Pastoral Valley
Pastoral Valley Organic Agriculture and Ecological Life Farm, located in the middle of a valley surrounded by pine forests in Yaniklar Village, is designed for those who want to get away from city life, stress and hustle and spend a calm and peaceful time.
Pastoral Valley Farm, which offers accommodation for 12 months of the year with its creek flowing next to it, stone, wood, and mudbrick houses on a land of 42 acres, brings together organic agriculture, ecological life, and holiday understanding. Everything on this farm, which is dominated by the “return to village” mentality, is designed with an ecological architectural approach.
Pastoral Valley, which acts with a sustainable tourism approach by preserving natural resources, has a concept of eco-tourism, farm, and agricultural tourism. The farm, which cares for the local values and culture, often attracts people living in big cities, has welcomed its visitors since 2006.
The farm, which was brought to life to offer an alternative to sea-sand and sun holidays with a classical tourism understanding, is one of the most important examples of eco-tourism in our country.
Kargı River, which was born from the Western Taurus Mountains and reached the Mediterranean from the Coast of Yaniklar, passing by the Pastoral Valley, is an impressive beauty. Yaniklar Beach side by side with Akgol, where Caretta Caretta turtles are housed with migratory birds in their breeding area.
In addition to the natural beauties that amaze visitors, Lycian, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman influences can be seen in the region, which bears traces of thousands of years of historical history.
Pastoral Valley visitors are offered local meals prepared from organically produced products at the farm. In the dishes that have the characteristics of Mediterranean cuisine, the products that are not grown in the farm are supplied from the members of the “Organic Agriculture Producers Union”
Ahmet Kizen, who left Istanbul in 1980 and settled in Marmaris İcmeler village and worked as a tourism professional for a while, is the creator of Pastoral Valley idea.
The most important of the ecological life principles of Pastoral Valley is on natural nutrition. In this context, attention is paid to the preservation of the nutritional values of vegetables and fruits and to their cooking in this way.
There are special workshops for children to make kites, model planes, bread and pastries. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks at the farm, where pricing is made with the understanding of “all-inclusive produced on the farm”, includes all products produced in the garden and in the workshop.
More than 900 fruit trees and certified organic vegetables and forage crops produced as intermediates are produced in Pastoral Valley.
Walking on old mine roads, hiking, canyon expedition walk, swimming in the basin where the Kargi Stream was born, collecting from edible plants, are among the environmental activities that attract the attention of nature enthusiasts..
Pastoral Valley Ecological Life Farm, initiated with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the Global Environment Fund (GEF), and the Small Support Program (SGP), opens its doors to volunteers. Gardening, workshop and kitchen work are supported in the program, which includes 30 hours of farm work per week.
Activities such as swimming, sunbathing, underwater diving, and island tour are carried out on the beach where the Lodge is located, which is included in the Pastoral life project.
The European Voluntary System (EVS) project was carried out as a project where European youth could volunteer outside their own country and contact new cultures in the Pastoral Valley in October. Two group leaders and 6 young people from the Netherlands volunteered for 15 days and stayed in Pastoral Valley, Fethiye.
These were young people who had communication and adjustment problems, limited family ties, and participated in the therapy project.
Young people who participated in the project write a motivational letter to the Social Services institution in the Netherlands to indicate why they want to come. They obviously want to see themselves in this region, which has a different atmosphere, culture, and geography, maybe do business with the ‘group’ they did not feel they belonged to before, and experience the spirit of unity. It’s not a therapy in the form of seclusion, it’s a form of therapy that a person sees themselves in someone else.”
Tourism is carried out 12 months of the year in stone, wooden, and adobe houses designed with a natural architectural approach in these farms where the concepts of organic agriculture, ecological life, and holiday are evaluated together.
Those who choose Pastoral Valley, the organic tourism center for their holiday, can participate in agricultural activities in line with their wishes, and can try weaving rugs, making pottery, carving wood, weaving baskets, making noodles, jam and pickles in the workshops.