MEDİNE MAMEDOĞLU

Amed – Women in Amed have begun to prepare vegetables for winter. They chop vegetables such as tomatoes, green, red peppers, or eggplants, and then hang vegetables tied together in bunches to dry them on their balcony and they make pickles at their homes.

“We prepare the vegetable to hang them on the balcony or on the roof”

All women living in the Sur district of Amed (Diyarbakır) begin to dry vegetables in mid-August for winter. Azize Akın is one of these women. “We begin to dry the vegetables in August and September. We dry many vegetables such as tomatoes, green, red peppers, or eggplants. We first chop the vegetables and then hang vegetables tied together in bunches to dry them on balconies or roofs in the sun.  All women in the neighborhood work together to dry vegetables in these months. People help each other in these months,” Azize Akın told us.

“We do this every year”

The dried vegetables are used in winter. “After drying them (vegetables), we put them in bags for winter. In winter, we use them in meals or make stuffed vegetables. We also make pickles and baba ghanoush. We get tried now but we get used to it because we do this every year. Before we could buy more vegetables but the prices of vegetables are very high now and most women are waiting for the decline of prices.”