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Talk Dirt To Me

Do you love to make mud pies, grow a houseplant, eat veggies, or stop to smell the bouquet on your co-workers desk? Everyone enjoys a bit of green growing around him or her and then there are those that are passionate and needy when it comes to dabbling in the dirt. With this blog, we'll try to satisfy those needs and tell you about what's going on with the Anchorage gardening scene. You know, as I finally learned, it's all about the dirt.

Photographer and gardener Fran Durner (fdurner@adn.com) writes the blog.

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Anchorage gardener hits the Silk Road

Posted by talkdirt

Posted: June 20, 2008 - 8:49 am

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Basil, such as these two varieties, is easy to grow from seed. (Florence Low/The Sacramento Bee/MCT)

Mike writes: Finally, I’ve got my basil planted — at least three starter seed trays of it. My green-thumbed friend and coworker Elizabeth was astonished that it took me so long: Her goals on her MySpace page include growing enough basil that she can consume it whenever she wants some.

After fiddling around and waiting for steadily warm weather to plant , I’m now so impatient that I probably wander by my wide window sill every 90 minutes, hoping for a green peepthrough.

That eagerness is not just The Alaska Summer Itch. This batch of pesto is two years and 5,661 thousand miles in the making.

I recently spent three weeks in Iran — my second visit to that fascinating country. After I got back from my first trip in 2006, my old friend Madalene Hill — a former president of the Herb Society of American, cookbook author and herb grower par excellence in Texas — sent me a chirpy e-mail: “You’re going to Iran? You MUST bring back some basil — Iranian basil is the best in the world!”

Didn’t know that. And I’d been back for a week when I got that message.

But I got another chance this year, when I planned another Middle East vacation and looked for ways to weave some personal garden interests into the itinerary. I saw some lovely public gardens, but I was most eager to meet new friends with dirty hands.

Pomegranates are native to the Middle East from Turkey to northern India, and a tourist from Anchorage can enjoy fresh fruit and juice from street vendors like this one in Istanbul.

POMEGRANATES: I’m fascinated by fruit trees and when I lived in Texas I grew apples, pears, persimmons and paw-paws. Now considered a “superfruit” in the West for its health qualities, the pomegranate was Persia’s gift to the world and is native from Turkey to northern India. Before I left the U.S., I arranged to meet some growers in Saveh, about an hour south of Tehran.

What a grim story that turned out to be. North and central Iran had the coldest winter and heaviest snowfall in memory. (It would have been familiar to Alaskans: Lots of minus 20-degree nights.)

Saveh province has been a legendary producer of pomegranates since the Persian Empire, but a brutal winter wiped out most local orchards. Families like the Yazdanpanahs cut trees down near ground level, and hope new suckers from the roots will become productive shrubs in three years. (ADN photo by Mike Peters)

Pomegranate trees were wiped out in at least half of the country — including every pomegranate tree in my hosts’ orchard. Ali and Isabelle Yazdanpanah will have to get by on their crops of walnuts and vegetables for three years, when the pomegranates will bear a small crop from sucker shoots. It will be 10 years before they have full production.

At the fruit stalls in cities and villages, though, fresh poms and juice are from last year’s crop. The economy there doesn’t work like ours — the price of the fruits won’t skyrocket until October, when the lost crop produces a shortage. It’s hard to predict the global impact: Despite trade sanctions against Iran, its pomegranates find their way to the West after flowing though world markets.

Shoppers find a world of spices at the Grand Bazaar of Tabriz, Iran. (ADN photo by Mike Peters)

SPICES: My route through Iran picked up parts of the old Silk Road, and I scoured the bazaars for seeds and spices. I found fresh greens and dried saffron (and ducks!) at a street vendor, and mounds of fried flowers and spices at the market stalls. I came back with rose petals and barberries to stir into cooked rice, and so many packets of spices that I’ve lost track of what they are. It will be fun to experiment, though.

And after walking what seemed like miles of market aisles, there it was! Iranian basil, in green and purple varieties. And the seeds are tiny, so I can take lots of them!

Hybrid Dutch tulips make a splashy display in Istanbul parks. The city's famous Blue Mosque is in the background. (ADN photo by Mike Peters)

TULIPS: Big showy tulips developed by the Dutch have made us forget that flower’s Middle Eastern origins. Horticulturally minded Turks are happy to remind, though, especially when I arrived in Istanbul at the start of the city’s annual tulip festival. While Turks celebrate the tiny species tulips, they cheerfully line their avenues with showy Dutch hybrids. Having just left the snows of Alaska behind on April 15, suddenly landing in springtime was just delicious — especially knowing that I’d get to do it all over again when I got home to Anchorage.

Later I’d get to experience not just spring but summer flowers in Iran. Along the southern coast, the tulips had not just bloomed but they’d faded, and roses were open and as big as my hand. In the city of Abadan, it was 85 degrees on April 15. How odd to come back to Anchorage on April 25 — and that 20-inch dump of late snow!

But I’ve planted my basil now, and I’m ready to be transported back — if not to Iran, then at least to a summer fragrant with spices and herbs!

P.S. Both U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad say that more American tourists should go to Iran. It's a hassle to get a visa, and you must travel with a guide, but the country is amazing to see and people I met were delighted to see an American. (And you'll probably be the only person at your water cooler who's been to Persia! )

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2 July 26, 2008 - 12:16am | vikash

Anchorang

The Anchorage Cooperative Weed Management Area will be welcoming Governor Sarah Palin to the Weeds Fair at Lidia Selkregg Chalet in Russian Jack Springs Park on Tuesday June 17th from 6-8 PM. This marks the start of the invasive weeds season and the Municipal Parks and Recreation Citizen Weeds Warriors program.

vibho
Addiction Recovery West Virginia

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1 June 21, 2008 - 7:04am | rosmarinus

basil seed

Isn't it illegal to bring in seeds now? If so, does that make you an international smuggler? What a cachet!

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June 21, 2008 - 11:51am | talkdirt

basil seed

Mike writes: Good question. I actually forgot about the seeds I was carrying by the time I filled out my customs form on the plane home: Somehow it didn't click that these were "agricultural products" in my tote. The customs official who screened me asked about seeds specifically, and I told him what I had and he waved me through.

Any cachet I have as an international smuggler is probably due more to honey. That was another interest I pursued, which I hope to blog about later.

The northeastern Iranian province of Azerbaijan, along the border with the country of the same name and ethnicity, is famous for its honey -- especially a wild honey so dark it's known as "black honey." I brought several containers of honey back, in a case that was also packed with Turkish delight and Iranian cookies and confections. In my mind and on the form, I thought of the whole pack as "sweets," but in hindsight I'm sure I should have declared the honey as a separate agricultural product.

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Anchorage gardener hits the Silk Road