They planted the seeds of tepary beans, squash, tomatoes and chilis _ local varieties that had evolved over centuries in the intense heat and long dry spells of the Sonoran Desert _ as well as seeds given them by his own family during a reunion in Lebanon, where goat cheese still tastes and smells like the wild thyme in the hilly pastures.
42.
Gentle slopes on the Maiden Paps support species-rich Magnesian Limestone grassland dominated by upright brome Bromus erectus, blue moor-grass Sesleria albicans, crested hair-grass Koeleria macrantha, red fescue Festuca rubra, glaucous sedge Carex flacca and herbs such as common rock-rose Helianthemum nummularia, salad burnet Sanguisorba minor, fairy flax Linum catharticum, wild thyme Thymus praecox, pignut Conopodium majus, small scabious Scabiosa columbaria and sea plantain Plantago maritima.
