Olive farm near Izmir

Our concept revolves around olive farm experience, communal living, travel stories and exposure to local history and culture. The most unique aspect will be to see relatively simple life in a traditional mid-size agriculture-oriented Aegean town away from mass tourism and bigger cities. There are some less-known historical and nature sites like Sardis, Mount Sipylus, Lydian tombs of Bintepe worth visiting. You can always reach other well-known locations a few hours away like Ephesus or Pamukkale by bus. It is possible to go hiking around the local hills and villages. There is a decent local winemaker not far from our location open to visitors. There are also various foreign language books you can read while here. We have a projector for watching films at night. Backgammon, puzzles and card games are quite popular among visitors.

Our farm is situated one-hour inland from Izmir, 5 km away from the nearest town, Turgutlu (aka Kasaba). We used to breed sheep, which is no longer the case. We have around 200 olive and various fruit trees in two separate fields. Our main produce has become high quality olive oil. Olives are harvested by hand for several weeks. In the winter and early spring, we prune our trees and prepare the fields for the next season. We do not use any chemicals and follow a minimal tillage system relying on rainwater and sheep manure as fertilizer only. The area is under constant change so volunteers should be comfortable with this farm in a mixed urban-rural setting. There is still plenty of family-based agricultural activity around. We drive to our farm daily and prefer to sleep in town, a typical inner Aegean one, which is considerable in size with all its buzz and local characteristics. A certain level of maintenance is always required to keep the buildings intact. I can also use help with painting, small construction and restoration projects, cleaning and landscaping.