My landlady Siona, who Maria did a story about in the magazine, found a ruin many years ago, which became a house in 1999, where she began to plant various different fruit trees.
When I moved here in 2007 the plot was unfortunately poorly managed. No one had watered it in a long time so most of Sionas loved fruit trees had died. I did not know for example that she had a tree behind the corner that gave fruit. In Turkish the fruit is called “erik” in english, plum. She showed it to me quite recently. Sure, I had seen the tree before, but did not think I was going to eat the fruit!
These plums are a bit larger than our blueberries and when I was out yesterday to see if they were ripe, there were lots of them in the trees, ready to be picked. Siona was overjoyed!
There are some things I miss from Sweden. One of them is to go out in the woods in the fall and pick blueberries and cranberries, and I miss fresh raspberries!
A few years ago Siona asked me if I could help her pick out some cactus fruits. “What?” I replied. “Can you eat these prickly things?” I was a total novice about what was edible in the garden. She took a bowl, a fork and a knife and showed me how to pick them, but I would get the small, almost invisible, thorns in my fingers. You hold the fruit with the fork, cut the fruit of the cactus, and the fruit falls down into the bowl. Without any small thorns in the fingers.
They are super good served cold, and soon it is time to harvest.
I also have grapevines. Unfortunately, I usually do not have time to pick them for my dogs always go before me and they eat them happily (these dogs probably eat most things, Princess and Bebek eat watermelon and apples).
In the garden there are two almond trees, and yesterday when I was out I could see that they also began to ripen. For oranges and lemons I have to wait a while, they won´t be able to be picked until October.
Another fruit I have in the garden, but which comes first in the spring, is Yeni Dünya (New World). The taste is a mix of orange / apple and is very juicy. It has a large golden brown core in the middle and the color is yellow / brown and very good.
Yes, I am spoiled with tasty, nutritious fruits. Right now it is watermelon time so a bit of it slips down so easy, daily.
