The last 2 Boston Red Sox games have been pretty wild: 1-0 in 16 innings against the Rays and 15-10 the next day against the Orioles. As long as they keep winning I don’t care. The 16 inning game lasted so long, it was still going on when I checked the score in the morning (we’re 7 hours ahead of the east coast.) So I was able to "watch" it and was relieved at the final score. Go Sox!

Our time in Marmaris is growing short. At the end of the month we’ll head off to North Cyprus to the Karpaz Gate Marina. Before we leave I am trying to complete all of the emails about our motorbike ride around Turkey. This email is about our visit to a family in Guneykent.

Ru

DoraMac

Visit to a Guneykent Family

After visiting the rose fields, we were taken to visit a Guneykent family with a small distillation operation. Because the rose oil and water producing season was over, the equipment had been stored away but it was brought out from the house and set up just so we could see how it all worked.

Ahmet and a family member set up the big still

If I’m correct, the rose petals and water are put into the big still and heated. Evaporation and cooling takes place between the still and the final collection point. Depending on the process the final product is either rose water or the more time consuming and more valuable rose oil.

The product comes out here.

The vapor leaves the still and is cooled in the pipe submerged in water after it leaves the still.

I think we asked if they were part of the Gulbirlik cooperative, and they were not.

Rose petal waste; but not wasted.

The “waste” is shaped into bricks and burned probably smelling wonderful.

My attempts to pat the family cows just annoyed the cows so I gave up.

Randal, Ahmet, “our gracious host,” Emre, and the young family member.

We were given a small bottle of rose water to drink and a large one to take with us as a gift. 

What a wonderful treat! That smile stayed on Randal’s face our whole ride back to Egirdir.

We were driven back to the town center to meet again with Mayor Gozgun who gave us rose calendars as reminders of our visit. Then we went off for lunch. While we ate I asked Emre if I should have gone to say hello to the women of the family we’d visited since they, from custom or comfort level, didn’t come to join us. Emre’s answer was sort of vague, but I do know he is too polite to imply I’d done something wrong, but next time I will think to go visit the women.

When I’d planned our stop in Isparta, I had done it because of Randal’s interest in roses. He’s been a member of the Rose Society in Roanoke for years and had planted 16 climbing rose bushes around the fence at our house on Bridle Lane and dozens of bushes at his Roanoke businesses. Our visit to Guneykent was really a very special treat for both of us and we thank everyone who made it possible for us