Top: World's first 360-degree Panorama of Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia, Feb 24/2009, from 12 separate photos...

Monday 24 August 2009

Lali Lali, Wheat & Barley, How Does Your (Parents') Garden Grow?

Well, there are more than 50 things grown on their patch of a few hectares of eastern Georgia:

grapes (biggest crop), tomatoes, cucumbers, figs, walnuts, hazelnuts, onions, nectarines, coriander, bell peppers, hot peppers, corn, potatoes, cabbage, tarragon, basil, flat parsley, dill, watermelons, honeydew melons, various peaches, apples, various cherries, sweet purple plums, sour tqemali yellow plums, pears, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, carrots, beets, garlic, wheat, grass for hay, aubergines, quinces, zucchini, pumpkins, lettuce, mustard greens, leeks, mint, boxwood, bay leaves, persimmons, apricot, mulberries, sunflowers, beans, fennel, shallots, tobacco, and several things I know only in Georgian: shindi, qurma, kotskuri, kruzhuna, alucha, unabi, chanchuri and konduri. Whew, a lot of work!

More: They make or have made their own: cheese, yoghurt, bread, wine, arak, jams, compotes, liquers, churchkhela (walnut strings dipped in thickened grape paste), sour plum sauce (tqemali), tomato sauce, pickles, hot sauce, sour cream, butter, flour, sunflower oil and vinegar!

They also raise or have raised: cows, chickens, pigs, rabbits, guinea fowl, ducks, geese, bees...

Al in all, just a typical busy Georgian country home.