and the heady scent of fig hangs in the air, which rings with the sound of birdsong and the afternoon’s adhan (the Islamic call to prayer).
Just then, Eisa begins to climb a tree, wrestling its unruly branches in a bid to reach a pair of bulbous, deep-purple figs at the very top. He hands me one that’s soft and has burst at the crown. “That’s when you know it’s perfectly ripe,” he explains. I slurp through the first bite; it’s at once sweet, fresh and juicy, and like no fig I’ve ever tried.
The orchard in Eisa’s back garden is one of many in Ajloun, a mountainous area of northern Jordan that abounds with olive groves and thick forests and is home to the majestic hilltop Ajloun Castle. In the region’s hinterland, between the villages of Orjan and Rasoun, stands the Dweekat family’s house. Here, Eisa —owner of tour operator Hike Jordan and co-founder of long-distance hiking route the Jordan Trail —lives with his wife Eman and their four children, Yaman, Yara, Samer and Tamer.
Their house —parts of which operate as a homestay for tourists —is centred around a covered courtyard, a building style typical across the Middle East. It sits adjacent to a valley so splendid, I can see why locals have dubbed Ajloun the ‘Paradise of Jordan’.
This nickname slowly manifested itself as we made the 90-minute drive north from the capital, Amman, earlier this morning. With each mile that took us closer, the landscape became progressively greener, the valleys deeper and the juniper and olive trees more abundant.
Here, particularly in Eisa’s neighbourhood, life moves at a gentle pace. It’s the kind of place where old men while away sunny afternoons under the canopy of a pine t
