Mastic
We are not as yet able to buy mastic from Çeşme! Waiting with enthusiasm for the mastic production activities in Çeşme to bear fruit, we nevertheless supply our mastic from Chios, which still is the only reliable and sustainable source of it.
Mastic has been used for hundreds of years in drug making, cosmetics, dyes, food and alcoholic drinks industries in the form of mastic oil and resin. In Roman times, toothpicks were made of mastic tree wood. The mastic tree is an 4-5 meters tall evergreen bush. Its root can reach down 20-25 meters, for which reason endures droughts and salt; even following a calamity like a landfire it can rise up in relatively short time and renew itself. Mastic tree grows slowly and lives more than a hundred years. It starts secreting its balm at around 6 years of age and reaches its peak of productivity at 15 years to yield 1-2 kilogams of mastic resin. It is curious that, even if it grows in many places elsewhere (in Morocco, in the Iberian peninsula, in the French riviera, in the Canary islands), its incomparable balm is a gift reserved for those who live in its homeland, in Alaçatı, Çeşme and the island of Chios.
Summer is the harvest season for mastic resin. A transparent, colorless juice drops from the bark of the bushy tree which, when evaporated, becomes mastic. The harvest is cleaned of dust and dirt, washed in lightly soaped water, rinsed in clear water, laid out on linen cloths to dry. Finally, any remaining dirt that sticks is removed using a knife. For marketing, mastic drops are grouped under names as "Big eyedrop" of "Tiny eyedrop".
Mastic is a rare and costly agricultural product. It can be priced up to 500-600 TL a kilo in spice shops. But unfortunately our own production, compared to that of Chios, does not count for much. Enterprises and activities of implantation in Çeşme undertaken by Tema Foundation and other men of affairs sensitive to this issue give us some hope.
