Hazelnut Groves & Ordu Cuisine

Ordu is the capital of Turkish hazelnuts. The province holds roughly 96,000 hectares of hazelnut groves and produces more than 100,000 tonnes a year — on its own accounting for close to a third of Turkey's entire hazelnut crop, in a country that supplies around 70% of the world's hazelnuts. The groves that climb the slopes surrounding the city, rising from sea level toward the highland plateaus, form the most recognisable landscape of the Eastern Black Sea. For centuries these gardens have been the region's principal livelihood, and they sit at the very heart of Ordu's culture, cuisine and identity.

Harvest & Culture

The harvest traditionally takes place in August, when the groves come alive with families gathering the nuts through communal labour; for visitors, this is the most vivid time to witness rural life up close.

Gastronomy

This destination is not merely a scenic stop but a combined gastronomy-and-nature experience that pairs the hazelnut groves with Ordu's regional cuisine. The fertile soil and humid climate yield a rich and varied table. Kale soup and kale rolls (karalahana), cornbread, anchovy rice, cherry-laurel pickle (taflan turşusu), the geographically protected Ordu pide (Ordu yağlaması) and hazelnut-based desserts are dishes travellers should not miss. Roadside hazelnut workshops and village breakfast houses make ideal stops for tasting fresh hazelnuts, hazelnut butter and grape molasses.

Visiting, Access & Tips

Agencies favour this route for its visual and experiential richness: grove views in every shade of green, panoramic photo points and authentic village tables combine in a single programme. The average visit, including tasting and viewpoint stops, lasts two to three hours. On guided tours it is usually paired with the Boztepe cable-car panorama, Ulugöl Nature Park or the Perşembe highland excursions. Nearby highlights include Boztepe, the Ordu seafront, and the Çambaşı and Perşembe plateaus. The most striking photographs are taken in the early morning as mist disperses among the groves, and during the harvest. Access is easy by road; Ordu-Giresun Airport is about half an hour away, and most grove roads accommodate tour coaches, though minibuses are more practical on narrow village lanes. Breakfast houses offer parking and bus access; disabled access varies by venue, with flat-courtyard establishments being more suitable.

Route & Best Time

The best time to visit runs from late spring to autumn, with the August harvest and September forming the peak season. Although the groves stand bare and quiet in winter, the rows of hazelnut trees under snow near the higher plateaus offer a different photographic atmosphere. A suggested itinerary can be structured as an early-morning grove walk and photography, followed by a village breakfast and hazelnut tasting, with a Boztepe viewpoint stop in the afternoon.