She transformed her Mid-City LA backyard into a pop-up paradise tea garden
“Persian gardens are paradise gardens,” she said, referencing an age-old nickname. “Drinking tea and having a good time is how we share paradise.
By Claire Reid
LA Times
Aug 10, 2021
Excerpt:
As a child, Sorina Vaziri spent summers at her grandparents’ home in Iran, where she and her many cousins would explore the garden’s lush, vast food forest, which overflowed with an abundance of juicy pink pomegranates, sprawling grapevines and thousands of persimmons. Beneath the cooling shade of fruit trees, the cousins would play backyard games like manhunt — an action-packed combination of hide-and-seek and tag — before retreating to the house for a refreshing glass of traditional Persian tea.
“Growing up as a kid there was really, really magical,” Vaziri recalled. “We would eat our lunch, and my grandma would make these sharbats, which are like cold iced teas. We would all go under the walnut tree and drink them.”
As it has been for hundreds of generations of Persian families, the garden served as a central meeting ground for Vaziri and her family to socialize, grow produce and enjoy traditional teas, often revitalizing blends of sweetener, herbs, floral essences and acid bursting with natural flavors like rose water, orange blossom water and basil.
“Persian gardens are the oldest type of garden in the world,” Vaziri explained. “They were the very beginning of Persian culture; they inspired the rugs; they inspired the food; they inspired the poetry. They started in Mesopotamia when kings and ancient humans created walls and enclosed space for hunting and cultivating fruit trees.”
