May 2025
Tree Care and Bee Preparation Festival
At the Algı campus, we harvested our olive trees in December 2024 and pruned them in January this year. In this invitation in May, we have two main goals: To clear the ground under the olive trees of weeds and to plant the Züfa Grass seedlings that we received as a grant to feed the inhabitants of the beehives that we will put in August, and to establish systems where they can grow safely.
These goals are quite comprehensive, so they cover the month of May and maybe some of the summer months as well. Check your calendar and let us know when you can come.
Update on our campus!
This is the view from the balcony of the house in early May,
It's not obvious from the photo, but the weeds are over our knees. Weeding under the olives will give the trees a breath of fresh air.
Elsewhere, mowing the grass will nourish the soil and make the land fire resistant. We will completely separate the center line of the tree rows from the grass for our seedlings.
Zufa Herb Cultivation
Our seedlings of Züfa Herb, a medicinal aromatic plant, which Marmaris Ecological Agricultural Development Cooperative gave as a grant within the scope of the Bee Pastures Project carried out in cooperation with Çarık Association, have already arrived at their new homes.
Züfa Herb It grows wild and likes the harshest conditions. It grows in the driest places, on stony soils, pastures, calcareous soils in general. It does not grow well in humid places. It is native to the Mediterranean. The flowering tops and leaves are harvested. The best time to harvest is when the flower is not yet fully open. This is because at this stage the flower has a higher concentration of active ingredients. Since flowering is gradual, harvesting can take place throughout the summer.
Hyssopus officinalis is the scientific name of Züfa grass, also known as Hyssopus officinalis. It consists of upright or slightly rising stems up to 5o cm high. It has semi-woody branches at the base.
The leaves are pale green, with a long lanceolate sharp apex. The basal leaves are longer and end in short petioles, while the upper ones are sessile and shorter. They are aromatic and contain high levels of essential oils. It is also effective against carminative, asthma, expectorant, cough, urinary tract irritation, circulatory disorders, burns and frostbite. Compresses can be applied as it provides healing of wounds. It supports digestive processes by stimulating the secretion of gastric juices.
Züfa Herb is an aromatic herb used in cooking. It gives food a pleasant, bitter and slightly spicy flavor. It is used to flavor meats, soups and salads.
It is widely used as a flavoring in the liquor industry and perfumery.
“The Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Project, called ”DoST KaSaBa!", is supported by the international Turquoise Fund. The aim is to contribute to the development of habitats that we call climate-resistant bee pastures for bees, whose living and food areas have shrunk after the fire.
The main goal of the project is to turn DoST, or ‘Sustainable Gleaning from Nature’ and KaSaBa, or ‘Women's Health Gardens’ and ‘Bee Pastures' into a transferable and sustainable production model in a holistic process and practice.
Campus Life
We enter our compound, which is 3 km inland from the asphalt, with a big car with 4×4 traction, especially if it has just rained and the soil is muddy. So, most probably one of us will pick you up from the beginning of the dirt road with such a car. In some cases, the road may be in conditions where even this car cannot go. So it would be great if you can be prepared to walk in the magnificent nature with your rubber boots and light backpack.
We opened our 2-storey main building on October 14-19, 2024 with the ’Be Yourself, Shine with Your Light‘ camp and then with the ’Harvest Festival‘ in December. We heat the building, which has a stone living room, a concrete second floor and a wooden floor covering, with stoves on both floors and wood collected from the farm land.
We have comforts such as dishwashers and washing machines in our compound, where we get domestic water from our own well and electricity from solar energy. Our only limitation is that we cannot use both at the same time. We obtain hot water by heating it in the stove. It is possible to take a bath with this water.
We have 3 toilets on our campus, one of which is outside. Two of the toilets work with an environmentally friendly system that we describe as dry toilets. The outside toilet is alaturka and flush.
What should you bring with you?
- Long-sleeved, light-colored t-shirt/shirt and pants
- Boots that cover almost to the knee
- Water flask
- Light-colored hat with a large diameter that covers your neck and ears and can be tied so that it does not fly off in the wind
Our dream has always been to take care of ourselves while doing what needs to be done to care for the trees, the grass and the house; that is to say, to meet, to meet, to play, to dance, to sing, to mingle in circles around the fire, to form meaningful bonds.
I invite you to commune with nature and with each other, to discover what is possible for us to meet ‘in the beautiful world our hearts know’.