Kocabıyık Orhan

It is a very old tradition to store the snow piles frozen in the peaks of the mountains during the winter months and consume them on hot summer days.

When refrigerators were not so common, snow and ice production, was a business in summer days and it continues with traditional methods in very few places today.

People in this business presses the snow that accumulates in the winter to the slopes of the mountains that do not get direct sunlight, and cuts them into molds with saws in summer and loads them into the sacks to bring them to the cities and towns. Among their customers are people who want to give away snow for charity, sherbet sellers, kebab shops, ice cream shops, and pudding shops.

The number of people doing this business has decreased in the late 18th century when ice factories started to get common, and was almost none when the refrigerators got their room in every house in the 20th century. Nobody does this business anymore -except for Kocabıyık Orhan's family and a few families more. Sixty-five years old Orhan Aktaş is living in Aydın, Madran, continues this business he took over from his family with his wife Şadiye and his children Öznur, Turan, and Erdoğan.