Turkey has been at the top of our places-to-visit list for a long time. For Europeans, this country has always been regarded as the "Gateway to the East". Upon opening this gate, you leave behind the world as you know it and enter into a different reality. Turkey is probably the Eastern country closest to Europe not only for geographical reasons but ideological ones as well. I gave in to my temptations, and arranged a visit with Metin, a dear Turkish friend of mine. Metin has lived in Italy for many years and is fluent in Italian, Turkish (his native language) and also English. His assistance was essential in communicating with the people and for a deeper understanding of the culture and traditions of this fascinating and complex country.The Bosphorus, also known as the "Strait of Istanbul", separates two different worlds: on one side is the European Turkey and on the other is the Asian one.Above is a picture of the Galata Bridge that links the old part of Istanbul to the modern through the "Golden Horn"1.A picture of the famous Galata Tower on the European side of Istanbul. This landmark tower was built by the Genoese people in the fourteenth century. Today it is one of the main tourist attractions amid the busy roadways of of Karaköy, the commercial quarter in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul. On the other side of the bridge, in the district of Eminönü where the ancient Byzantium was built, the famous spice market is located. The colors and intense fragrances of the spice market remind us that we are now in Asia.More than 85 little shops in the Spice Bazaar of Istanbul, selling sweets, tea, coffee, honey, dried fruits, spices and much more. From Istanbul we flew to Isparta, in Southwest Anatolia, the capital of Turkish rose oil production.The red area on the map is the province of Isparta. The city of Isparta is the capital of the same province.Isparta, the "City of Roses", located at an elevation of almost 3,400 feet (1,035 meters) above sea level, is the perfect place to explore rose production in Turkey. In the Isparta district, and in the neighboring Afyon, Burdur and Denizli, approximately 1.5 tons of rose oil and 7 tons of rose concrete are produced annually, and this represents the whole of Turkish production. The Isparta district is by far the largest producer, followed by Burdur, then Afyon and Denizli.Gül, "rose", was the first Turkish word I learned from Metin, and this word refers specifically to Rosa damascena. This fragrant rose was brought to Anatolia in 1870 by immigrants from Bulgaria. It is said that in 1892 a Bulgarian, Müftüzade İsmail Efendi, was the first to produce rose oil in Turkey.A statue of Müftüzade İsmail Efendi stands in the main square of Isparta in perennial memory of this important figure in Turkish culture and economy. In his day, rose oil was produced in simple and rudimentary, direct-fire stills, like these below.In the 1940s, with the growing modernization of the country, new industrial plants for distillation were constructed. Today, Turkey is one of the largest rose oil producers in the world. This year, the approximate total rose production in Turkey was 1,250-1,300 kilos of essential oil (or otto) and 8,000-8,500kg of the concrete. This means that each year something like 7,000-8,000 metric tons of roses are processed - with most of the roses harvested at small family farms of less than one hectare (approx. 2½ acres). For rose oil/concrete production these numbers make Turkey second only to Bulgaria, followed by Morocco, Iran, China, Afghanistan and India. Rose oil is produced by steam distillation of Rosa damascena flowers. We immediately discovered that, in contrast to the stainless steel stills used in Bulgaria, Turkish distillers prefer those traditionally made of copper. Distillation in copper is what gives Turkish rose oil its peculiar, greenish color.Above, the greenish rose oil from the first distillation of roses, called "crude oil", "first oil" or "direct oil". The distillate water still contains a good amount of oil. This "first water" is redistilled ("cohobated") to obtain the so-called "second oil", "cooked oil" or "indirect oil".Above, the yellowish rose oil yield after cohobation of the "first water". So, the first oil is green, the second is yellow and at the end, when the production season is over, the two oils are mixed together, representing a complete yield with a distinctive, greenish-yellow color.We travelled across the entire Isparta district looking for different producers and visiting rose fields. From the busy and cosmopolitan roads of Istanbul we ended up in some very remote villages that probably have never even seen a tourist! But everywhere we went, there were two unavoidable things: the Turkish tea and coffee!Below, a beautiful tray of Turkish coffee in a remote village coffee shop.A significant characteristic of the Turkish rose industry is that the distilleries receive the fresh roses from many small farmers rather than having large-scale cultivation. Sometimes these villagers drive their trucks for hours under the hot sun before reaching the place where their roses will be processed. Because of this the roses start to ferment inside the bags, and this boosts the citronellol content in this oil, especially compared to other rose oils of different origins. In fact citronellol, which is the main component of rose oil, can reach up to 50% (from 30-50 %) in Turkish ottos, while, Bulgarian ottos have a citronellol content that ranges from 20-34%.A truck coming from a village ready to empty its precious load of freshly harvested roses at the distillery.After unloading is complete, the bags are weighed and their contents are finally loaded into the stills. Here we have 500kgs of fresh roses in a 3,000-liter copper still. Before starting the distillation, 1,500 liters of water are pumped inside the stilll; the lid is hermetically closed and the distillation process begins. It generally takes one hour and half to get the "first" or "crude" greenish oil. Approximately 3.5 to 4 tons of fresh rose flowers are needed to produce only 1kg of rose oil, while 400kgs of roses are required to produce 1kg of rose concrete. Rose concrete, a staple in natural perfumery, is extracted by giving the roses different "washes" inside a special extraction unit with a solvent (typically hexane) that is later removed through a vacuum distillation process. At room temperature, the concrete is a solid, waxy extract.Here is a bucket of rose concrete.Above is a picture of a special hexane "washing machine" for concrete extraction.At this stage, the concrete can go through an additional extraction process to obtain the absolute - done by distilling the rose concrete with ethyl alcohol. Once again the solvent, in this case alcohol, is removed by vacuum distillation. But all these complicated procedures require that someone pick each single rose flower by hand one after another after another. Without this simple but tedious hard work, rose oils could not have delighted our senses in so many different ways over the centuries.An experienced picker looking proudly at the lush rose bushes.Picking galore!!! The pickers are usually gypsies or Syrian people earning their living with seasonal jobs.This beautiful view of a high altitude rose field reminds me of the opening verse of an ecstatic poem by the great mystic and poet, Jalal al-Din Rumi2, who lived in Turkey most of his life:What was said to the rose that made it open was said to me here in my chest.3The Golden Horn (Turkish: Altın Boynuz; Ancient Greek: Χρυσόκερας, Chrysókeras; Latin: Sinus Ceratinus), also known by its modern Turkish name as Haliç ([hɑ̈ɫit͡ʃ]), is a major urban waterway and the primary inlet of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey.This prominent body of water is a horn-shaped estuary that joins the Bosphorus Strait at the immediate point where the strait meets the Sea of Marmara, thus forming a narrow, isolated peninsula, the tip of which is "Old Istanbul" (ancient Byzantium and Constantinople), and the promontory of Sarayburnu, or Seraglio Point. The Golden Horn geographically separates the historic center of Istanbul from the rest of the city, and forms a natural, sheltered harbor that has historically protected Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and other maritime trade ships for thousands of years. From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_HornJalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (Persian: جلالالدین محمد رومی), also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī (جلالالدین محمد بلخى), Mevlânâ/Mawlānā (مولانا, "our master"), Mevlevî/Mawlawī (مولوی, "my master"), and more popularly simply as Rumi (30 September 1207 - 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century Persian Sunni Muslim poet, jurist, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan.Rumi died on 17 December 1273 in Konya, Turkey; his body was interred beside that of his father, and a splendid shrine, the Yeşil Türbe (Green Tomb, قبه الخضراء; today the Mevlâna Museum), was erected over his place of burial. From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi.From the Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Ecstatic Poems, translated by Coleman Barks, published by HarperCollins (2002).
