Kohneh-Deh Village in Karaj: Where Bread and Cheese Halva Tell the Story of Daily Life

Karaj — A trip to Kohneh-Deh is about more than mountain scenery. Local food, traditional bread, orchard products and skills passed down through generations are another part of the village's appeal.

Arjan Ambassador of the Provinces Group - Hamidreza Abdul Manafi: A dish of cheese on low heat, and the hours that pass one by one. In Kohnedeh, one of the mountainous villages of Karaj, they do not cook halva in a hurry. You have to sit, keep the fire and wait until the curd goes down and the fat rises and this halwa is ready.

Rahman Nadizadeh, one of the residents of this village, learned this work in the same way that many other residents learned their daily things: from seeing and repeating. He says that sometimes it takes up to 6 or 7 hours to cook this halwa. In this narration, there is no written and complicated order; What drives the work is knowing the material and recognizing the right moment.

But kohi halwa (cheese halwa) is only one of the clues. From this container of cheese, you can skip to homemade dairy products, to oven bread, to the table that is filled from the garden and the farm, and to woolen socks and gloves that the women of the village still knit, although less than in the past. It's these small everyday details that make it old.

Nadizadeh's words are neither a list of souvenirs nor a project to introduce a product. It is a story of a life that was formed with the facilities of the same environment; A life that is now facing the cold of winter, the reduction of animal husbandry and the change of the way of living. It should be seen which parts of it are still running in homes.

Kohnehdeh is one of the settlements of Asara district in Karaj city and is located in Alborz mountain range. The village is located on the Karaj-Chalos axis and on the side road leading to Azadbar. This situation makes travelers and tourists pass by it every day, but most of them only see the view of the mountain from a distance and don't know anything about people's lives.

Nadizadeh gives a picture of this life, where dairy, garden, seasonal foods and tandoori bread have a place.

According to him, the residence of some of the families is a summer house and traditional animal husbandry has faded in recent years. These changes are not ineffective. When people stay less in the village and there are fewer livestock, it becomes more difficult to transfer skills from one generation to the next.

mountain halva; Wait for six to seven hours on low heat

Cheese halwa, which the villagers call "mountain halwa", is different from the familiar flour and oil halwa. Its main ingredient is fresh cheese without salt.

Nadizadeh says that they chop the cheese, put it in a dish on the heat and it should be cooked slowly until the water evaporates little by little and the fat comes out.

This step is not short. According to him, cooking sometimes takes 6 to 7 hours. At the end, they add a little flour to give it texture and make the ingredients stick together. Everything depends on knowing the cheese, adjusting the temperature and knowing the right moment to finish cooking.

Mountain halva is mostly consumed in cold seasons.

Nadizadeh says that he also has a place at the iftar table during Ramadan. This connection with the cold and family gatherings makes it more than a simple recipe. Maintaining this knowledge also depends on the accurate recording of ingredients, sequence of steps, cooking time and the difference in method in different families; Especially now that today's lifestyle has left less time to learn time-consuming tasks.

Nadizadeh mentions "lor" as one of the local products. Laurel is prepared from milk and its products, and in his narration, it is different from cheese and other dairy products. Milk, cheese, butter, yogurt and buttermilk are among the things that the people prepare and consume by themselves.

In this village, milk is not just a food; It is the basis of several products that come to the table every day.

According to him, laurel can be eaten with honey or jam. But its nutritional value, i.e. the amount of salt, fat, protein or calcium, cannot be judged only by local narrative. The composition of this product depends on the method of preparation, and to announce the exact figures, you should go to a reliable source or a specialized test.

The method of preparing laurel in the village of Kohnedeh and its difference with similar products should be recorded with its local name, because local names in different villages may be used for different products.

Dairy production is dependent on the knowledge of milk, the method of keeping and the relationship of the household with livestock. The more livestock farming becomes more limited, the more important it is to preserve the knowledge related to these products.

A villager's table that comes from the garden and farm

Old fashioned daily foods are also tied to the products at hand. Nadizadeh says about lentils with walnuts and onions that it is sometimes accompanied by "qorme", which means cooked and preserved local meat. Valkpelo and albalupelo are also in his list. Qormah is an example of traditional ways of preserving food; Families would build a reserve to get them going in the cold months.

Potatoes, beans, lentils, garlic and garden vegetables are other widely used ingredients in the region. The gardens of the village have cherries and apricots and some of the fruits are dried or made into jam for other days of the year. This will diversify the table and is a way to use the produce of the garden outside the harvest season.

Sweets are also baked on special occasions and days. Nadizadeh mentions a doughy sweet that is served with milk and butter and sprinkled with cinnamon after being prepared and fried. Its exact name and complete order still need to be checked and registered with the residents. Of course, about each food, one should differentiate between the common foods of Asara region and what is prepared in Kohnehdeh and not introduce it as exclusive to this village.

Totek bread; A skill that still has customers

Baking bread in a home oven is another part of local life. According to Nadizadeh's narrations, fresh bread is sometimes prepared for Thursday and Friday, and in addition to family consumption, travelers and customers also come to it.

In this village, bread is not just an item on the table. Preparing the dough, knowing the right cooking time and working with the oven is a set of skills. If this work continues on a limited scale, it can be a way to transfer experience and introduce village food culture; Provided that the original method of preparation and the role of the people themselves are preserved. If not, the local tradition becomes a commodity for sale and its cultural context is forgotten.

wool spinning; A faded but alive skill

Nadizadeh says that in the past sheep's wool was used to make socks, gloves and shawls.

Before weaving, the wool had to be prepared, and this required both skill and tools. He mentions a device called "shonesar" to sort the fibers; The exact name and shape of this instrument still needs to be clarified in the field investigation.

According to him, the weaving of some of these products is still done to a limited extent by village women, although it is not as popular as it used to be.

Woolen socks and gloves are not only handmade goods in this narrative; They are signs of skills that start from knowing the raw material and continue to texture. The reduction of animal husbandry can also limit the availability of wool. For this reason, it is important to record the narratives of women and men who still know these practices, before local details and terms are forgotten.

Tourism and harsh mountain winter

The nature of Asara and the Karaj-Chalos route has built the tourism capacity of this region.

Yach Morad Cave is one of the well-known attractions around Kohnehdeh and Azadbar, although visiting the cave and the mountainous environment requires proper equipment and safety precautions. But rural tourism leads to a deeper understanding of a destination when it is seen alongside the nature, life and culture of the people.

For Kohnehdeh, local food, Tanuri Totek bread, dairy products, garden products and skills related to wool can be part of the cultural tourism narrative. This capacity is realized when the assets of the village are accurately identified and the residents participate in it.

In addition to these capacities, winter must also be seen. Severe cold, snow, and the risk of avalanches in mountainous areas can affect the presence of residents and commuting. The introduction of Kohnehdeh tourism does not give a complete picture of the village regardless of the season and the condition of the road.

Kohnehdeh cannot be known by a local food or a mountain landscape. The identity of this village is formed in a series of experiences; From cheese and milk and bread to orchards, home cooking and handicrafts. The knowledge of all these is built in the course of everyday life.

Whether these experiences are subject to oblivion or how common they still are cannot be judged without investigation and documentation. But recording the narratives of the residents, measuring the amount of use today and talking to different generations can show which methods are still used in homes and which are used less.

Nadizadeh's story starts from a pan of cheese on the heat and reaches the table, garden, livestock and handwoven woolen clothes. Preserving such narratives first of all depends on listening to the voices of the people and accurately recording what they know; Because the value of this knowledge is in the way it is formed and transmitted from one generation to the next.