COTTAGE CORE: AZERBAIJAN

I stumbled on this series a few weeks back and freely admit to being addicted. Located in a fertile valley in Azerbaijan,

the series depicts life on a working farm with Ma and Pa, cats, dogs, chickens, cows, goats, donkeys, orchards, fields. Beautifully shot, with richly hued kodachrome colors with no background music and generally silent people going about their work. This ASMResque environment is quite reminiscent of an earlier series that I watched- "Almazan Kitchen" featuring bush cooking in the wilds of Serbia. The only sounds are that of nature-bird calls, wind in the trees, water rushing by from a nearby stream and the sound of a crackling fire and food sizzling in a pan. In both cases, you can easily transport your imagination 150 years back in time to our ancestors in this country.   

One thing that struck me is just how much work there is to do especially for the wife. Everything made is usually in bulk and the work is all by hand and mind-numbingly tedious. Like scoring hundreds of tomatoes to parboil before canning. Much of the work is geared towards survival food for the Winter and side hustles to make money at the market like the lilac syrup featured in the video above. 

 

Something else noticeable is how new everything looks-the home, equipment even their cloths. I researched their origin story-thinking this came about as a tourist/cultural promo by the government or a billionaire (the country has a lot of petro wealth). Instead, it is the couple's son, a professional chef, who wanted to showcase the food and culture of his beloved country and came up with the idea for the series. He does the photography. I would think this project must have required some major cash, but don't know if he did some crowdfunding or if the Ministry of Tourism helped out. 

I highly recommend dipping into this series especially when some temporary relief is needed from the craziness in our country. Escape to Azerbaijan. See what it's like to boil down 30 pounds of rose petals to make rose water. The peace and quiet in a bucolic country setting full of flowers and critters and hard working folk is to me, a soothing balm.