Green exercise is a series of team and capacity building activities that engage adults and youth in indoor and outdoor environmental and educational nature bonding experiences.
Outdoor environmental educational activities that involve people in nature appreciation and conservation: wild herb picking, fruit picking, seed planting and collection, botanizing, tree identification…
Starting 28 September, our Fall Green Exercises are making a comeback, and they're going to be greener than ever!
This fall’s Green Exercises were about Fruit Picking. We started out with grape picking in Saint John Monastery in khenchara, and went on an apple picking activity in Chabrouh Eco Farm, a private initiative started by Ghana Bteich and her sister Jihane. Both events had quite a turnout with places fully booked. Participants learned how to do grape and apple picking the right way, while enjoying being surrounded by nature and helping out the local farmers.
On the 28th of September, 25 participants lent a hand in picking the grapes used for the wine harvest season of the CAVE DU MONASTERE SAINT JEAN, with the help of Father Charbel Hajjar. After the grape picking, participants visited the wine cellar and learnt about the process of wine making. A local woman from Khenchara served some of her best Tannour Manakish for lunch, followed by wine tasting of the Monastery’s produce. To conclude the trip, we did a tour of the Monastery and visited the first printer with Arabic letters in the Middle East which was established In Khenchara in 1724.
On October 5th, 26 participants got their buckets ready for apple picking in Chabrouh Eco Farm. Food was freshly cooked and served amid nature, under the apple trees. Participants had the chance to buy as many as they wanted from the apples collected, as well as other natural food produce made from fruits grown in the orchard, such as pear molasses and dried apple chips. A short breezy walk followed to the Chabrouh dam, where participants got to enjoy the view before heading back to AUB.
Unfortunately, we were only able to do two green exercises this fall, due to the current situation in Lebanon.
Interested in next year’s Green Exercises? Please send an email to backtonature@aub.edu.lb so we can add you to our contact list.
See you in next Spring’s Green Exercises!