November-December In Fethiye: Goodbye Summer, Hello Winter

It’s time for our final monthly Fethiye news roundup of 2024. How on earth did that happen?

The final one, because our end of December roundup is always reserved for a look back on the whole year.

So, guess we’d best get cracking on before the year disappears altogether!

This was November…

The Month That Was

A month of being blessed with lots of relaxing Çalış Beach walks, afternoon drinks at EY’s and Calisto and early evening sunsets.

At times, the Fethiye weather has also managed to come up with our much needed rain – albeit a tad too heavy at times, causing floods in the town centre on one evening.

But before that, we had the last of our summer-holidaying friends here during the first week of November. They were lucky with the balmy temperatures.

And then, after that, as our summer season drew to a close, so the belediye (local municipality) also decided that autumn-winter was here.

The restaurants were allowed to place their tables and chairs along the beach wall – a common winter feature – so that people can sit closer to the beach and sea.

The final few sun loungers and parasols were collected up from the beach and taken to their winter hibernation zone.

And any remaining Çalış boats and water taxis were helped out of the water and put into their dry dock winter home.

One water taxi was left in the water until mid-November because the weather was so warm and there were still a good few people looking to use it to get them to the Tuesday market. Great to see!

But now, yes, we are officially in winter mode!

The Month Of Remembrance

Both in Turkey and in the UK, November is, of course, the month where we have significant days of remembrance.

Commemoration Of The Passing Of Atatürk

On 10th November, we commemorate the passing of the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

At 9:05am, the time of his passing, much of the country falls silent.

His mausoleum, Anıtkabir, is in the capital, Ankara.

Greece’s second city, Thessaloniki, is where Atatürk was born. And, especially at this time of year, many Turks head to the city to visit his house, which is now a museum.

A great article about this in November in The Guardian.

Armistice Day & Remembrance Sunday

In the UK, we remember the fallen of the First and Second World Wars and subsequent conflicts.

In Istanbul, there is a Commonwealth Graves Commission Cemetery, Haydarpaşa Cemetery, where commemorative services are held.

At this time, our thoughts also go back to our visit to the Cassino War Cemetery in Italy.

The Day Of…

A day for everything; for everything a day. And a week and a month, for that matter.

But anyway, in November, we celebrated:

• Bonfire Night on the 5th November with our twice baked jacket potatoes.
• National Take A Hike Day on 17th November with our list of strolls and hikes around the Fethiye area.
• Baklava Day, also on 17th November. This prompted a brand new article for the blog all about baklava.
• National Cake Day on 26th November with our yummy, no-bake Turkish mosaic cake.

Christmas Fayre Time

And then on 1st December, we had the annual Çalış Christmas Fayre.

For anyone not feeling festive in the area, this is always a great event, even for the ‘bah humbug’ brigade.

Lots of foreign and Turkish shoppers, too, who are there to enjoy the atmosphere, eat the street foods and stock up on Christmas (for us) and New Year (for Turkish families) decorations and gifts.

Hisarönü and Üzümlü have their own fayres on the 7th December this year.

Feast of St. Nicholas

And if the fayres aren’t festive enough, we also, of course, have the Feast of St. Nicholas on 5th-6th December, depending on where you live.

We all know St. Nicholas is responsible for the legends and customs around Santa Claus.

And, of course, St. Nicholas was born in Patara before becoming Bishop of Myra (today’s Demre).

Pilgrims visit the St. Nicholas Church, containing his tomb, throughout the year. But these early December dates are, naturally, very important.

‘Tis The Season

Seasonal food, that is.

And we love this time of year for eating seasonally.

A few days ago, we bought our first little helping of Black sea anchovies (Karadeniz hamsi) of the season. And, as is tradition for us with that first helping, we did hamsi tava with it.

We could freeze the hamsi and eat it throughout the year. But if we did that, we would miss out on that delicious, satisfying first taste of the season.

Cauliflower and pomegranate is also in season.

And if you’re looking for a festively-coloured veggie dish to enjoy, try this roasted cauliflower and pomegranate dish.

We’re yet to see an abundance of çintar mushrooms (saffron milk cap) on the local markets due to the fact that the rain hasn’t been abundant in the right areas but we’re sure that will change in the coming days and weeks.

In the meantime, chestnut mushrooms it is! And they’re perfect for this stuffed mushrooms recipe – mantar dolması.

Great party food!

On The Blog & In The Kitchen

Well, we’ve already told you a few of the things we’ve been cooking in the kitchen. But we’ve also been busy with other general cooking.

Spice Time

And, a new blog post has been added to our Turkish recipes section.

We can’t tell you how useful we’ve found our Turkish spice blend for cooking with over the last couple of weeks or so.

We’re not exaggerating when we say it is a very handy go-to just to add a bit of pizzazz to weeknight food.

Meze Usage

We usually have some homemade meze of some description in the fridge – and sometimes, it gets to the point when it really needs to be eaten!

So, we’re just gonna drop a random, throwaway tip in here because it went down well when we shared it on our Facebook page.

We’d made another dish that happened to leave us with lots of leftover baked potato skins.

No big chore getting rid of those! Who doesn’t love yummy potato skins?

Anyway, if you happen to have some Turkish carrot and garlic yoghurt dip (havuç tarator) in your fridge and some baked potato skins…

We’re just saying. Perfect combo!

Foodie Love

Also on the blog, over the years, we have written often of our love for the famous Turkish street food, kokoreç.

In November, that love was consolidated into the all important celebration of kokoreç.

And not before time!

Winter Foods

We’re a bit behind schedule this year – nothing new there – but it’s not too late to make up your own mincemeat for your homemade mince pies.

We also shared our winter chutney recipe in November.

Again, we’re yet to make ours. But it will still taste great as part of our Christmas food and we make a big batch that lasts us a good few months.

And a really cold snap in November meant we deserved our first bubbling hot bowl of beyran çorbası (Gaziantep lamb soup) at Can Çekti.

We’re hoping to have lamb for our Christmas dinner this year so we’ll definitely be making our own beyran soup for Boxing Day!

In Other News

Our little section of other news stories that have caught our eye over the last few weeks…

Join Us On Bluesky

Many of you will be aware of the recent rapid growth of social media outlet, Bluesky.

We’ve decided to be part of that growth by creating an account.

Come on over and follow us on Bluesky.

Flowing Fountains

Archaeologists in Turkey are on a mission to make the fountains of the country’s ancient cities flow again.

First, it was Sagalassos. Then it was the turn of the huge monumental fountain of Kibyra.

In November, it was announced that the water is once more flowing in the fountain of the ancient city of Perge, near Antalya city centre.

A revisit to see that is definitely needed!

An Iconic Influential Woman

And finally, big congratulations to the Muğla Province’s, Nejla Işık, who has made it onto the BBC’s annual list of the 2024 world’s 100 most influential women.

The list celebrates women “who, through their resilience, are pushing for change as the world changes around them.”

Nejla Işık is the village head of İkizköy, a farmer and forest campaigner.

For the last five years, she has lead protests to protect the Akbelen Forest from logging that was being carried out for mining projects.

You can see the full list, here.

And that’s it!

Our next news roundup will be looking at the highlights of a 2024 that’s flown by – with some articles before then, too.

We’ve got a cracking recipe next up for you. Stay tuned…

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