MEDİNE MAMEDOĞLU

Mêrdin – The grape harvesting season in Mardin starts in autumn. After collecting grapes in vineyards, women boil grapes inside a large cooking pot to make grape molasses, grape leathers and churchkhela. Stating that the grape harvesting season used to last for days before, the women living in the Aqres (Akbağ) village of Mardin province, said that the grape yields have been falling in recent years due to climate change. After collecting grapes by helping each other, one of these women told us how they make grape molasses and grape leathers.

They wait for hours next to the large cooking pots

Feride Aksoy puts grapes inside a large cooking pot after filtering and cleaning them to boil them. “Boiling them takes hours. We turn the grape juice into molasses by constantly stoke up the fire under the pot. After boiling them, we prepare flour to make grape molasses and grape leathers. Making them also takes hours. We, as women, wait for hours by the large cooking pots to make them. In two or three days, we dry and collect the grape leathers and churchkhela,” she told us.

“The grapes get burned due to the rainfall reduction”

Pointing out that the grape yields have been falling in recent years, Feride Aksoy said that the main reason for the poor grape yields is the rainfall reduction. “This year, we expected poorer yields. But it was better than we expected. Hundreds of vineyard owners did not harvest their grapes this year because all their grapes got burned. Most of our grapes also got burned. For four years, we have suffered from sun burns. Due to the rainfall reduction and high temperature, the grapes get burned before they are ripe.”

“The grape yields fall every year”

Expressing that women and men work together and get tired while harvesting grapes and making grape molasses, Feride Aksoy said, “This year, we get less tired compared to other years due to the poor yields. We have worked in vineyards since the beginning of the year but grapes got burned due to the rainfall reduction.”