In Trabzon, in addition to cultivating copious amounts of wheat, barley, and other staples, farmers grew specialized delicacies in mass quantities for trade, the most important being cherries and hazelnuts. The region around Trabzon was then, and remains today, the world’s most prolific producer of these crops. Forming a checkerboard pattern, the farms of red cherries and brown hazelnuts dominated the landscape around Trabzon, much as they do even now.
