I stayed in a very nice hotel in downtown Tbilisi, a Courtyard Mariott, believe it or not. It's in an 18th or 19th century neoclassical building in one of the main squares…beautifully redone. The CNFA office is in beautifully restored quarter of Tbilisi with very traditional Georgian architecture. It's a nice walk through a very traditional quartier on a cobblestone street from the hotel to the office.
The Georgians are very nice and VERY hospitable...they have not allowed me to pay for a meal yet...even though I'm receiving perdiem! I'll have to figure out a way to invite them all out at the end of the trip. I keep asking, but they give me a big song and dance and just refuse in the end! Very nice people.
On Tuesday, we headed out to Batumi, on the Black Sea Coast, which is in the area where mandarins are grown. It was about a 7 hour trip up and over the pass, through several tunnels – one 2.5 km long and down to the coast at Batumi. It was a very interesting trip, with the high plateau looking like the Anatolian plateau with winter wheat and barley growing. There were some herds of sheep, but mostly cattle...small and rather shaggy, but not as shaggy as highland cattle. There was snow up high, but a lot of greenery along the road.
I love the pointed round towers of the Georgian churches...and they come in a number of styles and colors. I really like the red brick ones, and there are a number with gilded roofs in Tbilisi. This one resembles really fat Turkish mosque minarets. Turkey is not far away.
On Tuesday night, the rain turned to snow and we woke up on Wednesday to a dusting of snow in Batumi. When we went out to visit farmers, there was 6-8" up a little higher where many of the orchards are. I'm told this is about a once in a decade occurrence...and I thought it was going to be warmer here! Glad I brought my Muck boots...my feet have stayed warm and dry. :)
On Wednesday, we, that is,
- Mamuka, my colleague/supervisor
- Levan, another colleague and agronomist
- Vince, the boss of the program, originally from Moldova
- Isolde, my translator
- David, our driver, ho insisted his name was David, although the Georgians call him Datoona
- and two guys from the agricultural university, whose names are too long for me to remember, much less pronounce...I should have written them down...but haven't a clue where to start.
We went out to visit farmers and orchards so I could understand what the issues are - before I start telling them what to do! Novel concept, but it took some convincing. And boy, am I glad I insisted...I had no idea that mandarin trees could look like so many of these do. (Once again I am very grateful for my Placer Co mandarin growers!) So we visited one orchard with scrawny, yellow, 30+ year old trees with no leaves until 4 or 5 feet up the trunk and canopies you can see the sky through. And he seemed to be happy with his yields.
Very nice man, Amiran, the farmer...but really sad trees. He gave me about 20 navel oranges...proudly telling me they were Washington navels (the American standard)...but picked way too early, so quite sour. They tend to do that with citrus here, apparently. He, apparently like most people here, cultivates the soil all around and under the trees down to about a foot, which takes out all the absorbing roots, so it's no wonder they are so sad. The reason was that there would be roots on the soil if they didn't?? So the tree had next to nothing to draw from. No wonder 35 year old trees are the size of 12-year old trees!
Then we went to another grower, Imzar, and his trees were about the same age, but much bigger trunks, and extremely dense canopy...reminds me of Steve Pilz' canopy. They were healthy with beautiful dark green color, but horrendous pruning! He at least knew that he needed to prune. (that's my first topic for the trainings).
Imzar was a lovely man, and had a good understanding of growing practices. He even tried to speak some English...apparently his kids speak English, according to his wife, Ticha (or something like that).
Anyway, he invited us into his house for coffee...only it turned out to be one cup of coffee and many, many Georgian toasts with numerous glasses of chahcha - their vodka, which is more like grappa, and a sour cherry liqueur. They had fresh hazelnuts, which also grow in this area, as well as juice made from boiled pineapple guava - Feijoa. That at least was non- alcoholic and his wife got the idea I was not keen on drinking all the alcohol. Most of the guys did, though, and there were numerous toasts to friendship, cooperation, growing mandarins, the new year, etc. etc. I was two sheets to the wind on one tiny glass of chahcha and an even tinier glass of the cherry liqueur, I have no idea how the rest of them drank it all. Here's a picture of the bleary-eyed bunch. The house was all wood inside, and like stucco outside. Very beautiful.
Then we went to the Agricultural University and met the Dean. He was very nice, and willing to listen at least to the reasons why I suggested they do things differently. The other two guys who traveled with us all day seemed to think everythig is fine with their mandarin production. I knew it might be hard to convince them. The Georgian guys on the team, and Vince, the boss really get it, though, and are fully behind what I want to suggest, so that's good. The Ag University is up in the hills above Batumi, and they had the best looking mandarin tree I have seen so far...even surrounded by snow!
So today, it is snowing like mad in Batumi,there's a total white out between here and the sea..maybe 100 yards away! I did take a little walk to a nearby grocery store when it stopped for a while...again thankful for my Muck boots in 4" of snow, slush, and water on the roads and sidewalks.
The grocery store is an adventure...I had some nasty food poisoning last night, so I wanted some applesauce, dry crackers, and yoghurt. Well, they had apple juice - yabloki in Russian, and some tea biscuits...Petit beurre. I figured that and the apple juice out okay, and the yoghurt by the shape of the container. When I asked about the yoghurt, she pronounced it like yoghourt with a Georgian twist and a roll of the R. I think it's peach, but not really sure because all the Georgian covers the picture.
The store clerks like to follow me around in the store...probably because they don't think I can figure out what stuff is! I was trying for applesauce so showed her the apple juice container and pointed to a jar of tomatoes and she thought it was quite funny that I wanted apples in a jar. I did find fresh (in a manner of speaking) apples down the street at a little shop where two girls were huddled over a heater minding the store. It's really cold for Georgians, I guess.
So we are preparing for our first training of trainers tomorrow. - mostly University people and some government ag, I think. Mamuka & Levan are busy translating my powerpoint on pruning into Georgian...otherwise known as squiggle language. It is totally different than anything else, although it looks a little like Thai! I have learned to recognize about 4 letters from reading road signs on the road, but I have no idea what things mean. I know about two words...thank you is Didimadloba and hello is gamarjuba or something like that. I keep forgetting hello. My translator drilled me on the didimadloba enough that I have that down. My one word a day isn't working out so well. I think this is Google in Georgian: საქართველო or maybe its Georgian. See what I mean about squiggle? I know that the first letter is an S and the second to the last is an L beyond that, I am clueless. But it is interesting. Levan has a store of Georgian cultural knowledge and he's always explaining things.
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