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Show GRAPE MADE TO DO SUGAR DUTY Pekmez May Be Called Turk's Maple Sirup. Fully six months before the New England farmer brushes up his sugar camp and begins hanging his pails on the sugar-maple trees, the Turk lsh villager In the grape-growing province pro-vince of Gaziantep is producing sugar, su-gar, for home consumption, by a very similar process, says Herman A. Krelder of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions in Istanbul, Turkey. Gathering as much as 300 pounds of grapes from a single vine, the growers fill a natural-rock wine press to a depth of 2 feet and sprinkle on this mass of grapes a coating of crushed limestone from the surrounding surround-ing hills. While two or th'ree men tramp the press for several hours, the juice flows Into a 75-gallon copper kettle which never cools from the beginning begin-ning to the end of the season. After the first boiling the Juice Is dipped out as rapidly as possible into in-to one or more wooden troughs having hav-ing plugged holes at various heights in the end board. The grosser Impurities Im-purities are here precipitated by the action of the limestone, and at the proper moment the hired "pekmez" specialist, locally spoken of as "The Professor," draws out the upper, and later the second plug, allowing the cleared liquid to flow back into the original kettle. During the second boiling the surface sur-face impurities are skimmed off and at the proper stage the sirup Is ladled out into empty kerosene tins or into small wooden drums especially especial-ly made for the purpose. Here, after aft-er some hours, the sirup sets to the consistency of very thick molasses, in which state it is transported and stored. The market price of pekmez varies according to the abundance of the grape harvest, but the best sirup Is usually available at about one-third the price of granulated sugar. A still cheaper quality, usei by the producers produc-ers thpmsplves. is the oroduct of a special pressing of the shells and husks at the end of a "run," this being be-ing done by means of an antiquated type of screw press. The presses and boilers are permanent perma-nent establishments in the villages, and are operated day and night during dur-ing the grape harvest season, but the kettles are so expensive that they are owned only by city men, who rent them to the village press owners for the season. A special chewing sweet Is pre- pared by introducing starch in the course of the second boiling. While still soft this sirup Is painted In a very thin coat on blankets and left on the housetop to dry to a quite leathery consistency. Blissfully ignorant of physical laws i and chemical equations, the villager . pours into his pekmez a liberal por-I por-I j tion of superstition and semirellgious I incantations. The itinerant drummer i Is on tap night and day during the season to announce to the community I that Hadji Baba's run is finished and ! Husseyn Agha's first kettle is boiling. Equally depended upon, even If less evident, are the muttered prayers pray-ers and "Bisminahs" of the village patriarchs, who gather around the steaming kettles to swap yarns of the bumper crops of pekmez history. Boston Globe. |