Journal · Notes from Alaçatı
Alaçatı in autumn: after the season, October to early December
Alaçatı in autumn, from October to early December, is the season when the crowds leave and the sea is still mild, olives are picked, the first wild greens return and the streets of Hacımemiş grow quiet but stay alive.
Alaçatı in autumn is, to us, the gentlest time of the year. In October the summer crowds leave, but the sea does not cool at once: on long-term averages the water off Çeşme is around 21 °C in October and around 19 °C in November, and it varies from year to year. October, November and early December are a season of swimming, olives and quiet streets.
In October we still go down to the sea in the mornings. The beaches have emptied and the water lets go of its summer warmth slowly. For the months in figures, see our pages 'Alaçatı through the year' and the weather and sea temperature guide; here we only want to tell you how it feels: walking home from a swim in a mild wind, a calm we never notice in the summer crowds.
Around Çeşme it is olive time. In 2025 the olive and mastic harvest in Çeşme opened in mid-September, with the season's first olives picked at Ayasaranda. The Zeytincik area of Germiyan, with close to fifty thousand trees, is known as a 'sea of olives'. Olives for oil are usually picked in November and December. Cloths spread under the trees, poles tapping the branches: this is the sound of autumn.
With the first rains the greens begin to come back. Wild greens can be found in every month in the Aegean; turp otu (wild radish greens) is gathered from autumn on, while radika and the others are at their fullest from February to May. Greens gathered by women from Çeşme's villages come down to the neighbourhood markets; we tell the story of the Saturday market in a separate essay.
In Hacımemiş the stone streets go quiet but they do not die. Neighbours sit by their doors, cats share the sunny thresholds, houses get ready for the stove. From October to the end of autumn there is much to do and a week passes quickly; in December the town settles into its winter calm, and two or three days suit it. We write about winter in 'Winter in Alaçatı: a monthly stay', and you can ask our AI assistant on the site, Uğur 2.0, anything that is on your mind.