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Vegetables from Georgia

Jonjoli (pickled bladdernut flower buds)ჯონჯოლი

Jonjoli is the Colchis bladdernut, a Caucasian shrub whose unopened flower buds are picked in May and pickled. In the old way the buds were taken off the stems in a single day, packed tightly into a bowl under salt water and kept for winter. Today they are usually dropped into boiling salt water and jarred in salt water with vinegar, which keeps their golden colour.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Jonjoli itself.

Short entryVegetables

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHousehold recipe with no fixed amounts in the sources read.
Unopened jonjoli flower budsPicked in May as the bush begins to bloom; open flowers are not used[gt-jonjoli]
Salt water[gt-jonjoli]
VinegarModern method only, mixed with the salt water[gt-jonjoli]
Start
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What changes: Starting material: unopened bladdernut buds, taken off the stems in a single day

Step 1 of 3
Pick the unopened buds in May and take them off the stems
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

In the old method the buds were taken off the coarse stems in a single day and winnowed.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Jonjoli is the Colchis bladdernut, a Caucasian shrub whose unopened flower buds are picked in May and pickled. In the old way the buds were taken off the stems in a single day, packed tightly into a bowl under salt water and kept for winter. Today they are usually dropped into boiling salt water and jarred in salt water with vinegar, which keeps their golden colour.

What makes this one different

Jonjoli is pickled flower buds, not a vegetable, and the shrub has become endangered in the wild. The old method packs the buds under salt water, while the modern method scalds them and jars them with salt water and vinegar.

Related ferments

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

In a survey of more than 380 people across Georgia from 2013 to 2019, pickles and lacto-ferments were among the most emblematic foods, and Staphylea colchica was one of the preferred pickled species. Jonjoli has become endangered in the wild and is now mostly grown.

  1. [gt-jonjoli] georgia.travel, Jonjoli (Georgian cuisine page); read 2026-10web
  2. [bussmann2021] Bussmann R.W. et al. 2021, Unity in diversity, food plants and fungi of Sakartvelo (Republic of Georgia), Caucasus, Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 17, 72paper
  3. [s2] Wikipedia, Staphylea colchicawiki