While I was leaving the silence of the night to the dim movements of dawn, a hand touched my shoulder in the sweetest part of my sleep. Shortly after, with my eyes still closed, enjoying the shy smile of the sun on my face, I hit the road. Three children are walking in front of me with six-to-seven meter poles in their hands. The smallest one took the longest pole. The pole often gets stuck in their feet. He doesn’t care about this and that the villagers we walk with are laughing at him, he makes fun of me.

The incessant sentences of little Mustafa, who served as my guide during my stay in Katrancı village, the laughter of his father’s loud voice, the sounds of birds heralding the day, and the murmur of the weakly flowing stream seem to be in a vague dream. I barely woke up from my sleep; I am so peaceful that I actually don’t want to wake up.

It doesn’t take long before my eyes open as if they were tearing apart my surprise. How not to open it; Above me, exactly twenty meters above me, two huge men are hanging from long poles attached to tree branches, moving from branch to branch, dancing on the trees, despite their clumsiness on the ground.

When March comes, it is possible to see this view in many villages such as Katrancı, which make their living from pine nuts. Stone pine can reach 20-25 meters. The green leaves gathered on its long and straight trunk seem to have suddenly opened up with the joy of meeting the sky. The cones from which peanuts are obtained are among these leaves. Gatherers use long poles to reach them.

Poplar wood is preferred because of its flexibility and smoothness. The hook at the end of the pole makes it easier to climb the tree and for the peanut collector to reach distant branches. Children here learn to climb before they can walk. This is how experienced people who have been wandering around the treetops for years make the eyes of a city dweller who comes to the village pop out of their sockets.

Katrancı village is in Yatağan district of Muğla. To reach the village, you must first go to Turgut. Minibuses with top trunks full of items are waiting for you there. If you are talkative, your job is easy. Even if you’re not, it doesn’t matter, people in this area will always find an excuse to make you talk.

Depending on the age of the person you sit next to, you can learn about the work migration to Bodrum and Marmaris in the summer, the decreasing presence of wood craftsmen in the region, that Katrancı has 450 households, that 2500 households, including the surrounding villages, make their living from pine nuts, and that this means 4500 hectares of land, and that all these lands were protected as forest areas after 1945.

Katrancı is right next to Yatağan Thermal Power Plant. The pistachio green that I admired on my way to the village means much more to me now. Mukhtar Hüseyin Kocagöz says that the power plant is slowly killing the trees. Especially in June, the smoke coming out of the chimneys burns the pine nuts. We tour the village with the headman. He stands in front of a huge mound of cones. For the first time, I look at a pine cone as a buyer.

He continues to explain: “Don’t look at how introverted she looks. Once she gets the sun, her wedding dress opens like a girl. A peanut comes out so that you can taste it.” The cones collected during March and April are first laid out in the sun. The layers of dried cones are opening. It contains shelled pine nuts. The peanuts are sieved to separate them from cone residues. The final stage is the cracking of the shell.

For the last ten years, this work has been done by machines. Shelled peanuts have a very important feature; they can be stored in this form for ten years. Local people see it as a gold bracelet that can be exchanged at any time and does not lose its value. Still, no one is hiding their peanuts. Because it has good prices and is in high demand. One kilo of peanuts is obtained from approximately one hundred cones, and after the shells are cracked, 20-25 million buyers are found.

Sales are mostly to big cities and wholesale. The region’s peanut production is around 50 tons annually. Other sources of income are olive growing and tobacco.

It is very close to the center of Katrancı Menteşe Principality. However, its history goes back much further. On one side is Stratonikeia, known as a city of the Khrysaor union, and on the other side is Lagina, one of the important centers of Caria. The name Stratonikeia dates back to B.C. He took it from Stratonike, the wife of the Seleucid king Antiochus, who was on the throne between 281-261. Kent B.C. It had glorious days until 133.

However, when Aristonicus, who rebelled against the inheritance of the Pergamon kingdom to Rome, took refuge in the city, it was besieged by the Romans and its people starved. The ancient city still experiences its misfortune today. Its ruins are in the middle of the abandoned village of Eskihisar.

Lagina can be reached via the dirt road leaving Turgut location. The city, one of the important centers of Caria, has maintained its feature of being a settlement since the ancient bronze age. The famous Hekate temple is also here. The name of Hecate, a Goddess of Anatolian origin, is associated with magic and evil. Hekate, the daughter of Perses and the last face of Artemis, the Moon Goddess, is actually the Goddess of “life and death”.

Maybe that’s why Shakespeare made her the chief witch in Macbeth.