“Rose: The Symbol of Love”

TCF-YESAM’s first cultural tour to Isparta, the city of Rose took place between May 29th-31st, 2015. The participants, with the guidance and expertise of Aylin Öney Tan, had a chance to learn about the cultural aspects of Isparta, the culinary culture, and how the special rose variety Rosa Damascena, that is ingenious to Isparta, is used in Ottoman and Turkish culinary culture. The participants were also taken to Sagalassos Antique City. Mrs. Tan, who had been doing research on the culinary culture of Sagalassos and town of Ağlasun, gave a presentation about the ingredients grown in the area, as well as their usage and some recipes. The participants also had a chance to taste some of the local dishes during dinner.

A big part of the tour was dedicated to visiting the rose gardens, harvesting roses, and visiting rose oil factories. The highlight of the tour was the bed made of rose petals. Participants had a lot of fun laying on the roses and throwing the petals into the air. During the weekend four different rose factories were visited, where participants learned about the distillation methods used in making rose oil and rose water.  Mrs. Tan also gave ideas about how to make rose jam, rose starter and rose water with the rose petals collected by the participants.