BİNGÖL - Women continue their winter preparations with the products they collect from their gardens. Women meet both their food and economic needs with the products they make.

 

With the approach of winter, women started to make foods such as dried eggplant, paste, canned and fruit leather, which they have made a tradition for years. The products collected from the garden are also used as a source of livelihood. Taking advantage of the hot summer sun, women start their preparations with the summer months and finish with the arrival of autumn. Elmas Turhallı, who lives in the village of Riz (Sağgöze) in the Genç district of Bingöl, is one of those who make winter preparations.

 

Paste is getting ready for winter

 

Explaining the processes applied after picking tomatoes to make tomato paste, Elmas said: ‘’We chop the tomatoes and put them in a large bowl. We wait a day for them to release their water. After releasing the water, we boil it in the pot until it turns into a color consistency. If the weather is hot, we do these operations in three days. If the weather is not hot, it turns sour in five-six days. Apart from that, we also make pepper paste and dried egg-plant.”

 

Expressing that one of the foods they prepare for the winter is dried grapes, Elmas said: ‘’After collecting the grapes from the vine trees, we lay them on a blanket and dry them in front of the sun. Then we cut off the stems. After it is completely dry, we collect it and make compote in winter. If we have too many grapes, we make molasses and fruit leather with some of them. We sell fruit leather and molasses to make a living.’’ She points out the contribution of grapes to their economy.

 

Everyone in the village cultivates their own garden

 

Elmas said that everyone in the village has a garden and that garden products are used a lot for this, and continued: ‘’Some of them prepare sauce from tomatoes. A lot of tomatoes are needed for tomato paste. Beans and grapes are too much. We dry some for this. We sell beans and peppers. We do others for ourselves. We have already started preparations to spend the winter. We also have purslane in our garden. We boil the purslane and put it in jars to eat in the winter, and we keep it that way.’’

 

‘We continue our tradition despite the difficulties’

 

Indicating that their village is very rich in vegetables and fruits, Elmas said: ‘’There are also a lot of apples here. We also chop the apples and then dry them. We make compote and eat it with tea. Preparing them is a difficult thing. We stand on it for days. After making these preparations, our back hurts. Despite all these difficulties, we continue our tradition of winter preparations.”