Noura Alhariri


I use food, plants, and space to position Palestinian cooking as a practice in world-making. Food is held as a site of evidence: a sensory means of tracing preservation, separation, longing, and care. My work moves through fermentation, writing, tending and growing on lands big and small, foraging, photography, ecological and urban research, communal meals, and heritage recipe collection.

 

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Yimkin

 

























food, plants, photography

1.   seen/unseen installation
2.   YIMKIN: family recipe archive
3.   SEED dinner #1, The Greenhouse Project at UCSC
4.   olive harvest in Jordan, 2024
5.   grief and grapevines reading, LAX Microfest
6.   garden + seed projects


design, art direction, research

 7.   sumac chili oil labels
8.   OSU guest lecture: color  +  client identity
9.   studio matter, print + digital design
10.  apogee, creative direction
11.  Gresham, OR urban planning case study
12.  emergent work/play, architectural capstone
13.  sustainable mass timber puplication + modeling
14.  architectural graphics
15.  sustainable windscreen geometry + modeling



Seen/Unseen        Installation
2025, coastal California



Completed as part of the 
Pie Ranch Indigenous Foodways Artist Residency

As part of this residency, I used ingredients foraged and found in coastal California to produce a site-specific mouneh. 

Where needed ingredients could not be found, they are substituted with site-specific foods, like unripe blackberries for caper buds, or noyaux from plum pits for almonds. Each preserve has undergone a process of transformation that suspends it in an independent timescale and delays its loss, holding it in a form that can be carried by us into the future.

Here, fermentation is an analogue to the grieving process, a wild and thrashing thing that can be cultivated and held in time, remaining with us long enough to tell its story to us slowly.


































Installation text:

In this pantry space, many ancient partners are naturally rejoined: seasonal produce and preservation vessels, bacteria and salt, grief and soil, play and nourishment. Where agriculture is the function of cultivation in space, preservation is positioned as cultivation in time. Drawing on the traditional Arab practice of “mouneh” - stocking a root cellar with preserves and fermented foods during abundant harvests to ensure survival in leaner seasons - each product contains ingredients from food gathered or foraged near the hosting farm, combined with traditional Palestinian preservation methods.  Where needed ingredients could not be found, they are substituted with site-specific foods, like unripe blackberries for caper buds, or noyaux from plum pits for almonds. Each preserve has undergone a process of transformation that suspends it in an independent timescale and delays its loss, holding it in a form that can be carried by us into the future.


Fermentation relies on the presence of unseen bacteria, yeasts, and fungi. These microbiological actors are always present and immediate with us - on the skin of fruits, the roots of onions, and in all the air and soil that grows our food. With this, the action of fermentation is inevitable; they will work their decompositional and transformational processes outside of our observation, regardless of our input. An apple fallen to the ground will ferment into some kind of vinegar without intervention. Some fruits are so prone to ferment that they will turn alcoholic while still on the tree. However, when we apply intention and care to this unstoppable process, we purposely cultivate rich new dimensions of nourishment, connection, and integration.


In the before, during, and after of the israeli genocide in Gaza, many unseen forces have acted on us: bewildering grief, deep longing, subversive hope, unending steadfastness, honest love, uncontainable imagination. The action of these forces is inevitable. However, when we apply intention to these unstoppable processes, we can cultivate them as life-giving, completing, and fortifying. Here, fermentation is an analogue to the grieving process, a wild and thrashing thing that can be cultivated and held in time, remaining with us long enough to tell its story to us slowly. 


When treated with intentionality, each thing becomes familiar and cared for in its unique processing. Kishik is kneaded twice daily and sniffed each time, its scent a reliable indicator of its health; dried goods are tousled lightly, daily, to ensure they are evenly processed; bubbling ferments are checked and shaken, stirred, burped, or left to be, depending on their visual cues. In this intimacy of noticing, knowing, and treating, each cultivated preserve takes on importance and personality. Each has something to share.






ZHOURAT - “flowers”
Traditional tea blend beloved across Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. Said to increase immunity around the change of seasons or when ill. Usually containing anise seed, chamomile, rose petals, lemon balm, mint, and white sage, plus whatever else is foraged locally. All ingredients in this blend were gathered and foraged locally.

Made with: lemon balm, lemon verbena, plum tree leaves, plum pit noyaux, white sage, hyssop, fennel flowers, rose petals, cornflower, fig leaves, dried green fennel seeds, corn silk.







KHAL BARRI BIL KAYKUB - wild vinegar with arbutus

Freshly picked apples, foraged arbutus (strawberry tree) fruits, and bay leaves will ferment first into alcohol, then vinegar. Apples and arbutus both carry wild yeasts that are prone to fermenting the fruit, making them good ingredients for wild vinegar. Bay leaf tempers bitterness. Arbutus is native to the Iberian peninsula but has naturalized around the Mediterannean, including Palestine and the south of Lebanon. Arbutus (kaybab) is more traditionally dried and eaten as candy. Foraging this fruit in Palestine is restricted by israel.










Traditional preserves that couldn’t be sourced on the land were substituted with roughly analogous foods: here, caper berries are substituted with unripe blackberries, and sumac berry is substituted with roasted sour grape powder.


KABBAR - capers, substituted
Caper bushes are native to the Mediterannean basin, a treasured foraged food that is fermented in brine. Here, without access to a caper bush to harvest berries, unripe blackberries are pickled in the style of capers. These green fruits are in a salty pickling liquid with bay leaves and rosemary. The use of unripe, tart, and early fruits is a traditional fermentation technique in the mouneh, especially of unripe plums and green almonds in the pod.

BODRA HOSRUM - sour grape powder
Sumac berries are one of Palestine’s most iconic harvests. Red grains ground and dried for use throughout the year. It’s beloved and used liberally for its acidic, citric, cherry-like flavor. Without access to sumac, I found, roasted, and dried sour grapes to create a sour powder for use similar to sumac. While powdered sour grapes are not a typical preserve, sour grape juice (verjuice / ‘aseer hosrum) is.

















KISHIK - wheat and yogurt
Bulgur and yogurt made into a dough and fermented together, kneaded twice daily for 10 days, then dried and ground down to powder. Acts as a nutritious thickener for soups, a bread topping, and a dip. It is shelf stable for up to 1 year.

 









SHUTTAH - hot chile paste
A mix of hot and sweet chiles are ground, salted, drained, and fermented in olive oil to make this traditional spicy condiment. The recipe for this ferment comes from my Aunt Hayat, who is famous for her shuttah. 

MAKDOUSAT FASOULIA - green beans in olive oil

“Makdous” literally means pressed, but generally refers to a fermentation style of adding walnuts, chiles, red peppers, and garlic to a blanched vegetable and curing it under olive oil to become shelf-stable. This is most commonly done with small baby eggplant, but in this season, is done with green beans. Citric acid has been used to acidify the garlic, making it safer to preserve under oil.








INCLUDED PRESERVES:


KHAMEERA - bread starter
Jammu wheat flour, water


ZHOURAT - “flowers”, herbal tea blend
lemon balm, lemon verbena, plum tree leaves, lime flower, white sage, wild fennel flowers, rose petals, cornflower, fig leaves, dried green fennel seeds, corn silk


DUKKAH - wild seed mix
squash seeds, fennel seeds, basil seeds, plum pit noyaux, bay nuts, fennel pollen, hyssop, mint, dried green fennel seeds


KABEESAT CHAMANDAR - fermented beets
organic beets, organic radishes, salt, water


KABEESAT ARIQ - fermented pumpkin
kuri squash, butternut squash, salt, water


KABEESAT BAQLEH - fermented purlsane and mallow
purslane, mallow, wild onion, oregano, garlic, salt, water


KABEESAT SHAMR - pickled fennel
fennel bulb, fennel stalk, fennel heads, salt, water


LAYMOON MKHALLAL - Gazan pickled limes
limes, nigella seeds, safflower, salt, olive oil, water


MAKDOUSAT FASOULIA - green beans in olive oil
green beans, walnuts, red peppers, garlic, citric acid, salt, olive oil


BANADORA - preserved tomatoes
cherry tomatoes, hyssop, salt, water


SHUTTAH - hot chile paste
heirloom sweet peppers, assorted red chiles, citric acid, salt, olive oil


LABNEH BIL WARAQ - labneh in grape leaves
goat milk yogurt, salt, grape leaves, olive oil


LABNEH MAKBOUSEH - labneh under oil
goat yogurt, powdered peppers, mallow leaves, cornflower petals, salt, olive oil


JAMEED - dried yogurt
goat yogurt, cow yogurt, salt

KISHIK - wheat and whey
bulgur wheat, cow yogurt, goat whey, and salt 
BULGUR - parboiled wheat
Jammu wheat berries, water, salt


KHAL BARRI BIL KAYKAB - apple and arbutus vinegar
apple skins and cores, whole arbutus fruit, bay leaves, water


KABBAR - capers, substituted
unripe blackberries, bay leaves, salt, water







HALAWAT AL ARIQ - Gazan pumpkin conserve
butternut squash, pickling lime, sugar, citric acid, sesame seeds, water


MURABBA’ TUFFAH BIL LOZ - apple jam with almonds
apples, sugar, lemon juice, sliced almonds


MURABBA’ JANAREK - plum jam
plums, lemon juice, sugar, fig leaves


MURABBA’ WARD - rose jam
rose petals, sugar, lemon juice

FARAWLA MUJAFFAFA - dried strawberries
strawberries, sparkling apple cider


MALBAN - grape leather 2 ways
grape juice, semolina, walnuts, grapeseeds, nigella seeds, sesame seeds


ZAATAR TAHT ZEIT - hyssop under olive oil
hyssop, oregano, lemon slices, citric acid, olive oil

MOLOKHIYA - dried molokhiya
molokhiya grown from the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library

BODRA HOSRUM - dried sour grapes, sumac substitute
sour grapes, salt


WARAQ ‘EINAB - dried grape leaves
grape leaves, salt


WARAQ AL GHAR - dried bay leaves
culinary bay
IKLIL AL JABAL - dried rosemary
rosemary


MARAMIYYA - white sage
white sage


‘ARNOUS DURRA - cobs of corn
gem corn


FAWAKI TAHT ALKISH - fruit preserved under straw
hay, apples, pears