Everything about pomegranate...

If figs and grapes are associated in Azerbaijan with its Absheron peninsular with tomatoes particularly with its village of Zira, saffron with village of Mashtaga, apples with another region of Azerbaijan Guba, nuts with Gabala, lemon with Lenkoran, white cucumber and white cornelian cherry with Sheki, potatoes with Gedebey, then when we see pomegranates we want them to come from Goychay. Since Goychay pomegranates with rich in colour and taste seeds are simply the best :).

Pomegranate season is taking off in Azerbaijan at the moment and all the markets are full of sweet and sour sorts of this fruit. Just like recognizing the most delicious melon or watermelon considers to be a task and challenge everyone here tries to master knowing which pomegranate to choose from all the ones which are offered (and said to be coming from Goychay :) in the bazaar is equally important. Good pomegranate would show in its skin...it would be ready to be cut...Grandparents and parents carry kilos of pomegranate to their loved ones. In addition to being served as fruit pomegranate is used in preparation and design of many dishes such as cabbage dolma, fish, gutab and many others. Pomegranate juice is good for renewing of blood (as we say here), immune system etc etc. People with diarrhea would boil pomegranate skin and drink the water...and get well of course.

In addition to all above pomegranate bears a philosophical meaning as well (this is East and everything has a philosophical background and meaning to it :). If I am not mistaken pomegranate is a fruit of wisdom. Fresco miniatures on walls of Sheki Khan Palace have pomegranate in many scenes. I couldn't find in my archive better photo than below one where you can see pomegranate tree painted on the wall of one of the rooms. You would need to visit the Palace to hear from museum hostess what meaning was given to pomegranate by our ancestors...

Please take a second and see my earlier posts here and here on pomegranate with pictures of trees in blossom...

Enjoy the season :)

Sheki Khan Palace with tales to tell...

Generous nature...

Pomegranate tree...

Dear All,

After some break I am posting today pictures of a pomegranate tree in my garden in Sheki. Pomegranates grow well and taste excellent mainly in Goychay region of Azerbaijan but other regions also grow them. We also have in our garden in Sheki couple of pomegranate trees as my father is a big fond of them. To me it is astonishing that the flowers that you see on the pictures turn into fruits. I truly find it amazing. This is another miracle of nature I would say.

Nowadays the whole world seems to be obsessed with pomegranate…we in Azerbaijan have always been a big fond of pomegranate…to us the season starts mid October and onwards…deseeding the pomegranate makes the hands dirty and its quite hard to clean the hands and nails afterwards…therefore sometimes women ask men to deseed the pomegranates for them :) our supermarkets do not sell ready pomegranate seeds…also preference of course is given to pomegranates bought in the market…Fruits of pomegranate trees of our garden won’t be that sweet but still it is always a pleasure to reap the fruits of one’s own garden :)

Have a good week! :)

...Miracles of nature...

I wrote about pomegranate earlier in my blog…today I am posting more photos to show how flowers turn into fruits…I think this is amazing…like everything in nature…

On a completely different subject...I want to share with you something that happened to me today: when I was driving today to work, I stopped to let the pedestrian man to cross the road...the man stopped to let me drive showing with his gesture that I am a female and he is gentleman...dilemma...who lets whom go first? driver - the pedestrian or gentleman - the woman?...funny :) very nice of him...at the end I drove and gave him thank you smile :)

Season of crocus (saffron)...II

Now...its not only season of pomegranate but also saffron in Azerbaijan these days...This is one of the most popular subjects in our household too since my father has a big passion for saffron and as you know passions of parents create at minimum interest in their children too. Thanks to him who is never tired of spreading the knowledge accompanied with bulbs of saffron of course almost all our relatives and not only grow saffron in their gardens. He grows saffron in Baku and Sheki for pleasure and health and each season we all get fascinated with this the most gentle in looks and the most powerful in essence gift of nature.

Enough of words...let me share with you some photos. First I want to show you the photo that I took in my uncle’s garden in Sheki...this photo was taken sometime in September when there were no saffron flowers yet but even getting ready for its flowers it already looked beautiful...(see green at the background...)

I am thanking my cousin, Fatima Giyasli, who sent me below photos from Sheki...taken in the same garden...when saffron got ready and when they started picking it day by day...flower by flower...

everything is perfect about saffron...

picking flower by flower...

stamen by stamen...

Enjoy the season :)