Mountain village high on magic morel festival
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Hürriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Nisan 20, 2009 00:00
FETHİYE - Not everyday you come by a festival celebrating morel mushrooms, but last weekend's 'kuzu göbeği festival' managed to live up to its importance of being a first. Held in Muğla province’s Yeşilüzümlü Village, the festival ’makes a great beginning’ as organizers call it, and takes an important step on its way to becoming a tradition
Last weekend’s kuzu göbegi (morel mushroom) festival in Yeşilüzümlü, a small mountain village just outside Fethiye, was a success from beginning to end.
Frank Marciano, a long-term resident of the Aegean town of Bodrum thought it was a great opportunity to indulge his passion for the tasty little mushroom, saying, "I thought it was a great beginning to what I hope will become an annual morel festival; maybe another festival for chanterelles [mushrooms] is now on the cards!"
For the first festival of its kind, it was well attended. Local residents, environmentalists and visitors all mingled in the village square, curious to buy from and talk to the stallholders who had set up their varied and imaginative stalls and interactive activities. FIG, a Fethiye charity, was raising money for needy children, and the village women had colorful stalls selling their hand-woven cotton goods.
The brain behind the festival was Gülbahar Edik, who had a strong belief in her and the committee’s abilities to transform their ideas into reality. "The whole plan was hatched during the last few months, but the last three days have been worth all the sleepless nights. And thankfully the weather was just right so there were masses of morels to be found. Now I’m sure I will be dreaming about them. I am very grateful for all the support we have had from both the village and Fethiye. People came from all over Turkey to celebrate morels with us," she said.
The whole area basked in spring sunshine Ğ the best weather the area had seen this year. The morel mushrooms poked their heads up through the loamy soil of the forest, and eager foragers found them in copious amounts.
The experts, Jilber Barutçiyan of VAPKO-CH from Istanbul and Professor Mustafa Işılolğu and Assistant Professor Hakan Allı from the biology faculty at Muğla University, were the keynote speakers. All those present were enthusiastic about their knowledge of the scrumptious and sought-after morel, their economic importance in the area and the dangers of eating the wrong ones.
Tijen Inaltong, an Antalya-based food writer, is looking forward to next year. "Maybe we will be able to have more food stalls and find some new ways to cook these wonderful mushrooms. We got the local pide shop to cook some pide with our own morels. They were very delicious. For a first attempt, it wasn’t bad," said Inaltong. "Next year it can be more professional."
Lectures given
But it was not all about mushrooms. Faruk Akbaş, a well-known photographer, displayed his photography, and Orhan Çelin, described in the brochure as the "man who knows everything about everything," gave a lecture about Lycia Ğ from the past to the present. Sunday saw a very popular talk given by Dr. Mustafa Temimhan, head of the Antalya Wine Club, on village and home wine making. What effects this will have on the quality of local wine production will have to be seen, but it was enthusiastically received.
When the many visitors felt they had learned enough, they were able to relax, drink the local wine or soup (morel Ğ what else?), wander around the many stores selling local produce and listen to Turkish folk music and rock music, played by local musicians, which filled the air with sound late into the night.
Frank Marciano, a long-term resident of the Aegean town of Bodrum thought it was a great opportunity to indulge his passion for the tasty little mushroom, saying, "I thought it was a great beginning to what I hope will become an annual morel festival; maybe another festival for chanterelles [mushrooms] is now on the cards!"
For the first festival of its kind, it was well attended. Local residents, environmentalists and visitors all mingled in the village square, curious to buy from and talk to the stallholders who had set up their varied and imaginative stalls and interactive activities. FIG, a Fethiye charity, was raising money for needy children, and the village women had colorful stalls selling their hand-woven cotton goods.
The brain behind the festival was Gülbahar Edik, who had a strong belief in her and the committee’s abilities to transform their ideas into reality. "The whole plan was hatched during the last few months, but the last three days have been worth all the sleepless nights. And thankfully the weather was just right so there were masses of morels to be found. Now I’m sure I will be dreaming about them. I am very grateful for all the support we have had from both the village and Fethiye. People came from all over Turkey to celebrate morels with us," she said.
The whole area basked in spring sunshine Ğ the best weather the area had seen this year. The morel mushrooms poked their heads up through the loamy soil of the forest, and eager foragers found them in copious amounts.
The experts, Jilber Barutçiyan of VAPKO-CH from Istanbul and Professor Mustafa Işılolğu and Assistant Professor Hakan Allı from the biology faculty at Muğla University, were the keynote speakers. All those present were enthusiastic about their knowledge of the scrumptious and sought-after morel, their economic importance in the area and the dangers of eating the wrong ones.
Tijen Inaltong, an Antalya-based food writer, is looking forward to next year. "Maybe we will be able to have more food stalls and find some new ways to cook these wonderful mushrooms. We got the local pide shop to cook some pide with our own morels. They were very delicious. For a first attempt, it wasn’t bad," said Inaltong. "Next year it can be more professional."
Lectures given
But it was not all about mushrooms. Faruk Akbaş, a well-known photographer, displayed his photography, and Orhan Çelin, described in the brochure as the "man who knows everything about everything," gave a lecture about Lycia Ğ from the past to the present. Sunday saw a very popular talk given by Dr. Mustafa Temimhan, head of the Antalya Wine Club, on village and home wine making. What effects this will have on the quality of local wine production will have to be seen, but it was enthusiastically received.
When the many visitors felt they had learned enough, they were able to relax, drink the local wine or soup (morel Ğ what else?), wander around the many stores selling local produce and listen to Turkish folk music and rock music, played by local musicians, which filled the air with sound late into the night.