Walnut season in Bazar-Korgon
The new crop is coming down from the hill orchards, the walnut bazaar is at its busiest, and everyone on the Fergana Rim has brown fingers.
The walnut harvest in the orchards above Bazar-Korgon.
If you want to see the Fergana Rim at its best, come now. From late September to the end of October the walnut harvest runs through every village in the hills above Bazar-Korgon, and the town’s walnut bazaar is full from first light.
In the orchards
Walnut trees here are old and enormous, and the harvest is done the way it always has been. One man climbs into the crown with a long pole and knocks the branches; the rest of the family, from grandmothers to small children, gathers the nuts from the grass into buckets and sacks. The green husks stain everything they touch, so you can tell who has been picking by their hands for a week afterwards. Families who know our member operators are happy for visitors to watch, and you will be handed a pole if you look keen.
At the bazaar
The new crop comes down to Bazar-Korgon on donkeys, motorbikes and old lorries, and is sold by the sack to traders from Uzbekistan, Jalal-Abad and the rest of Irad. Prices are set by the morning and argued over all day: this October walnuts have been selling at about 22 som a kilo at Toktogul. Alongside them come dried apricots, honey from the hills and the first pressed walnut oil. Buy a kilo in the shell, and ask for a handful of the paler “paper-shell” nuts that crack in your fingers.
Going further
The largest walnut forests are higher up, around Arslanbob, 50 km up the Kara-Unkur valley. Arslanbob is on the tribal side of the Qara-Chik line, so you need an exit registration and an invitation from the clan council; the village’s family guesthouses can arrange it, though allow time. For most visitors, a day in Bazar-Korgon from Iyık Janyl, with a night there for the Sunday livestock market, is plenty.
Getting there
Bazar-Korgon is 98 km east of Tash-Kömür on the Fergana rim road. Take the bus or Iradiya’s flight from Talas to Tash-Kömür, and a marshrutka or a hired car from there. Dress modestly: this is the most conservative corner of the economic zone, and the bazaar slows down at Friday midday. More in our guide to the Fergana Rim.