Um Mahmoud 50 sits in her modest house in the village of Farkha in the northern West Bank town of Salfit. She prepares cookies with her sons and their wives being the most important ritual of her childhood initiated by her mother and grandparents.
Um Mahmoud the wife of Bakr Qombuz the coordinator of the Agriculture Relief Department in Salfit province believes making cookies for her family is a way to maintain the cultural heritage of her parents which she preserved for ages. She makes the Farayik cookies every morning to have it with breakfast and to serve it to her guests.
The Farayik cookies are Palestinian home-made cookies which have been a traditional Palestinian food for generations. These cookies are very popular in the village of Farkha and the surrounding villages and despite using special ovens some women still make it at home as their mothers or grandmothers used to.
Um Mahmood describes how she makes cookies while she is busy baking dough with both of her hands using flour by adding sugar chocolates and nuts and then kneading it until it becomes soft and sticky enough to be cut into small balls after spraying some dry flour on it so that the dough does not stick to her hands. Um Mahmoud twists the dough with her hands making it round until it takes shape putting it on tin to be baked.
Um Mahmoud continues to make these popular cookies despite the availability of other types of cookies which would be easier to prepare but these cookies have a symbolic heritage for her and her ancestors. She is always determined to make sure that the cookies are on the family’s table as a means of adherence to old customs. Her mother used to prepare the cookies for her father and she knew how to make it thus teaching her grandchildren how to make it as well to ensure its continuity.
Um Mahmood says that making and distributing cookies is enjoyable and makes her feel comfortable. This is what she has learned from her grandmothers who maintained good friendship relationships with others unlike people these days who rarely maintain good relationships.
The smell of cookies is in the corridors of the house of Um Mahmoud which is full of children and visitors demonstrates the commitment of the Palestinian rural family to maintaining customs and traditions which were passed to them through their ancestors from one generation to another.
