Feriköy

The 100% Ecological Marketplace in Feriköy, Şişli was one of the nicest gifts of 2008.  Although I had known about the marketplace for a long time, the hectic life in the city had kept me from Feriköy on Saturdays.  Just last year, if someone had told me I would wake up at 6.30 in the morning on Saturdays too to go to the market in Feriköy and stay there almost until noon, I would have laughed.  Or perhaps I would have said, "If only...  But it's not possible."  Well, it was.

It wasn't just the summer I spent at the market: On the most difficult weekend of November, when I was supposed to deliver two separate conference presentations on Saturday and Sunday, I got up at 5.30 and visited the market first, which told me that I was a true habitué of the place.  Now I’m there every Saturday my mother is always with me, my father joins us most of the time, and sometimes Hakan accompanies us.  I either make no appointments before noon on Saturday, or I make them at Feriköy!  Conversation takes on a different form with the taste of Hülya Hanım’s wholegrain pastries with fresh greens.  You don't need to make appointments to find yourself absorbed in the depths of conversation at Feriköy.  For example, the motive behind this article is my encounter with Esra Başak at the market on a cold Saturday, and her encouragement that I should share my market experience with you in SUdergi.

With Feriköy in my life, everything I eat gained a "face"-this is what they call "food with a face on it."  I am now in a world of food that stands against commodity fetishism, the moot point of Marxist critique against capitalism, and is not blind to the human relations and people behind the products offered.  The pumpkin soup recipe I learned from Lale Hanım, an organic farmer in Kandıra, is a favorite dish nowadays, with Lale Hanım’s delicious lettuce and carrots on the side.

If we're eating red poppies, mallow, nettle, wild radish or celery salad, Via Campesina member Levent Gürsel, the organic farmer from Çanakkale, will have joined us.  Ferdun İnanlı and his fabulous olive oil are always with us for dishes hot and cold.  The yogurt comes from Gökçeada's Elta Ada organic farm, and mushrooms from the farm of Hamdiye and Şaban Burhan in Karacabey, Bursa.  Hamdiye Hanım might be wrapped up against the freezing cold this week, but the smile and hospitality are not afraid of the cold.  "Visit the farm come cherry season, so we can pick some from the branches," she says.  I can't wait for the cherry season.

<

As I eat fava, Nurperi's face appears before me—she sells a variety of grain in cute cloth sacks, and Fatma Hanım is there too, with her spring onions that I couldn't resist to buy in bundles.  In fact, if I have added the incredible walnuts sold by Haci Bey, the entire Karaoğlu family with their smiling faces accompanies us at dinner.  "If one enjoys what he grows, he will enjoy what he sells too," says Haci Bey.

Not everyone at Feriköy is a grower.  I make an effort to buy from growers.  One significant exception is the Leyla-Ayhan Biçici siblings who sell organic date imported from Arabia.  Well, that can't be grown here.  But they so "enjoy" selling that you can't help being impressed.  I used to dislike date.  Now, I find myself eating dates at various times during the day as dessert!  Of course, I shouldn't overlook the delicious Malatya apricots I buy from Hasan Karaman, while conversing with him on human rights, minority rights, right of labor and organization.

Our holiday, New Year's, birthday and babyshower presents are from Feriköy as well.  We had brought everyone bottles of Ferdun Bey’s Priamos olive oil last Feast of Ramadan; then we brought them dates, and finally went back to olive oil for New Year's.  Baby overalls crafted from organic cotton are our preferred gifts to new mothers, while children receive wooden toys crafted by an artisan from Kayseri.  In short, whatever you may look for, it's there in Feriköy.

As we leave 2008 behind, we have a dark world facing us.  Global climate change, injustice, violence, war...  The worst thing we can do before this dark picture is to feel powerless.  Not only does this powerlessness retard our confrontation with our responsibilities, but also turns us into "accomplices".  But there are many steps we could take by lending an ear to our conscience.  Feriköy is a small but expansive world.  It makes us realize that a fairer, cleaner, more livable world is possible, and gives us hope and inspiration for the future.  Add to that a healthy, delicious and affordable cuisine.  A single organic marketplace opening once a week in a metropolis is not the solution to all of our problems, of course.  Yet, it is a gateway inviting us to ask questions about life, and opens up to a boundless world as long as we continue to wonder, ask, listen and question our everyday habits.