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Kastamonu: it’s Wednesday and market day in Kastamonu. And to come from a big city, Istanbul for instance, and find yourself in a market in Kastamonu means you’re going to be asking, ‘What is this?’, at every step. Many of the things grown in this city, which exported walnuts and almonds to Rome in its day, are unfamiliar to me. ‘üryani eriği’, for example, a kind of plum grown only in Kastamonu. “You won’t find these any place except Kastamonu,†says the woman vendor. Another is ‘siyez’ bulghur, a species of wheat first grown at the dawn of agriculture. It existed in 10,000 B.C., and it still exists today. It doesn’t matter if you buy it or not, the women will still tell you the story: “After the harvest we boil it up in a big cauldron. Then we dry it and finally we husk it in a water mill.†Lined up at counters side by side, the women are selling ‘pestil’ (sheets of dried fruit pulp) made from ‘üryan’ plums. And so much more: sour apple cider, whole wheat flour ground in a water mill, Taşköprü garlic, flax seed, yoghurt strained through a gauze bag, Tosya rice…
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