During the summer of 2024, we launched Gido’s Garden, a passion project of ours. Gido’s Garden is our family’s garden, and we are organically growing produce to provide for Sidon and Middle East Market. We always strive to provide our guests with unmatched freshness when they dine with us. This project allows us to further increase the level of freshness we deliver by having our fresh crops come straight from our garden to our businesses’ kitchens.
The idea for this project originated with Mahmoud Hariri, founder of the Sidon and Middle East Market. He has a deep love for gardening and cultivating fresh produce. He is also the inspiration for the name of this project; the word “gido” (pronounced jid-do) means grandfather in Arabic, and Mahmoud now has several grandchildren.
For Sidon, fresh vegetables that will be used include tomatoes, cucumber and mint. Our tomatoes and cucumbers will mainly be used for our salads, like Fattoush and Tabbouleh. When you order these items, you can enjoy them knowing that you are tasting delicious ingredients grown locally and organically.
Next door at Middle East Market, Gido’s Garden is mainly providing koussa, eggplants and okra for sale on our stands. Our veggies can be found in the produce section and can be identified with a Gido’s Garden sticker on their signs. Use our koussa for a mahashi spread, our eggplants for baba ghannouj and okra for a lamb stew. These vegetables are a quintessential part of Lebanese cuisine, and we are so excited to be able to provide you with a supply that is organic, local and grown with care.
This year’s season for harvests has just begun; our organic homegrown koussa is now available next door at Middle East Market! You can expect to see our other crops in about three weeks. We will be harvesting produce all the way through September.
In the future, we plan to continue expanding the range of produce that we cultivate so we can use our own organic produce in more of our recipes and provide more options in our store. Keep an eye out on our social media and while shopping at Middle East Market to be the first to hear about our latest harvest!
