Walnuts comes from Kyrgyzstan.
Descendants of Alexander the Great.
Descendants of Alexander the Great.
1 January 2024
The world's largest relict walnut forest spreads over an area of 700 thousand hectares in the south of Kyrgyzstan in Arslanbob.
On the one hand, this place is stunningly beautiful, on the other hand, the collection and sale of walnuts all over the world from Kyrgyzstan is carried out using such an artisanal method that you feel like you have gone back 200 years.
The Arslanbob region is famous for its vast walnut lands, most of which are divided (leased) among local residents who collect walnuts. The work is hard. But in a good year, collecting nuts for a month can feed the whole family for another year.
The nuts are then sent to the exchange, sold and resold several times. As a result, they end up in sorting shops from where they are exported to other countries. The saddest thing in this story is that the business is structured in such a way that, in fact, on the territory of Kyrgyzstan it is controlled by foreign buyers who do not trust their local partners. When a nut leaves the country, it is marked not under the flag of Kyrgyzstan, but under the flag of the importing country.
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There is a legend that Alexander the Great passed through this territory. To save themselves from starvation, the army of the great commander searched the surrounding area for something nutritious. And, lo and behold! - they found the very nut that helped them survive and return home, taking the nut with them. There it was planted and called “Greek” to give even more force to the fact that Greece is his homeland.
Of course, this is just a legend, but the fact that walnuts have been growing in Central Asia for more than 50 million years and that they appeared here naturally has long been proven by scientists.
On the one hand, this place is stunningly beautiful, on the other hand, the collection and sale of walnuts all over the world from Kyrgyzstan is carried out using such an artisanal method that you feel like you have gone back 200 years.
The Arslanbob region is famous for its vast walnut lands, most of which are divided (leased) among local residents who collect walnuts. The work is hard. But in a good year, collecting nuts for a month can feed the whole family for another year.
The nuts are then sent to the exchange, sold and resold several times. As a result, they end up in sorting shops from where they are exported to other countries. The saddest thing in this story is that the business is structured in such a way that, in fact, on the territory of Kyrgyzstan it is controlled by foreign buyers who do not trust their local partners. When a nut leaves the country, it is marked not under the flag of Kyrgyzstan, but under the flag of the importing country.
⠀
There is a legend that Alexander the Great passed through this territory. To save themselves from starvation, the army of the great commander searched the surrounding area for something nutritious. And, lo and behold! - they found the very nut that helped them survive and return home, taking the nut with them. There it was planted and called “Greek” to give even more force to the fact that Greece is his homeland.
Of course, this is just a legend, but the fact that walnuts have been growing in Central Asia for more than 50 million years and that they appeared here naturally has long been proven by scientists.
You can learn even more interesting facts about Kyrgyzstan on my blog or on my YouTube channel.
author:
Larisa Bulina
Larisa Bulina
The traveler,
the founder of SARYKYZ
the founder of SARYKYZ