Sometimes I take photos for Orhan’s web design customers. In March Orhan asked me to photograph a local food manufacturer, Atiseri’s products for their upcoming shopping website.

Atiseri produce carob nectar (keciboynuzu/harnup nektari), carob molasses (keciboynuzu/harnup nektari), carob powder, carob beans, tahini paste (tahin), halva (helva), candied Seville orange (turunc tatlisi), andiz extract and various other food and health products.

In return for shooting the photographs, Atiseri were kind enough to give me a selection of their products. The item I am most thankful for is the carob nectar. Almost every day for a few months I took a tablespoon of this syrup. In that time I never became sick, despite facing some stressful times. In 2005, whilst in Mersin Dad also took carob molasses daily after hearing about its nutritious value on his trip to Antalya.

Carob nectar is purer than the more common molasses because nectar is produced at a lower temperature.

Carob, also known as St. John’s Bread (after John the Baptist who was believed to have sustained himself in the desert on a diet of carob beans) contains many of the vitamins and minerals the human body requires.

The carob tree is native to the Mediterranean. In Mersin, random carob trees are found in many places including near the city-train station road and on the military base next to the Muftu River bridge. With its similar climate, it’s not surprising that carob trees are also being grown in my homeland, South Australia. Unfortunately, carob in Australia does not have a good reputation as it is largely remembered in the form of carob chocolate, an awful tasting chocolate-substitute semi-popular in the 1980’s. Indeed, before coming to Turkey, this was my only knowledge of carob.

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