Aydın Figs

The Büyük Menderes - the Meander - valley behind Aydın is the world's main source of dried figs, and Turkey supplies the large majority of the international trade from these orchards. The variety is Sarılop, known in the export trade as Smyrna, and its cultivation involves a detail most buyers never learn: the trees need caprification, pollination by a tiny wasp that breeds in the inedible wild caprifig, so growers hang strings of wild figs in the orchards each summer to let the wasps do their work. Ripe figs are left to fall, then dried on trays in the sun for days, sorted and pressed. Harvest runs from August into September and the valley smells of it. The designation İncir of Aydın is protected, and the town of İncirliova is named for the crop. Fresh figs are sold in the local markets in season; the dried ones are available year-round and are much better bought here than exported.

What you actually see

• The orchards - fig trees across the Meander valley floor.
• The drying trays - figs laid out in the sun after harvest.
• The caprification strings - wild figs hung in the trees.
• The town markets - fresh in season, dried year-round.

When to go

August to September for the harvest and drying, which is when the valley is at work. Dried figs are sold in the markets all year.

Honest expectations

There is no visitor infrastructure - orchards are working farms and private property; buy at markets and roadside stalls rather than wandering in. Fresh figs bruise and do not travel.

Nearby

Magnesia on the Maeander is at Germencik; Aphrodisias is further up the valley toward Denizli.