At the 2026 Datça Almond Blossom Festival, we gathered with our dear neighbor Candan Aunt, one of Reşadiye’s most cherished custodians of local memory, for a Traditional Hand Rolled Dough Workshop. We met at Mehmet Ali Ağa Mansion, one of Heritage Homes’ historic properties, where time seems to move at a gentler pace and everyday rituals regain their meaning.

As we learned the finer points of rolling dough by hand, Candan Aunt’s stories flowed just as naturally as the flour across the table. Alongside technique came remembrance: personal histories, inherited know how, and quiet details about the land and the mansion’s past. From our conversation, we chose a handful of moments that stayed with us, and we wanted to share them with you.

- How do you roll the dough, Candan Aunt?
- I crack four eggs into one kilo of flour, add a little salt, and then knead it well. After kneading, I divide it into pieces. The dough should be neither too thick nor too thin. Some people roll it very thick. I roll it thin. I think thin tastes better.

- What ingredients do you use?
- Flour, water, salt, and eggs.

- How long have you been rolling dough?
- Since I was twenty five. I learned from my mother. My mother worked, and since we weren’t able to continue school, we did these things. They didn’t send us to school. There wasn’t a school here, really.”

- Are you from Reşadiye?
- Yes, I’m from Reşadiye. But my grandfather was from Fethiye, so people call us Fethiyeli.

- Do you remember anything from the mansion’s earlier days?
- Our childhood was spent here. There used to be a cinema behind the mansion. We would bring our chairs and come. There was also a wheat storehouse where we kept eggs. If I couldn’t find eggs at home, I would take some from there and pay the next day. My childhood passed here. And after I got married, we came more often, of course.”

- Did you grow wheat?
- Of course. I harvested with a sickle. I gathered bitter vetch. and grass pea. Do you know threshing? It was done with animals, since there were no machines. I did that too. If it were mothers today, they wouldn’t let their children do it, saying the sun would strike them. There is nothing we haven’t done.”

- Did you mill your own flour?
- My father used to grind it at the windmills. There were watermills too. He would go and not come back for two or three days. He would grind the flour and return, staying there along the way. That’s how our childhood passed. There wasn’t today’s technology.”

- Did you make hand cut noodles (erişte) often?
- We made it when we were children too. There was no pasta, nothing ready made. We always made it by hand. Later, my sibling and I visited Beypazarı in Ankara and saw every kind of pasta there: nettle, tomato, all sorts. We came back and said, why aren’t we making these things? That’s when I started again.

- Where is this hand cut noodles used?
- You add it to lentils. You use it instead of small pasta like orzo.

- And the herbs on the table do you gather them yourself?
- I gather them myself.

- Where do you gather them?
- From the mountains, the hillsides, everywhere… In the past, we used to go towards Behçe for a while. My husband would take me.

- Which herbs do you gather? Can you name the ones here?
- Golden thistle (şevketibostan), patience dock (ilabada), bladder campion (kışıyak), coltsfoot (devetabanı), wild radish (eşek turpu). There are many more, but they’re not here right now. And wild chicory (hindiba) too it’s good for fatty liver. Golden thistle is also good for the stomach.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to Candan Aunt for her generous conversation, her sincere contributions, and the enduring traces she has left in our memory through everything she shared.