Safranbolu

The close relationship with nature, a common feature of the Turkish; people reveals itself in the sitting habits. It had been customary for a Turk to sit on the ground, as he can sit anywhere that can be regarded clean. He does not need any additional device. When sitting on the, ground, he pulls a leg under him. If he is at home, he can sit directly on the wooden flooring or on carpets or kilims spread on the floor, on cushions or ultimately on a divan. The sitting posture on the divan is the same as sitting on the floor.

The Divan (Sitting Platform) One can sit on a divan either to rest, to enjoy a brief break, for a chat with a friend, a meeting, to warm up a bit or to do some work. The divans are placed beneath the windows, both in the rooms and in the hall. Apart from the divans along the two window-walls of the room, some can be found on either side of the hearth, along the hearth wall. Thus, a sitting space is provided all around the room, except along the entrance wall. The projections of the halls provide an even better view of the street and the landscape and provide a sitting space with plenty of light. The whole base of the chamfered bay windows is covered with a divan, creating a wider sitting space. This is a very intense living area where women sit and embroider, chat with one another and frolic with their children playing by their knee-side.

The divan is a platform slightly raised from the floor. This height was very suitable for smoking the long pipes which were very popular during the last century one end of which rests on the floor. Turks sit either with one or both legs gathered crosswise under the body or on both knees. All these positions require a wide sitting space, which explains the 75-105 cm width of the divan. Mattresses stuffed with dried rice stems are placed on these platforms. The height of the divan is 35- 45 cm with the mattresses. The relations between the proportions of the divan, the windows and the wall are very well established.

Resting your arms on the leaning cushions, you can comfortably look out of the window. A young girl can easily reach for her piece of embroidery in the nearby cupboard and carry on with it, a man can reach for his book on the sergen and read. Writing is also done sitting on the divan. Formerly, divans were called “sofa”, in Safranbolu.

The floor is another area for sitting. One can sit on a carpet or kilim laid on the floor, or else on a cushion. When there is not enough space on the divans due to too many visitors, or when the visitor is someone well-respected the young generation sit on the floor instead of the divan. As nearly everyone can sit on the floor, even a small room can house quite a crowd when necessary without having to worry about providing chairs’ for everybody. In winter, cushions of 75×150 cm size stuffed with cotton are placed on one or both sides of the hearth. Well-stuffed leaning cushions are placed against the hearth wall and thus a comfortable seat is provided close to the source of heat. While dining around the round, low table, again one can either sit on the floor or on cushions. Women preparing the meal by the hearth also sit on the floor. Some of the cushions are stored in closets. In places where it is not possible to sit on the floor because it is not clean enough, a low stool is used. In the ablution closets, or working in front of the hearth at the cauldron in the hayat, they use this stool to sit on.

A cool, shady comer is always available for sitting in the garden. The pool with its fountain serves to provide a refreshing atmosphere while being also used for watering the garden. Generally a trellis with a creeping vine provides shade by the pool. It is habitual to sit and refresh oneself in a room like this, with its pool and fountain in the centre and the divans beneath the windows all around, while sipping coffee prepared at the small fireplace in one corner. Some of the larger ones have been prepared for use as selamlik pavilions. In these, both the pool and its surroundings are more spacious and in addition there are a few rooms and a toilet. The selamlik pavilions have separate entrances from the street.

In Safranbolu, the preparation of food is carried out in a specific room, locally called the “asevi” (food-house). This room, the kitchen, contains all the common features of a room. As this can be used for sitting or sleeping in, any of the other rooms can serve as a kitchen as well. No special organization is required for cooking. This is the outcome of the approach to the room as a living unit. However, in spite of the possibility for multiple uses there is always a room designated as the kitchen in a Safranbolu house; because there is need to have the utensils necessary for cooking close at hand; either in the kitchen or nearby. The kitchen is generally on the middle floor. It is there that women pass most of their day, thus it is organized as a day-time living area. Especially in winter women prefer to work, sit and warm-up in the kitchen. This is where the meals are generally served. The only difference between the kitchen and the other rooms is that its hearth is slightly larger, its cupboards and niches are more in number and its sergen is wider. In the kitchen there are also divans and closets.

The organization of the kitchen is not very sophisticated. This is a common characteristic of all Turkish houses and is the heritage of the nomadic way of life. In order to prepare the food, first the vegetables are washed either in the garden or in the kitchen by pouring water from a copper ewer into a large copper bowl, then they are peeled and chopped. This is done either sitting on the floor in front of the hearth or on a cover spread over the divan.

The kitchen utensils are stored on shelves in cupboards, classified according to the types; saucepans and frying pans occupy different shelves. All kitchen utensils are of copper. In some houses saucepans and dishes with lids are lined on the sergen, ranging from large to small, for decorative purposes. Soap is also lined on the sergen to help it dehydrate.

Some of the ingredients necessary for preparing food are kept in small quantities in the cupboard by the hearth. Tomato paste, oil, braised meat, rice, cracked wheat and sugar are stored there,

within easy reach of the women. Food is either stored in the pantry or the storage chests; the I kitchen is not used for this purpose. The pantry is either adjacent or close to the kitchen. In the pantry cupboard with fly-proof wire netting, the meal of the day, milk, cheese, yogurt, butter and braised meat is stored. There is a special place in the kitchen cupboard for the unleavened bread prepared in thin layers once a month in winter and more frequently in summer. In the small niches on both sides of the hearth you can find the salt pot, matches, a wooden mortar for crushing garlic, a bronze mortar for walnuts, dried mint, bottles of vinegar and sour grape juice, coffee and sugar.

Food is cooked in the hearth over a wood fire. The saucepan is placed on a trivet. Under the cupboards near the hearth firewood is stored for daily use. Each night, before going to bed, all the hearths in the house are cleaned; a routine that cannot possibly be skipped. First the ashes are gathered and put out in case of any live cinders. Then soil wetted in a bowl is spread on the base of the hearth with a piece of cloth, thus covering all the sooted surfaces. This is defined as “plastering the hearth “. As a pure white hearth with no trace of soot symbolizes, in a way, the cleanliness of a housewife, plastering is of great significance.

Dishes are washed in a basin heated on a trivet over the fire. The blackened saucepans are scrubbed clean with lemon juice and ashes.

The water used for washing dishes is poured down to the garden. At later dates a wooden sink was installed in one of the kitchen cupboards, at counter-top level, with a small water tank having a tap close at hand. In some layouts, this sink is in a separate space entered from the kitchen and open to the exterior with a wooden lattice. Used water coming from the kitchen sink is never mixed with that of the toilet; it has a separate cesspool.

Apart from the kitchen the hearth for the cauldron, the open hearth in the garden is used for cooking specific foods: pastry , bread-with-meat, etc.

Food can be eaten anywhere that it is possible to sit the household usually have their meal in the kitchen, while the visitors are served in the visitors room. During crowded family gatherings food is served in the hall. On such occasions men and women have their meals separately. In houses where there are harem and selamlik units, men and women are served in their own sections. In order to serve the selamlik from the kitchen, there is a cylindrical cupboard, revolving around a central axis and open on one side. Through this opening, plates are placed on its shelves by the women in the kitchen. The men in the selamllk can fetch these plates by turning manually the open side of the cupboard towards them and return them in the same way after having finished.

Before serving the meal a spread is laid on the floor on which a low, round, wooden table is placed. When there are visitors or in the richer houses copper or brass table tops can replace the wooden ones. The table-top can vary in size according to the number of people to be served. When there is not a copper table-top large enough for this purpose, a large wooden table top which can be folded into two semicircles for easy storage, is used. Ten to fifteen people can be served around such tables. Tablecloths are not used either on wooden or on copper table-tops. Cushions are placed on the floor all around the table, on which people sit. Around crowded tables, everyone sits sideways, with the right side closer to the table, so as to occupy the minimum space possible.

Food is served in one big dish placed in the centre of the table and everyone eats out of it. Spoons are used for soup, rice (pilaf) and fruit compotes, otherwise they use their hands instead of forks and knives. Everyone has a napkin. Sometimes one long napkin covers the lap of everyone around the table.

When a visitor is served coffee or fruit syrup, it is brought in a tray and handed over. The visitor has to finish it quickly and hand it back, because there is no place he can put the cup or glass and take his time. Meanwhile, the serving lady waits a few steps back, with the tray in her hand. If it is fruit, pastry or cake that is to be served, then the table is set on the floor.

The most important part of the productive activities within the household, takes place in the garden. This is one main reason for moving to the summer house. As soon as spring arrives, daily trips are arranged to the summer house in the Baglar region, so as to perform some inevitable chores. Men are hired if necessary. In some houses there is an extra visitors bedroom built above the hearth where peasant workers are put up when they have to stay overnight.

Watering the garden:  Water, which is essential for garden cultivation, was brought centuries ago to the Baglar region. The source of the water used for this purpose is a cave on the Inyaka mountain, north of Safranbolu, which justifies its local name; “cave water”. The supply of irrigation water is limited to the Baglar district; it is not supplied to the sehir. With regular channels running along the streets, water is ; distributed throughout the Baglar district. After the watermill at Degirmenbasi the water is divided into three branches. There are people in charge of the even distribution of water amongst the gardens. Formerly each garden got water every 8 to 10 days and this was sufficient, even for the summer months. In winter the water supply increases and overflows from the channels. It is extremely cold. Once the water is diverted from the channel to the garden, it is first sent to the furthest corners of the orchard, then gradually chanelled closer to the house. Part of it is stored in the pool to be used when water is not distributed.

In Safranbolu, the way of life is closely related to seasonal change. Moving to the summer house is in a way essential from an economic point of view. It is in the summer house that the preparation of food for all seasons is realized.

People move to their summer house so as to benefit fully from the soil crops, which are at their best during the months of spring, summer and autumn when growth occurs and nature bears its fruits. Crops are sown, tended, harvested, partly consumed and partly stored away for winter consumption. The excess produce can also be sold.

In general, the men of the house have their own jobs outside the home. Therefore these tasks are usually performed by their wives and other members of the household. These are spacious houses in large gardens, designed to include areas required for activities indispensable to a self-sufficient economy.

The crops harvested from the gardens are treated for preservation over long periods, either in the garden if the weather is good, or in the hayat or an adjoining work-shop.

These activities include the preparation of dried fruit and vegetables, syrups, jams, marmalades, fruit pastes and pickles.

Drying:  The following are the main fruits and vegetables which are dried for preservation: eggplants, fresh beans, okras, peppers, apples, plums, mulberries and pears. Eggplants are carved, fresh beans are split into two, the tops of the okras are chopped off and they are strung. The beans are laid side by side. The okras are dried in the shade of the hayat while all the rest are dried under direct sunshine on the balcony. August and September are the most suitable months for drying. Apples and pears are sliced whether peeled or not. Plums may be skinned or they are slit with a knife. Mulberries are shaken off the trees onto a clean sheet and are spread on rectangular boards either in the garden or if there aren’t too many, on the balcony. Apples and pears are dried in September, plums in August and mulberries in July or August.

Mollasses: Â Syrups are prepared from grapes and mulberries.

Grape: Â After vintage the best bunches of grapes are selected and stored away in the grape cupboard. The remaining grapes are crushed in a hollowed log near the cauldron hearth and the extracted juice is then boiled in the cauldron with the addition of the “syrup soil” (marl) over the fire.

White Syrup: Â Beaten eggs and sometimes crushed walnuts are added to the grape syrup. This syrup is prepared in September.