Sun Village

(all photos from Raimund)

Someday visit Güneşköy, an hour out of Ankara in a valley called Balaban.
It is a small settlement, an organic farm and greenhouse, a future ecovillage, and a joyful place to be.

The founders wanted to work land that was dry, poor in nutrients, and not easy to cultivate. Their goal? "We will show this can be done without pesticides or herbicides, and with minimal water needed from the ground." Now there are many rich fields thriving, a greenhouse full of tomatoes, and construction for a Mandala circular-frame wooden meeting house. Every Sunday a community of workers gathers here (most living full-time in the city of Ankara) to give their sunburnt skin and sweat in creating a village they hope to live in perhaps next year.

It's marvellous to find a place where people are actively engaging with the land. On Sunday we used our hands for sewing together long strings of peppers, for cutting the stems of greenbeans, carrying water from the natural spring, filtering soil and testing its chemicals, nailing and drilling cross-beams, and plastering mud onto a straw wall.

The site is surrounded by dry and bare hills, though there are other small farms growing tobacco, melons, corn and other vegetables that add color to the landscape. I hesitate to say 'traditional' technology, but most farmers here use limited irrigation, and can't afford the prices of synthetic fertilizers. Though many wish they could be more 'modern' with advanced technology, the continuation of small-scale agriculture is one way to allow the land to survive and support generations into the future.















This was a community of university professors, locals from the villages nearby, turkish, european, and american students, a librarian, a few construction workers, a chef, and some children running around. Güneşköy (meaning Sun Village) has been on this land four years now, and I think it'll have a brilliant future.

~~~alice