"There’s nothing like my plot of land”: Susan’s lost and regained farm

Let me put on my best clothes, and we ll go, Susan said, putting on her blue medical coat and leading us to her bountiful orchard. My husband s relatives brought it from a hospital in Moscow, she said, laughing as she explained the story behind the smock. It s great the leaves don t stick to it when I m picking beans. Susan Arakelyan lives in the village of Svarants in Syunik Province. She grows and sells more than five varieties of vegetables in the garden next to her home. Despite the obvious challenges of tending the orchard on her own, Susan noted: There is no other plot like mine in the village. Both its location it is sheltered and the soil are excellent. Susan has three children and ten grandchildren. Her husband passed away two years ago. During the winter months, she stays with her children in Kapan and Goris, but as soon as winter recedes, she rushes back home to her house and, most of all, to her garden. There s no end to the work in the vegetable garden. From the time you sow the seeds until the snow falls, there is always something to do. Spring arrives, and you start plowing, sowing, and watering; then comes the weeding, and after that the harvest, she said. Until 2009, Susan lived with her family in Svarants. That year, they moved to the Yeritsvank community in the Kashatagh region of Nagorno-Karabakh. It was wonderful there; we lived very well. We had 70 cows and 150 sheep. I used to grow vegetables on four hectares of land. From 2012 onwards, we had a tonir built and began baking lavash, which we supplied to shops. Our lavash even reached Stepanakert. My husband was a military studies teacher; he worked in both Kashatagh and Svarants. He had 40 years of teaching experience, she recalled. People came from Kapan, Hadrut, and Stepanakert to buy the vegetables grown in Yeritsvank. During the war (2020 auth.), I had planted one and a half hectares of autumn cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers. On September 26, a young man from Stepanakert came, loaded 500 k