I'll write more soon. meanwhile, I found an old archive of an American Oleh living in Nachlaot in the late eighties, growing grass and toasting it on the stove, and introducing the not-quite-legendary "Hatzbani Green" strain to the north

http://www.well.com/~ari/writing/bivas.html

Historical curiousities abound: we are not the first to walk these steps.