Re: True Horticultural Humor - Turkish Seed Packets
Absolutely loved it. Made my, until then rather bleak, day.
Thank you Bob!
Margaret Moir
Olive Hill Farm
Margaret River, Western Australia.
www.wn.com.au/olivehill
----- Original Message -----
From: Bob Beer <sazci@hotmail.com>
To: <medit-plants@ucdavis.edu>
Sent: Friday, March 23, 2001 11:32 AM
Subject: True Horticultural Humor - Turkish Seed Packets
> (Note: If you are extremely easily offended consider this your warning,
but
> I had a good giggle!)
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> Yesterday I went down to the Istanbul plant and bird market near the
> spice bazaar. It's quite a trip. Plant-wise it's not spectacular--flats
and
> flats of pansies and primroses and stocks, and a few really common shrubs.
> Not to mention the occasional pile of wild-dug Urginea bulbs being sold at
> high prices as Amaryllis and tulips, or even as Bromeliads!
>
> But yesterday I did find a small treasure: "Stella" brand seeds. It seems
> some unfortunate Stella fella was charged with translating the names and
> directions on the packet into English, and knowing minimal English, took a
> Turkish-English dictionary and tried to do a word-by-word translation.
Not
> a good idea when you are working from a language as radically "other" as
> Turkish, as evidenced by the results, which I share here:
>
>
> STELLA
> Navel With Cos Lettuce Semen
>
> Specialities:
>
> This type of production is green colour and large leafs type.
>
> This kind of production isvery tight and straight navel type.
>
> This kind of production is seedling plant grove up cold pillows.
>
> This kind of production ispart of navel colour is yellow.
>
> This kind of production isvery stron about cold weather and middle early.
>
> This kind of production is weight head about 1.5 - 2 kg between changed.
>
>
>
> The other type of "Cos Lettuce Semen" (which, it must be added, sports a
> picture of a very healthy-looking pepper plant) has the following
> specialities:
>
> This kind of production is curly leafs of type.
>
> This kind of production is green colour and crackly plant.
>
> This kind of production is very delicious that for rearon many people
prefer
> this type.
>
> This kind of production is main-part weight 400-500 gr.
>
> This kind of production is reaping time normally condition 65-70 days.
>
>
>
> There was also a package of with a big picture of a watermelon, and the
> simple statement, "Semen".
>
> The scariest thing is that all the above makes perfect sense to me...a
sure
> sign that I have been in Turkey way too long (or just long enough
perhaps)!
> :)
>
> Bob
>
>
> P.S. Maybe I should say to any Turks on the list that this is not meant to
> belittle either Turks or Turkey - After all it works both ways and many
> times I have watched Turks, with infinite patience, trying to make sense
> (with a steadily intensifying look of incomprehension spreading over their
> face) of a westerner's best attempt at a coherent Turkish sentence!
> Türkleştiremediklerinizdenmişiz yani...) :)
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