In Amasya, winter is the season of dried vegetables, bulgur and stored provisions. When the first green shoots appear along roadsides, field margins and hillsides in April, the balance of the kitchen shifts. Madımak leads these greens. In the lists of local dishes, madımak, pirpirim and pastırmalı pancar (greens with pastırma) appear among the meat dishes. What the three share is that a herb gathered from the wild, or one that grows easily in a garden, is combined with bulgur or rice and a little meat and turned into a filling one-pot meal. These herbs have a long history at the table: in the kitchens of the Armenian families who lived in the town in the last years of the Ottoman period, as in the dialect spoken today in the villages of Gümüşhacıköy, spring herbs are gathered, cooked and put by for winter according to the same seasonal calendar. Only the dishes of Amasya that rest on spring herbs are described here; the region's general cuisine is covered in a separate article.

What Madımak Is

Madımak (Polygonum cognatum, a knotweed) is a perennial of the buckwheat family (Polygonaceae), with a prostrate, woody stem. It stays between 15 and 30 centimetres tall, its slender stem spreading over the ground. Its leaves are noticeably large compared with other species of the genus, and its flowers are small pink or reddish-pink clusters borne in the leaf axils. It begins to flower in May and keeps flowering until September. Regarded as an element of the Irano-Turanian flora, the species favors roadsides, field margins, pastures, slopes and cultivated land, and is found over a very wide altitude range, from about 720 metres to 3,000 metres. In Turkey it is spread across western, central, eastern and southern Anatolia, and grows most commonly around Yozgat, Sivas, Amasya, Tokat, Kayseri and Gümüşhane. Because the inland part of the Middle Black Sea region, where Amasya lies, is a transition zone where the Irano-Turanian and Euro-Siberian floristic regions meet, it is also rich in edible wild herbs.

In everyday speech the same plant is called madımalak, badımak, badımalak, madımak pancarı, mercimelek, mercimenek, kayışkıran and kuşekmeği. The name kuşekmeği also refers to a close relative that resembles madımak, Polygonum aviculare. Several other Polygonum species are likewise called Afyon, Samsun, Sivas or Cappadocian madımak. The word is not of Turkish origin; it is accepted as a loanword from the Armenian madideğ. Hasan Eren gives the Armenian form as "matutak" and records its meaning as licorice root. Madımak lives not only at the table but also in song. "Madımak oylum oylum," collected in Sivas, and "Madımah bitti m'ola," collected by Muzaffer Sarısözen, are the best-known reflections of this herb in Turkish folk music.

Madımak is not easy to grow as a crop. Its seeds lie in deep dormancy; in germination tests with madımak seed collected in Amasya, Ordu, Samsun and Tokat not a single seed sprouted, a result attributed to seed dormancy. Another study found that the seeds would germinate, at rates of up to 57 percent, only when their coats were abraded with sulfuric acid or mechanically and a plant growth hormone was then applied. To meet rising demand, cultivation of madımak has begun in recent years in Central Anatolia; even so, in many places, Amasya among them, it is still known as a herb gathered from the wild.

Madımak and Other Wild Vegetables in Amasya

In the inland parts of the Middle Black Sea region, other wild vegetables are gathered alongside madımak. Among the wild herbs most eaten in place of vegetables in the region are, besides madımak, common mallow (ebegümeci, Malva neglecta) and Trachystemon orientalis, known as kaldırayak or hodan. All three come up in early spring, are sold in the local markets of the region and make an important contribution to diet, especially in the countryside; for poor families they are also a source of income. The leaves of mallow are cooked as a vegetable, while of kaldırayak the flowering shoots, rhizomes, leaves and leaf stalks are eaten, the stalks mostly being pickled.

To measure the nutritional value of these three herbs, samples were collected on 17 May 2011 from five separate places in Amasya. Madımak was taken from the villages of Şeyhler in Göynücek, Çavundur in Merzifon, Eraslan in Suluova and Ballıdere in Taşova, and from Kaleköy near the provincial centre, at altitudes between 485 and 730 metres. Mallow was collected from Karayakup in Göynücek, Kayadüzü in Merzifon, Ezinepazar, Akören in Suluova and Güvendik in Taşova; kaldırayak from the villages of Bayat and Osmanoğlu in Merzifon and Kozluca, Yayladibi and Korubaşı in Taşova, at higher points between 732 and 987 metres. That madımak could be found in four separate districts and around the centre, from villages near the plain to mountain villages, shows how widespread the herb is in the province. Kaldırayak, by contrast, is a plant of shady stream banks, damp ground and beech forest, which is why its Amasya samples came from the higher villages in the north of the province.

In the measurements, madımak from Amasya and Samsun had the highest dry matter content of all the samples studied; in Amasya madımak this was 17.4 percent of fresh weight. On a dry-weight basis, the Amasya samples contained 17.9 percent protein and, per 100 grams, about 1,345 milligrams of potassium, 90 milligrams of phosphorus, 289 milligrams of calcium and 125 milligrams of magnesium. Calcium was far higher in the mallow gathered from the same area; at 688 milligrams per 100 grams, Amasya mallow contained the most calcium of all the samples. These values show that the herbs are a source of nourishment that can stand comparison with cultivated vegetables, and they also explain why spring herbs are so valued at the village table.

Gathering and Preparation

Madımak is gathered for eating in spring, in April, May and the first half of June. Gathering is called yolmak (plucking) in the local idiom. The work is done with a small knife, in some places a pocketknife called a "pancar knife" or "madımak knife," or by hand for those willing to take the trouble. The herb tastes best when it first emerges and is still tender; foragers who say it turns bitter once it flowers advise picking it before it blooms. The same foragers take care to collect it away from the road, from places where no vehicles pass and which are untouched, and wash thoroughly anything picked beside a road before eating it. The herb is also gathered on the high pastures; in an account recorded in the villages of Gümüşhacıköy, the speaker mentions gathering madımak on the yayla.

The madımak brought home is first sorted. Weeds that got mixed in during picking and yellowed or bad leaves are removed, and the remaining shoots are rinsed in several changes of water. It is then chopped finely on a wooden board with a cleaver or a heavy knife and is ready for the pot. In the book Amasya Mutfağı (Amasya Cuisine), published by the Amasya Governorship, the dish is described on the basis of half a kilo of washed, sorted madımak. Sorting and chopping is the most laborious part of the dish, and that labor plays its part in the dish being counted as a respected spring meal.

The madımak season is short, so part of the herb is set aside for winter. In the records concerning Amasya, the known way of doing this is drying; the dried herb can be eaten in every season. Today the freezer has joined in this work. A woman speaking in the village of Aşağıovacık in Gümüşhacıköy says that this year she put her madımak in the freezer together with its yarma; in other words, the herb is frozen ready for cooking, together with the grain that will go into the dish. In neighboring Tokat, too, madımak is recorded as being eaten fresh in season and also dried to be eaten in winter.

Madımak Cooked the Amasya Way

The skeleton of the local recipe is simple. A medium onion is fried in a tea glass of oil, and two hundred grams of pastırma and a tablespoon of tomato paste are added. Once the pastırma has given up its fat and the paste its aroma, the washed and chopped madımak goes in, followed by a cup of coarsely ground wheat (yarma) and hot water, and the dish is left to cook over low heat. It is served hot. The weight of the recipe rests on two ingredients: the herb, with its slightly sour and distinctive taste, and the pastırma, which adds fat and salt to that taste. The yarma brings the dish to a consistency between pilaf and soup; while the herb releases its water, the grain takes it up.

In practices that vary from house to house, fine bulgur or rice is used in place of yarma, and minced meat, kavurma or sucuk is added in place of pastırma; in some places madımak is cooked with no meat at all, only onion and tomato paste. Çemen, the spiced paste that coats pastırma, can on its own take the place of pastırma; in neighboring Tokat madımak is known to be cooked with pastırma or çemen, and sometimes with chunks of meat, plenty of garlic and spices. Records concerning Amasya note that the herb's fresh shoots and leaves are fried on their own and that it is also taken into cultivation in gardens. In the region, madımak pide and a milky madımak dish are also made. Garlic yoghurt beside madımak aşı is a serving style known in Sivas; the recipe in Amasya Mutfağı simply says the dish is served hot, without yoghurt. The pancar recipe, by contrast, suggests pouring garlic yoghurt over the dish if desired; yoghurt is a companion that softens the herb's slightly sour taste.

Mıhlama, another dish of Amasya cooking, is also listed beside madımak in the regional lists. Madımak mıhlaması is generally known as a dish made by breaking eggs over fried herb. Madımak with eggs is cooked in other parts of Central Anatolia too. No detailed recipe for madımak mıhlaması in Amasya exists in the sources at hand; but the spinach mıhlama cooked in the town in the Ottoman period, described below, gives an idea of how the dish was made locally in the past.

Spring Herbs of the Amasya Armenians in the Ottoman Period

One of the detailed testimonies to Amasya's old cuisine rests on the memories of the town's Armenian inhabitants. According to material compiled from Kapriel H. Simonian's memory book of Amasya, published in Venice in 1966, in the spring months the people of Amasya gathered edible wild herbs they called pancar and used them in various dishes. Some of these herbs could be eaten without boiling, while others came to the table only after being boiled and drained. The use of the word is striking: for the greens that are today called ot pancarı in Amasya, and described in the villages of Gümüşhacıköy with the phrase "cooked like pancar," the word pancar was used in the town as a general name for wild spring herbs.

Several recipes based on spring herbs are recorded in the same source. In the simplest, half a kilo of herbs was boiled and drained, chopped, turned in oil and seasoned with salt and pepper, and then beaten eggs were poured over and the dish cooked. In the more filling dish of herbs with cabbage, a kilo of wild herbs was boiled and drained; chopped cabbage and onion were steamed in oil, and then the herbs, coarse yarma, red and black pepper, mint, salt and water were added and the dish was cooked over low heat. This meeting of the herb with yarma and mint is very close to the skeleton of today's Amasya madımak; the main difference is the use of cabbage in place of meat or pastırma.

The recipe for spinach mıhlama also appears in the same source. Onion was sweated in oil, the spices and chopped spinach were added, and the mixture was steamed over low heat. Hollows were then made in the surface of the mixture, the eggs were broken into these hollows without being stirred into the dish, and the lid was closed. A version with minced meat was also made. This account shows that in Amasya at that time the eggs in mıhlama were not beaten into the herb but broken whole over it. According to the same source, during Lent many dishes were cooked with vegetable oil instead of animal fat, and sometimes with no fat at all.

The end of spring was also the season of another green that came to the table. As spring drew to a close, every housewife gathered tender, good-quality vine leaves from the vineyards and preserved them in brine in earthenware jars; vine leaves were simply called yaprak (leaf). In the summer months the leaves of herbs such as mint, thyme, basil and tarragon were dried and set aside for winter in cloth sacks. In this way the herb eaten fresh in spring passed into the winter kitchen towards the end of summer as dried seasoning and brined leaves.

Spring Herbs in Village Speech

How varied the spring herbs are in the villages of Amasya is seen most clearly in dialect recordings. In recordings of the Gümüşhacıköy dialect made between 2020 and 2022, when two women speaking in the village of Aşağıovacık were asked about plants particular to the area, the list of names they gave was long. According to them, the village has sōḫluḳ (purslane), epelek, large-leaved labada and a hairy variety of it, yālıkėlik and sirken; "we cook all of these," they say. The herb called kuş ekmeği "is cooked like pancar." Besides these, nettle, tikel, yėlmük and nünü are gathered as well, and in the speaker's words "we cook them all together, like madımak." The speakers add that these herbs are said to be healing, and that they had eaten a herb dish the evening before.

The dictionary section of the thesis explains some of these names. Madımak is defined, in the words of a speaker in the village of Saraycık, as "a plant that grows in the fields in spring, with small green leaves, and that can be cooked and eaten like spinach." Epelek is a herb resembling spinach, the same as labada. Ekmē, that is kuş ekmeği, is a kind of pancar. Yėlmük is a wild herb that grows in spring, with long, pointed leaves, gathered and eaten, and known elsewhere as yemlik. Sōḫluḳ is the local name for purslane, the plant called pirpirim in Amasya. Tikel, nünü, sirken and yālıkėlik are recorded only as "an edible herb that grows in the fields"; their scientific equivalents were not determined in the recordings.

Two points stand out in these testimonies. First, madımak serves as a yardstick in the village kitchen: other herbs are cooked to its recipe, and though the herb changes, the pot with onion and yarma or bulgur stays the same. Second, large-leaved herbs such as labada and its relatives are also used for dolma and wraps; in the same conversation it is said that the large labada leaf is suited to wrapping dolma. The conversation also mentions bulgur dishes and pastes made from rose hips and cornelian cherries. The gathering, sorting and storing of herbs continue in the village as part of the seasonal round of work.

Madımak Elsewhere

Madımak is not unique to Amasya. Across a broad belt of Central Anatolia and the inner Black Sea region it stands in for a vegetable, and in some villages it is the principal herb on the table throughout spring. This variety also helps in understanding the Amasya way, because each region's recipe has taken shape around its own livestock and grain habits. In Sivas, madımak aşı is served as a hot or cold soup if milk is added, and, if no milk is added, hot or cold with garlic yoghurt. Madımak cacığı is made in Yozgat, Kırşehir and Sivas; in Yozgat the dish is cooked with pastırma or sucuk, while in Kırşehir it is preferred plain and without pastırma. In neighboring Çorum various herbs are widely used in cooking, and madımak, which grows of its own accord in the fields in the spring months, comes first among them; in the village of Konaç, in the province's Mecitözü district, a soupy madımak stew is cooked.

There are also uses that combine with dough. In Kayseri, madımak böreği (pastry) is made. In the Atkaracalar district of Çankırı, fried madımak is used as a filling, and the pastry folded into a D shape and cooked on a griddle is called madımak gözlemesi, or martimalak bükmesi; in Çerkeş the same pastry is known as badıma bükmesi, and madımak soup is cooked as well. In the Mihalıççık district of Eskişehir the herb is cooked with eggs or plain, used as a pastry filling, or eaten raw as a salad, salted and dressed with lemon. In the Develi district of Kayseri it is eaten raw under the name mercimenek or cooked with bulgur like a vegetable. In some places the fresh leaves are also eaten rolled in yufka. Within this broad range, Amasya's share is the plain and filling pot that brings the herb together with pastırma and yarma.

Nutritional Value and Folk Medicine

Madımak is as much a well-liked food in the regions where it grows as it is a plant mentioned in folk medicine, but that use is limited and the records vary from region to region. According to the records it is a diuretic, lowers blood sugar in diabetics and constricts blood vessels, and for this reason it is said to be used for prolonged bleeding in women and for hemorrhoids, for diarrhea and vomiting, and for passing kidney stones. Its seeds are used for bronchitis. In Burdur it is used for diabetes and eczema, and a poultice of it is wrapped around the throat against goiter. In Erzurum it is boiled in milk for gynecological complaints and its steam is used, and in Tunceli it is said to help rheumatism. These are folk practices and do not take the place of medical treatment.

A study of samples gathered in Sivas found that madımak contains 3.5 percent nitrogen, 3.9 percent potassium, 0.51 percent calcium and 0.44 percent magnesium, and about 145 milligrams of iron and 40 milligrams of zinc per kilogram. The same research reports that the plant extract showed strong cytotoxic activity against a breast cancer cell line in the laboratory but no such effect on healthy human epithelial cells. These findings are at the level of cell culture and do not mean that eating the herb protects against disease. Because the measurements on the Amasya samples and the results for the Sivas samples were obtained by different methods, they cannot be compared directly; but both studies show the herb to be notable for potassium and calcium. The plant's phenolic compounds suppress the growth of other plants, which is why madımak is also described as a plant that makes it hard for other herbs to establish themselves where it grows. It has also been recorded that a yellow dye is obtained from its leaves in Turkey.

Pirpirim

In Amasya pirpirim is the herb called purslane (semizotu) or töhmeken elsewhere; wild purslane is also called soğukluk, a name that survives in the villages of Gümüşhacıköy as sōḫluḳ. Madımak is the herb of early spring. Pirpirim is a plant with fleshy, juicy leaves, and it is named among the region's meat-and-vegetable dishes. In the recipe in the Governorship's book, a kilo of pirpirim is cooked with two hundred grams of minced meat, a dry onion, a tea glass of rice and a tablespoon of tomato paste. The onion and minced meat are fried in oil, the washed, sorted and chopped pirpirim is laid on top, and it is left until thoroughly wilted. The washed rice, paste and salt are then added, a cup of water is poured in, the lid is closed and the dish is cooked over low heat. Little water is given to the dish; the water the herb releases is enough to cook the rice.

The same book notes that if fine bulgur is fried in butter in place of rice, the dish can become a separate one called "pirpirim kavurması" (fried pirpirim). In madımak, bulgur or yarma is a grain added beside the herb to thicken the dish; in pirpirim, the rice is a complement closer to pilaf, cooked in the fat of the meat and the water of the herb. This difference between the two dishes shows that on the Amasya table herb dishes are balanced with grain and meat in different proportions. Pirpirim also appears with madımak on the regional menus of the town's restaurants, beside dishes such as bakla dolması (stuffed broad beans) and ciğer sarması (liver wrapped in caul fat).

Ot Pancarı and Pastırmalı Pancar

Pancar holds a place of its own among the spring dishes of Amasya. The main ingredient of the recipe in the Governorship's book is ot pancarı, also called "kuş ekmeği"; in the book the dish is named simply Pancar. Onion and minced meat are fried in oil, the sorted and chopped green pancar herb is laid on top and wilted, and then pilaf bulgur, a little çemen (fenugreek paste), tomato paste and salt are added. Two cups of hot water are poured in and the dish is cooked over low heat; garlic yoghurt may be poured over it if desired. Eggs and parsley also appear in the ingredient list. The recipe states that where there is no pastırma, çemen can take its place; in other words, the dish can also be cooked with pastırma. The regional lists also name pastırmalı pancar. How far this dish overlaps with the recipe made with ot pancarı is not explained in detail in the sources.

The name kuş ekmeği refers both to madımak and to the close relative that resembles it; in the Gümüşhacıköy dialect this herb, shortened to ekmē, is defined as "a kind of pancar" and said to be cooked like pancar. Taken together with the fact that the Armenian families of the town in the Ottoman period called all edible wild herbs pancar, it becomes clear that in Amasya the word pancar was used less for a particular plant than as a general name for greens gathered and cooked. For this reason the ot pancarı of the Governorship's book cannot be tied to a single species.

The Common Logic of Herb Dishes

In Turkey, herb dishes (ot yemekleri) is the general name for dishes made by cooking the tender leaves and shoots of wild plants that grow on their own, and it is usual for the same herb to take different names in different regions. Madımak is known in one place as madımalak, in another as gıvışkan or yemlik; kuzukulağı (sorrel) is known as ekşi ot, ekşimen or ekşi kara; and wild purslane as töhmeken, pirpirim or soğukluk. The general tendency is for small-leaved herbs to go into dishes with minced meat, meat, bulgur and rice, and into saç böreği, gözleme and börek, while broad-leaved herbs such as labada go into wraps. Herbs are mostly eaten boiled with a sour element added, or fried with rice, bulgur and eggs and topped with yoghurt. Amasya's madımak, pirpirim and pancar dishes are regional examples of this general rule, and in all three the herb comes to the table not alone but with a grain and a small amount of meat.

A study of interviews with people who sell edible herbs in the market of Safranbolu, at the western end of the Black Sea, shows how wide this knowledge is. The study identified 32 separate edible herbs in the market, recorded that gathering begins in spring and continues until October and November, and noted that madımak is among the herbs consumers seek most, together with grape leaves, thyme, nettle and purslane. The sellers also say that in some places madımak goes into the dish whole, stem included. We have no such market study for Amasya, but wild herbs are known to be sold in the local markets of the region, and the list of names recorded in Gümüşhacıköy shows plainly that madımak is only the best known of many herbs standing side by side on the spring table. Sorrel-like sour herbs are used in raw salads and pilaf, and tough-leaved herbs such as labada in pilaf, soup and wraps; these too are part of the same seasonal table.

Which herb is to be gathered at what stage, which turns bitter once it flowers, and how far from the road it should be sought are matters of knowledge passed on largely by word of mouth from generation to generation. Madımak used to be a herb sought only in villages. With migration from villages to cities it came to be in demand in cities too, and it began to be sold in the markets of large cities. In some regions this interest has gone as far as festivals being held in the name of madımak; among them are the madımak festival in the Akocak village of Sorgun district in Yozgat, whose seventh edition was held in 2012, and the madımak festival in the Akıncılar district of Sivas.

Chronology

1966: Kapriel H. Simonian's memory book of Amasya, which among other things describes the dishes the Armenians of Amasya made with spring herbs, is published in Venice.

2010: The Amasya Governorship publishes the book Amasya Mutfağı (Amasya Cuisine), in Turkish and English, containing the recipes for madımak, pirpirim and pancar.

2011: On 17 May, samples of madımak, mallow and kaldırayak are collected for nutritional analysis from the Göynücek, Merzifon, Suluova and Taşova districts of Amasya and from villages near the centre; the results are published in 2017.

2020-2022: During recordings of the Gümüşhacıköy dialect, the names of the area's edible herbs are documented in the village of Aşağıovacık; the study is completed as a doctoral thesis in 2024.

Sources

Academic studies

  • Saraç, H., Daştan, T., Demirbaş, A., Durna Daştan, S., Karaköy, T., Durukan, H., "Madımak (Polygonum cognatum Meissn.) Bitki Özütlerinin Besin Elementleri ve In Vitro Antikanserojen Aktiviteleri Yönünden Değerlendirilmesi", Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi Ziraat Fakültesi Dergisi, special issue, 2018.
  • Kibar, B., Kibar, H., "Determination of the nutritional and seed properties of some wild edible plants consumed as vegetable in the Middle Black Sea Region of Turkey", South African Journal of Botany, 108, 2017, pp. 117-125.
  • Gödek Arslan, G., Gümüşhacıköy Ağzı (İnceleme-Metinler-Sözlük), doctoral thesis, Bursa Uludağ University Institute of Social Sciences, 2024 (recordings from Aşağıovacık and Saraycık, glossary). acikerisim.uludag.edu.tr
  • Temizkan, S. P., Uslu, A. N., study of edible herbs sold in the Safranbolu market, Journal of Tourism and Gastronomy Studies, 11(1), 2023.

Official sources

  • Amasya Valiliği, Amasya Mutfağı / Amasya Cuisine, Amasya Valiliği Kültür Yayınları, 2010 (recipes for madımak, pirpirim and pancar).
  • Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Kültür Portalı, Amasya traditional cuisine: the entries Madımak and Pirpirim (Semizotu). kulturportali.gov.tr

Other sources

  • Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, Yöre Mutfağı (Regional Cuisine) page.
  • Madımak (Polygonum cognatum) entry, Turkish Wikipedia (plant characteristics, naming, regional uses).
  • Tashjian, S., "Amasya: Cuisine", Houshamadyan, 2022 (compiled from Kapriel H. Simonian, Houshamadyan Bondagan Amasyo, Venice, 1966). houshamadyan.org
  • Middle Black Sea Development Agency (OKA), Lezzet (promotional publication on the cuisines of Amasya, Çorum, Samsun and Tokat).

Online sources