Bodrum's Creative Ladies.

If you are in Bodrum on the first Wednesday of a month, head down to the harbour to find an array of stalls selling crafts, jewellery, clothes, preserves, baking and much more, produced by the ladies of Bodrum.  In an initiative to give women an outlet for their home-made crafts, the town council provides tables and chairs along the road to the marina and the stalls are (wo)manned for the whole day.

Thirty years ago,  most of the sewing and weaving in a household was destined for a daughter's çeyiz, (dowry trunk), nowadays these skills can be put to economic use. What I really like about this market is that all the ladies are busy knitting, sewing or beading as they wait for customers so there is no doubt that they are selling what they have produced themselves. 

The jewellery on display is all extremely innovative and attractive. 

I was especially taken with this table; the smiling smallholder was wearing one of her own designs, a necklace made up of tiny beads to resemble Bodrum's ubiquitous bougainvillea, 

and at under 20TL per necklace, I'm sure I'll be back on the first Wednesday in April to stock up the present drawer. 

Juniper Molasses

It's rare that I come across something new in Turkey so I was excited to discover an unfamiliar  ingredient at the cheese stall last market day. I had no idea what  "andız" were and at first glance thought the picture on the front of the jar was of beets. The cheese-seller wasn't sure what  an andız was either but he knew it grew on a tree, so that ruled out beetroot.  I bought the jar anyway and the nice chap behind the counter gave me a big slice of ricotta free of charge - he'd probably despaired of ever selling this unknown commodity.  When I got home, I tried a teaspoon but this didn't give me any clues so I fired up the Mac and found out that andız pekmez is juniper molasses, (even though the word for "juniper" is "ardıç").  I've never come across this before  and hope somebody reading this will have more information.

I decided to celebrate the new discovery with a biscuit recipe  so here are my Juniper Molasses Cookies.

110g plain flour

80g rolled oats

Half tsp bicarb of soda

50 g sultanas

100g juniper molasses

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

100g butter

• Heat the oven to 180 C
• Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl
• Melt the butter, add the molasses and add to the dry ingredients 
• Mix well and drop spoonfuls on to a lined and greased baking try
• Bake on a upper shelf for 15 minutes
• Don't bake until they are completely hard, as they harden up on cooling. 

I tried them out at book club on Wednesday and they got a thumbs-up.