The first thing we realized after we bought our field was that, first of all, we had to have a house. Doing business in the field, establishing a farm means spending time there. That's why our first priority was to build our house in which we would feel happy, and our workshop, which will be the starting point of everything we want to do in the next years, together with this house. Our first two years were spent with the house, infrastructure works, soil analysis, trainings, getting to know the environment, learning about the climate, and integrating the team.
As we entered 2021, we decided that we wanted to specialize in medicinal and aromatic plants and to realize their agriculture, as well as beekeeping and honey production. While embarking on all these, we aimed to gather our collective efforts and values under the umbrella of a legal entity. That's why we turned our formation into a cooperative in 2021 and established the Limited Responsibility Bayramiç Women's Initiative Production and Business Cooperative, or Bayramiç Women's Cooperative in short. Don't look at it's name is a women's cooperative. We have 8 female and 3 male members. Our door is open to anyone who has the same goals and path as us.
Of course, our story is not that short and adventurous. Since we couldn't bring a master to the village, we bought a welding machine and made our own workshop benches, from finding natural alternatives to the soil-poisoning ideas given by so-called agricultural engineers, from building a roof to our house that suddenly collapsed, to our experimental efforts for the distillation of plants, from the excitement we experienced while tasting the first honey of our bees to the farm, and the road to the farm was closed. What adventures we had until the excavations we did with digging and shovel for What is enjoyable is not reaching the goal, but the experiences we have on the way there.
What has this adventure taught us?
We are part of the world we live in. Like a tree, like a rock, like a butterfly, like a fox, like a leaf, like a bee, like a human. We are not above or below anyone or anything. We are one whole.
What makes all experiences really valuable are the people we share them with. Life becomes so much more enjoyable when we are together.