‘King of fruit’: Azerbaijan’s love affair with the pomegranate

(CNN) — Delicious, easy on the eye and packed with medicinal properties, the pomegranate is a true gift of nature that has been revered and mythologized by religions and cultures across the globe throughout history.

The ancient Greeks associated it with the underworld while Jewish beliefs held that it contained 613 seeds representing the number of commandments in the Torah.

Thought to originate in the region spanning Iran to northern India, pomegranate shrubs (Punica granatum) swiftly spread west to the Mediterranean and east to China. The fruit remains a much-loved staple of many Middle Eastern cuisines and is held in high esteem in countries such as Turkey, Armenia and Iran.

However, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a place that praises the pomegranate more than Azerbaijan, the South Caucasian nation where the nar (Azerbaijani for pomegranate) enjoys the almost-sacred status of national symbol.

Pomegranates in cuisine

Here, the “king of fruit,” as it’s known locally (partly due to the crown-like shape of its sepals), plays an outsize role in both cuisine and culture. Regarding the former, visitors to the “Land of Fire” will quickly be dazzled by all the boxes of ruby-red pomegranates decorating bazaars and grocers’ stores, and then intrigued to learn of their many uses, from being crushed into natural juices, jams and sauces, to adorning national dishes such as plov (pilaf) with the jewel-like arils (seeds). The uses are seemingly endless.

Feride Buyuran, author of the cookbook “Pomegranates and Saffron: A Culinary Journey to Azerbaijan,” reveals some of the more niche ones: “One way is to add the tangy arils to meat dishes to balance the richness of the meat and help with the digestion, such as in nargovurma.”

Sharbat is a refreshing drink made from the fruit and, in the Goychay region, the arils are cooked into sugary preserves called nardancha. “Curiously, these preserves are both treated as a sweet accompaniment to tea and are drizzled on top of rice pilafs,” says Buyaran. “There is also a tangy molasses-like syrup, narsharab, prepared from pomegranate seeds, an indispensable condiment with grilled or fried fish dishes.”

The peel and seeds are also put to use in medicinal and cosmetic products. Indeed, the pomegranate is the quintessential superfruit and even just nibbling on the seeds or gulping down a glass of fresh pomegranate juice has huge health benefits, according to the countless online articles waxing lyrical about all the antioxidants, polyphenols, vitamin C and folic acid provided by the pomegranate.

Mention must also be made of pomegranate wine, traditionally made in rural homes. More recently it’s been taken up by modern wineries and turned into a signature product of the country, which you can try in fashionable wine bars in the capital Baku.

Pomegranate also plays a starring role in some stunning Azerbaijani dishes.

“One example of a dish that features pomegranates in abundance is narnumru, in which eggs are fried atop a thin layer of pomegranate arils sautéed with onions,” says Buyuran.

“A feast for the eyes! The locals of Salyan region on the shores of the Kura River are quite proud of this exotic delicacy.”

Then there’s levengi, in which a poultry or game bird or fish is stuffed with a walnut and pomegranate paste then roasted.

Nargovurma is another must-try, says Buyuran: “Pieces of chicken or meat are stewed with onions and chestnuts, and a generous amount of pomegranate seeds is added towards the end of cooking. The dish is served with bread or rice pilaf.”

However, the pomegranate is much more than a mere food product in Azerbaijan where, over thousands of years of being cultivated in local orchards and traded along the Caucasian branch of the Silk Road, the regal fruit has evolved into a cultural icon that has long inspired local artists, writers and nowadays even fashionistas.

“Pomegranates hold a prominent place in Azerbaijani culture and tradition. They are the national fruit symbolizing abundance, blessing and fertility. Pomegranates appear everywhere: in folk tales and poems, in art and other designs,” says Buyuran.

“If you get to travel to the northwest and visit the 18th-century Sheki Khan’s Palace, take note of the fresco in the khan’s meeting room featuring a beautiful pomegranate tree; symbol of the garden of paradise.”

You can also find Azerbaijan’s love of the pomegranate reflected in the words of famous poets such as Fuzuli and Nizami Ganjavi, and in the vibrant paintings of celebrated local artists like Sattar Baklulzade, Tair Salakhov and Togrul Narimanbekov, according to artist Delyafruz Baghirova.

“Our legends say that the pomegranate is a symbol of love,” she says. “Expressing love with words was considered rude in the old days, so guys would confess their feelings by carrying a pomegranate to their beloved. It is also a symbol of fertility, wealth and unity.”

Pomegranate festival

While pomegranates are grown all around Azerbaijan, there’s one place whose pomegranates are deemed tastier than anywhere else – the aforementioned town of Goychay, situated in the Aran economic region beneath the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains of north-central Azerbaijan.

And it’s here that the annual Pomegranate Festival takes place, usually every year, though it was held for the first time in four years this past November due to the coronavirus crisis. The festival began in 2006 and quickly developed into the best-loved rural celebration in Azerbaijan.

During the two-day event, coinciding with the pomegranate harvest at the end of October or beginning of November, thousands of people (a mixture of locals and tourists bussed in from Baku) swarm the central streets of the normally tranquil town, which are awash with stalls selling juicy pomegranates grown across the Goychay region’s 32 villages.

The country’s climatic diversity allows it to grow over 60 different varieties, varying in shape, size and color, from white to ruby-red. You’ll find many on display at the Goychay Pomegranate Festival, in addition to all manner of pomegranate products, from juices and jams to sauces, cakes, wines, and even dried peel sold as a medicinal product.

Meanwhile, stages are set up for performances of national music and dances, smoke wafts from the many little cafes cooking up the nation’s favorite kebabs, and competitions are held to honor, for example, the largest pomegranate, the most beautiful “pomegranate girl,” and the quickest squeezer of pomegranates. The contests change each year to keep things interesting.

All in all, Nar Bayrami, as it’s called in Azerbaijan, is so unique that it was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2020.

Pomegranate industry

At Nar Bayrami one also gets an idea of the large scale of Azerbaijan’s pomegranate industry, which plays a notable role in the nation’s agricultural sector. According to the Azerbaijan Pomegranate Producers and Exporters Association, 187,000 tons of pomegranates were produced in Azerbaijan in 2022, with 15% being exported abroad.

Most of that was to Russia and Ukraine, but negotiations are underway to bring Azerbaijan’s “king of fruits” to new markets in Europe and China. Its export potential is considered to be very high thanks to the country’s favorable climate and soil conditions, which have positioned it as a key player in the global pomegranate market.

While the future looks bright, one potential challenge is climate change, with shifts in temperature, precipitation patterns and extreme weather events likely to negatively affect local pomegranate cultivation. To combat this, local farmers are being encouraged to introduce climate-resilient varieties and manage water more sustainably.

But regardless of fluctuations within the industry, Azerbaijan’s centuries-long affection for the pomegranate is sure to remain unchanged.

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