I must thank Paul Portelli for the interesting information he gives us on our flora. I am not, however, in agreement with him on the translation of the word l-andar in his description of Xatbet l-Andar (July 18).

The word l-andar does not mean qiegħa, threshing floor. The threshing floor or qiegħa was an area in the field that was chosen seasonally by the farmer to “construct” his threshing floor by watering the circle and then rolling over it a horse-drawn stone roller till the ground became hard enough. When the earth was dry, the wheat bales were brought over the circle to be threshed by the animals walking over them while held down by the farmer who stood in the centre.

Now this threshing floor was not always put in the same place or field, hence, there was no need for a gate . A qiegħa is not an andar.

An andar is a store for the wheat and other food seeds produced by the farmer. Now this required a gate.

I happen to know about threshing floors of neighbouring farmers since I worked on these in the early 1940s when on school holidays. I was lucky to have farmers as friends in those days of daily hunger. Another fact that I must put in is that I own a place which is called Andar.

To enter it there was a gate. It belonged to my grandfather. There was no threshing floor as far as I recall but there is a huge store.

I would like Mr Portelli to give us some information on the weed burdlieqa or purslane so that it would be brought into our diet as it was during Roman times.