Experience a sustainable homestead life in Kocaeli, Turkey

Details

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  Description

  I recently have built a small house on a 2000 meter square land with a residential, woodland and orchard area, on which I am planning to develop a farm using the principals of permaculture and organic farming and make quality homemade bio-compatible products.
  The place is located in the village, Selimiye, on the skirts of the city of Izmit, Kocaeli province, which is not so far from the city center. The area is located on the edge of the valley, full of forest land and agricultural lands abundant in fruit trees and orchards and it is on the ancient Silk Road. Locals are friendly and they are getting used to seeing visitors day by day. There is already a trailer park and camping site near our place, where one can meet and socialize with local and foreign tourists that have the same enthusiasm for nature.
  What I love about my place is that it's really versatile in the sense that it has both an open area with fertile soil for an orchard and a woodland area which allows you to have a direct contact with the raw nature of the forest, allowing you to stumble upon a vast diversity of flora and fauna.
  
  I am actually a translator by profession. I used to work as a volunteer translator and editor for the cultural project called Ukrainer and right now I am translating a book from Ukrainian to Turkish as part of my intellectual aspirations , but I also have this childhood dream of running an ecofriendly homestead as off grid as possible. I live with with my partner, Ruslan, from Ukraine. He was a tour guide back in Ukraine, but now he's helping me with the household while adjusting to the country and find his place here in terms of career as well.
  
  We both love getting to know about different cultures. Ruslan has a special curiosity about Ashkenazi and Sephardic communities due to his knowledge on the Jewish community that lived and contributed to the social and cultural life in Lviv, his hometown. I myself am more focused on Ukrainian history, culture and literature because of the amazing five years I spent back in Kyiv and spectacular aspects of life and culture I got to discover about the Ukrainian society.
  
  For now we do everything on our own, taking care of the household and making improvements both in and outside of the house, which already takes a lot of time and effort. We really wish to make it in time this year to revive the orchard area on the land and take care of the woodland area(it is partially inaccessible due to the ivies with thorns and there are a lot of trees that require extra care) before summer whereas we are having some challenges in terms of time, deadlines, etc.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Art Projects

  Language practice

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Farmstay help

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  Interests

  

  Events & social

  

  Self development

  

  Sustainability

  

  LGBTQ

  

  Farming

  

  Culture

  

  Carpentry

  

  Hitchhiking

  

  Plant care

  

  Music

  

  History

  

  DIY & crafts

  

  Books

  

  Languages

  

  Gardening

  

  Cooking & food

  

  Yoga / Wellness

  

  Nature

  

  Beach

  

  Hiking

  

  Cycling
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  What's this?
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We can always go for a walk in the valley during the day for sure. I can show different trails and give information on the land and local history on the spot. Other than that as a former language instructor I can teach any of the languages I speak well, such as English, Ukrainian, and of course Turkish, which is my native language. We can have handcrafting activities such as knitting, bookbinding and even tapestry etc.
  Both Ruslan and I would love some drinking company from time to time, if the guests would like that. We can also visit the restaurant in the trailer and camping area to socialize with both locals and tourists and try different kinds of wine and food.
  I can share my knowledge on homemade products such as cheese, butter, yoghurt, fermented products such as vinegar, homemade beer and wine, sauerkraut etc. and I can even teach these in practice.
  We're always interested in folklore and traditions of different cultures, their social norms and conventions. We'd love to hear on that topic comprehensively as I and my partner both had our education on humanities.
  I myself would like to learn about the agricultural techniques they apply in different countries and get to know the environmental and agricultural policies in different countries.

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  Help

  We actually could use any kind of help indoors, such as cleaning and cooking, but especially outdoors as well, which includes landscaping, carpentry and forestry involving a lot of digging, shoveling and carrying heavy objects . Therefore we will need at least one of the two guests to be confident in his/her strength and durability since our place needs a lot of improvement. Other than that, we indeed expect our guests to have a basic understanding on sustainability and eco-friendly living.
  
  I will be doing tasks together with the workawayers most of the time outdoors and would love to share my skills, experience and knowledge on sustainability and farming as well as languages and culture. Pretty much the same goes for my partner, Ruslan, but indoors. We probably will be eating and doing tasks together most of the time and if we are lucky to make some spare time, will socialize and spend time for personal growth.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  Turkish: Fluent
  Ukrainian: Fluent
  French: Beginner

  This host offers a language exchange
  I would love to learn Greek.
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  Accommodation

  Our house has one ground floor, on which we have the living room and the kitchen together, a guest room and a bathroom and a loft, in which our bedroom and the attic is located.
  
  We can host 2 guests in our guestroom, in which are two comfortable mattresses, one arm chair and soon to be a small table and a space for clothes(a rack and fabric storage bag and boxes).
  
  Most important part is that we use a diy compost toilet, which means we separate the liquid and solid waste, and we cover the solid with saw dust. Although we can make an exception for women, who may have a hard time separating the liquid and solid waste(we'll simply need to use more sawdust and empty the solid container more often).
  
  We have a clean functioning shower with a small electric boiler, but the boiler doesn't heat up the water so much in winter, when the tap water gets really cold. In such cases we heat up water on the wood heater, which heats up enough water for one person in about half an hour.
  
  We have a well functioning washing machine, so no need to worry about the laundry. Clothes dry within 12-24 hours depending on the fabric.
  
  We don't have an oven but we have all the other kitchen supplies such as electric stove, an airfryer, bread maker etc.
  
  Guests are welcome to use any kitchen supplies of course. We always have coffee beans(we grind coffee fresh and make it with V60) and various kinds of tea.
  
  We go for grocery shopping once a week on Tuesdays and buy our fruits and vegetables from the fresh market in the nearest town, Ihsaniye. We can discuss once a week our preferences and make a list for shopping. We'll eat whatever the guests will eat, unless they have some dietary restrictions.

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  What else ...

  The city center is about one hour far from our place by public transportation(it mostly consists of buses, but there is also a tram and some ferry rides during the day). I would suggest that walking on the seaside and exploring the city may be interesting. There are some old villas from the Ottoman era with unique architecture and interior.
  The city's archeological museum is small, but it offers the opportunity to see some pieces of columns and statues from the antiquity with remnants of colors and pigments(which is a really rare thing), which debunked our understanding on ancient architecture suggesting all white buildings and statues. With its old name Nicomedia, the city of Izmit was actually the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire before Constantinople took its place, so I think though it's not much to see, the city offers a subtle but deep glance in Byzantine and Ottoman history.
  
  For those who may look to go further, it's not hard at all to visit Istanbul from where we live. You can easily take a train in the morning from the center directly to Kadikoy in Istanbul and come back even on the same day. The same goes for visiting Bursa, but by bus.

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Can host digital nomads

  This host has indicated that they love having digital nomads stay.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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  My animals / pets

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