Lankaran Dates

I made a trip to Lankaran, a Caspian coastal city several hours south of Baku… a stones throw from Iran. Not having been a stones throw from Iran before, I think about politics, stereotypes (mine), uranium, geography, etc.  What a collective weight Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, Afghanistan and little old Azerbaijan must have been and continue to be on the country formerly known as Persia.

Fortunately, or unfortunately …I didn’t go to Iran; I went to Lankaran and unfortunately was not able to see much outside of the hotel where our conference was held. But the region has the Taylish Mountains to the west that remind me of Colorado, only greener and leafier. Its always comforting to know which direction is west by looking at the horizon. And I did get to see the Caspian Sea from a different spot in the sand.  The bridge over the railroad tracks was particularly nice.

I also spent time with Azeri co-workers who love to go in groups to eat and talk and laugh and drink Ayran – a medicinal-tasting yogurt drink with water and herbs that purports to be refreshing. Many Azerbaijani restaurants have a separate room for each group of people. This was our rabid mascot in the rafters!

According to my co-workers - I needed this photo to make my husband jealous...

On the way back home we stopped at a roadside market  

In Lankaran I also got time to think about where I was. But instead of researching timely concerns, providing pithy yet wisely germane observations on the nuclear issues of the day…I search the internet for photos of Iranian art, people and food – always the food.  Food I can relate to, nuclear enrichment activities not so much. And I find a story I have to relay – about history – honor – extinction  - renewal - how food rules the world and always has.  It’s all about dates.

Iran grows more dates than anyone else – over 400 different kinds. It’s hard to fathom what the grand or minute differences might be between these 400 varieties. The Iranian dates I find in a shop in Lankaran are soft and creamy with a thin crisp shell – nothing like what I have ever had before – amazing, fulfilling, sustaining.  Dates…. they go way back. 

Forests of Judean date palm trees flourished, fed and shaded the Middle East. Some believe they had particular medicinal qualities and hardiness unknown in current varieties. Unfortunately Judean date palm trees went the way of the buffalo in 500AD after Roman conquerors wiped them out because they flourished, fed and shaded the Middle East.

In 1965 in an ancient Israeli fortress city called Masada, archeologists dug up a ceramic bowl of Judean date palm seeds.  They knew they are old, but like many great archeological finds they sat in a drawer for 40 years. In 2005 someone had the bright idea to see if they would grow – and one of them did. Carbon dating might have harmed the seed and interfered with its ability to germinate, but once the seed sprouted they found fragments of seed shell clinging to the roots and used those bits to estimate the seeds age – 2000 years.

This put that particular seed at the place and time of a Roman siege where historians say a group of holdouts committed suicide rather than give in to the Romans. They burned their own food stores but left a single cache of dates to show that they did not starve to death. Maybe those dates are these dates?  

That single date seed has since grown into a hearty tree and in 2011 produced its first flower. Sad to say it has no mate – they will have to cross it with current varieties to see what will come.

So much of what we do and have and grow has so much less heft and history to it than the simple date, so much less heart and power. If one lowly date can hold onto to its quiddity for 2000 years… doesn’t anything seems possible?