Adnan El-Ghoul
Daily Star staff
 
For three days, the inhabitants of Saghbin and neighboring members of the municipal federation in western Bekaa display their homemade preserves, wine, vinegar, honey, and other agrarian and handcrafted products in the seasonal Saghbin Mawasem Exhibition.
According to participants, the exhibition is more symbolic than commercial as products are mainly produced for home consumption during the winter, a food provision known here as mouneh, and only a small portion is sold.
Vivian Ghanem, wife of Western Bekaa-Rashaya MP Robert Ghanem, heads the organizing committee. She said, “such exhibitions should not only be occasions for gathering, but must be turned into means to accomplish prosperity and improve the quality of life in the countryside.
“At one point in time, villagers earned their living through the sale of home products. We should encourage the return of these traditions,” she said.
An 80-year-old participant, Habib Michael Abu Hamad, told The Daily Star that many families in the village, including himself, distributed their extra products to relatives in the city or to sons and daughters in the Lebanese diaspora.
Abu Hamad’s sons and daughters, except for one daughter, live in Ottawa, Canada. “Every season, we send them olive oil, apple cider, vinegar, green grape paste, cracked wheat and olive soap,” he said.
With the help of his daughter and retired son-in-law, Abu Hamad grows peaches and apricots to sell at the nearby Qob Elias cooperative market. “Sometimes we make some profit, but most of time we do not even cover the cost,” he said.
“I am getting very old and my land exceeds 75,000 square meters, of which I only use small pieces here and there for agriculture. I hope someday my sons, daughters and grandchildren will return to their village and work the land. If not, who else will take over and carry on?” Abu Hamad said.
Another participant, Amal Ghareeb, is totally dependent on her homemade products to make ends meet. “I sold most of my produce in the exhibition,” she said. “To my surprise, visitors liked my green grape paste, which I made from unripe sour grapes picked early summer. I am sold out and I have orders for the next season.”
Her colleague and neighbor, Nohad Msaed, exhibited her handwoven bed and table covers. “My customers come mainly from women’s associations and groups. They resell my products in specialty shops around the country and abroad. In this exhibition I sold only a few items, however, on Aug. 12, my clients are coming specially to see my products,” she said.
The local monastery also participated and exhibited its wine, soap and cider products. “Their products sold like hot cakes,” the manager of the location of the exhibition, Al-Moltaqa Restaurant, said. “Red wine is sold at LL5,000, which is cheap considering its high quality.”
Exhibitions in the past were held at the village, but the narrow roads there prompted the organizers to relocate the exhibition to a restaurant overlooking the Qaraoun Dam.
“In this location, we are able to receive more than 350 guests at a time,” the restaurant manager, said. “In this time of the year, the visitors can also enjoy the beautiful scenery of the dam,” he added.