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TURKEY STREET MARKETS FULL OF SOUNDS, SMELLS AND COLOR
I really enjoy Turkey. No, not the Thanksgiving bird...the country that straddles Europe and Asia. I just returned from five days there visiting my daughter, an English teacher in a private Turkish school. (My wife and I also visited London on this trip but that's a subject for a future column.)
This wasn't a fact-finding trip on Turkey's horticulture and gardening practices so all I can offer here are general thoughts about what I observed as we toured the country by car and on foot.
We drove twisty blacktop highways through wooded hills that rise higher than southeastern Minnesota's but not as high as the Rockies. Fall colors included yellows and rusts but few reds and oranges. I didn't see many maples and suspect their tree species are not as colorful as ours. Also, our October nights are colder, which contributes to more vibrant leaf colors.
Like Minnesota, it was harvest time in Turkey. Many fields held shocks of cornstalks waiting to be hauled to the farmsteads. I haven't seen a corn shock in Minnesota since my youth. It appeared as much of the corn is shelled manually. I saw several instances of shelled and cob corn spread out on the ground to dry in the sun. One woman was even sitting on a canvas covered with corn, tossing handfuls in the air to dry. I'm sure Turkey has mechanized corn-harvesting equipment but I didn't see any on this trip.
Most people in Turkey rely on wood stoves for cooking. As a result, wood harvest is an important autumn chore. We saw dried wood being hauled on wagons, wheelbarrows and donkeys. One woman crossed our path carrying a backpack full of sticks that she had gathered on a nearby hillside. It looked heavy.
Roadsides have been heavily planted to poplar trees. I suspect these fast-growing trees are part of the future fuel supply for cooking. Wood yards with wood for sale were evident in many small towns.
Heavy reliance on wood and coal for cooking and heating are contributing to severe pollution, especially near Istanbul, population 12 million. The air is so full of pollutants that our throats became sore. I'm thankful I don't have to breath this air on a regular basis. My daughter says she's gotten used to it but I feel sorry for her having to breath this air, especially on her daily 3-mile runs.
We walked through the open markets in several city squares. In the town of Safranbolu, north of Ankara, the Saturday market was full of vendors selling melons, onions, pears, peppers, potatoes and many other fruits and vegetables. The colors and quality of the produce were spectacular.
I never tire of strolling through street markets. They're always so full of sounds, smells, color and life. Regardless of the country or the market, food presentation is important. Neat pyramids of plump, spotless fruit attract more shoppers and result in more sales than messy displays of unsightly fruit. Vendors who invite you in with a smile and kind word sell more produce than vendors who fail to make eye contact and who appear unfriendly. It's simple salesmanship at it most basic form.
As we walked the streets of this Saturday market, the sound of pounding steel drew our attention to a blacksmith shop. Two men took turns swinging heavy hammers on a flat piece of red-hot steel, forming it into a hoe blade. Finished hoe blades were hung for sale near the door. I thought of buying one for my rural Chaska garden but decided airline security just wouldn't understand.
One of my hobbies is collecting canes and walking sticks. I have sticks from Egypt, China, the Czech Republic, and from various places in the U.S. On this trip, I purchased two hand-made canes; one from the town of Devrek and another from a village in southeast Turkey, near Iraq.
On previous foreign trips, I have been very cautious about only eating foods that I trusted were safe for my sanitized American stomach. I've shunned salads, for example, since the theory was that even if the vegetables have been rinsed, the water used for rinsing can contain bacteria that could make me sick.
With my daughter as Turkish guide, we ate most everything placed in front of us and suffered no ill consequences. It was a good choice since the popular Turkish salad of cucumbers, onions, parsley, tomatoes, black olives and feta cheese is delicious.
A popular "fast food" in Turkey is named Gozleme, a delicious flat bread rolled with feta cheese, parsley and spices and grilled on a large heated stone. Amber ordered three cheese Gozleme sandwiches for us at a roadside stand and we agreed they made for a tasty and filling lunch.
While October isn't the best time to view gardens and plant life, I enjoy learning about other cultures, regardless of season.
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PUTTING DOWN ROOTS:
A Delightful Blend of
Gardening Wisdom, Wit
and Whimsy
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by Cliff Johnson |
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