Take a moment to look at my most favorite fruit in the world! These are white berries (toot sefid), grown on multi-branched leafy trees in Tehran, most notably in the suburb of Kan. They are quite possibly the sweetest fruits on earth, incomparable to anything else. Once a year in late spring and early summer, they are presented all over Tehran, heaped on huge round platters. Since I was a child, I never knew when to stop once I got started eating them one by one at an unbelievable pace and speed! Though it’s more practical to buy them in a shop, the best way to eat them is picking them fresh off the tree. I remember the ceremony of picking berries in Tehran. A big cloth was spread around the tree trunk, and someone would beat the tree with a large stick, helping the ripe berries fall onto the cloth, where waiting children would rush to have their pick! I miss the fruit, and I miss seeing them in shops, where bees would fly all over them, finding it hard to part with this, the sweetest fruit in the world.
Photo by Parviz Forghani, Iranian.com
11 comments:
دلت برای توت سفید تنگ شده، شاید هم برای صدای آب رودخانه ی کن، شاید هم برای باغ های توت طرشت که بهترین هایش را دارد .....
من حس مهاجرت را ندارم، اما این نگاه را می شناسم.
توت ها هم دلشان برای شما تنگ شده، شما متعلق به همه ی این فضا هستی و این فضا متعلق به همه ی شما ....ا
I love them too. I have seen them in Virginia in the streets. I think they call them mullberries.
Dear Alef Shin: You are right. I miss it all. I remember the silkworms on the trees when I was a child, and I remember the smell, and I remember the river running by it. I also remember the tree outside our house, which was used by young men to not only get to the berries, but also to use the tree to peak inside our house, where an assortment of young girls were lounging around in that big garden all summer afternoons! Lots of Memories having to do with this fruit... Be good.
Yes, Serendip. It appears that they are called mulberries, and the variety in question is called white mulberries (duh!). I have never seen them in the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Mulberry
Alef Shin is right. It is more than just the fruit we miss, isn't it? Take care Serendip.
I also miss the baagh parties all for picking toots. Especially in Khordad when we had to review our books for final exams. That was a burden back then, and now that I have no exam in Khordad I don't have toot party. The irony of life :)
Yes, Nimeh Shab! When we have youth, we have no time for leisure, and when we have leisure, the opportunities and excitements of our childhood are gone! Like you, I remember toot simultaneous with exams!
it's mulberry not white berries
Dear Anonymous:
I had left a message for you, but I don't know what happened to it! Thanks for coming and thank you for your correction. I stand corrected as you can see! Come again.
i was born in shahreh ziba, there were lots of toot trees around our house being farmed every summer and we also had one in our house.
baghhayeh kan va soolooghoon va ghaterhayeh emam zadeh davood hich vaght yadam nemireh lol, roozhayeh ghashangy boodan, omidvaram ke vaghty man be iran bar ghardam ghoosheie azash baghy mondeh basheh.
by the way that area should be considerd a national park,i remember lots of people coming around that area for 13 be dar every year, but unfortunatly there are building all over the lands that these trees were farmed.
i was born in shahreh ziba, there were lots of toot trees around our house being farmed every summer and we also had one in our house.
baghhayeh kan va soolooghoon va ghaterhayeh emam zadeh davood hich vaght yadam nemireh lol, roozhayeh ghashangy boodan, omidvaram ke vaghty man be iran bar ghardam ghoosheie azash baghy mondeh basheh.
by the way that area should be considerd a national park,i remember lots of people coming around that area for 13 be dar every year, but unfortunatly there are building all over the lands that these trees were farmed.
Yes, I love Mulberries AKA Toot. We have the white mulberry trees from Iran, the Persian Fruiting Shah toot trees, and Afghanistan/Pakistan Mulberry trees at Paradise Nursery in Southern California.
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