Lot 2 · Hamra Groves
Lot 2
Hamra Groves
The oldest of our lots. Eight small plots close to the village, most of them facing south, with deeds reaching back to 1901. Several came through Kater's family, the Estephan AbouRizk, and this lot holds the family's oldest trees, including the thousand-year-old olive of Toun.
Pressing method
Traditional press
The olives of this lot are pressed the traditional way. They are ground under heavy stone millstones, and the paste is spread on round fibre mats that are stacked one on top of another on the press. Slow, steady pressure squeezes out the oil together with the olives' own water, and the oil is then separated from the water. It is the older, slower method used in Lebanon's villages for generations, and it gives an oil with a rounder, more rustic character.
The pin marks the general area of Lot 2; it is indicative only.
Shkeim شخيم
A south-facing grove of Baladi trees close to the village. It appears in a 1939 deed in the names of Nicolas and his siblings Zikye and Georges.
- Area
- 1,848 m²
- Olive trees
- 27
- Variety
- Baladi (native Lebanese)
- Altitude
- ≈ 951 m
- Slope faces
- South-south-west
Sahm el Hamra سهم الحمرة
Recorded in the land list of Sleiman (Solomon) Estephan, Kater's brother. Two great old trees stand here by long custom: the harvest of one goes to the Druze waqf, the other to the Orthodox waqf.
- Area
- 1,487 m²
- Olive trees
- 27
- Variety
- Baladi (native Lebanese), young trees
- Altitude
- ≈ 967 m
- Slope faces
- South-south-west
Hamra الحمرة (in old deeds: Haql el Shajara)
Land that came through Kater's family, the heirs of Nemer Estephan. In 1950 Kater exchanged a single olive tree here with a neighbour and was paid the difference, an old Kfeir way of settling shares in trees.
- Area
- 3,063 m²
- Olive trees
- 50
- Variety
- Baladi (native Lebanese)
- Altitude
- ≈ 939 m
- Slope faces
- South-south-west
Jal el Shajara جل الشجرة (Tahet el Tari2, below the road)
A narrow terrace below the road, also from Kater's side of the family, holding nine broad old Baladi trees.
- Area
- 383 m²
- Olive trees
- 9
- Variety
- Baladi (native Lebanese), medium to large
- Altitude
- ≈ 913 m
- Slope faces
- South-south-west
Kessaret 3assaf (in old deeds: Ka3b el Sha7el, War beit Sakr)
Bought by Mansour AbouJamra in 1901, when it was a vineyard. Today it holds old olive trees and is the highest of all the family's lands, at about 1,100 metres.
- Area
- 4,800 m²
- Olive trees
- 27
- Variety
- Baladi (native Lebanese), old trees
- Altitude
- ≈ 1,096 m
- Slope faces
- West-south-west
Wara beit Menhal (in the Ahmar 3ayno area)
The family's plot in the Ahmar 3ayno area, listed among the lands of Sleiman Estephan. Its boundaries were re-surveyed in 2024 at 1,811 m².
- Area
- 1,800 m²
- Olive trees
- 23
- Variety
- Baladi (native Lebanese)
- Altitude
- ≈ 1,044 m
- Slope faces
- South-west
Toun جل التون
The smallest plot, and home to the family's oldest tree. Its trunk measures 4.95 metres around, and the family estimates its age at about a thousand years.
- Area
- 196 m²
- Olive trees
- 5
- Variety
- Baladi (native Lebanese), medium to large
- Altitude
- ≈ 888 m
- Slope faces
- South-west
Khalwet (in old deeds: Qat' el Kroum, Khalwet el Maghariq)
A north-facing grove of old Baladi trees on the southern edge of the family's lands.
- Area
- 1,814 m²
- Olive trees
- 42
- Variety
- Baladi (native Lebanese), old trees
- Altitude
- ≈ 880 m
- Slope faces
- North-north-east
Areas and tree counts are from the family land register. Altitude and slope are approximate, taken from the plot centre on satellite elevation data. Map pins show each lot's general area only. Grove photographs from recent seasons; family photographs from the AbouJamra family archive.