Seferihisar Municipality found seeds of Topan Karakilcik wheat during the Seed Swap Festival in 2011, an ancient variety of local wheat. The ancient seeds were planted and the first harvest was made in July 2016.
Seferihisar Municipality initiated Can Yucel Seed Center within the scope of the project “Different Agriculture is Possible” to discover local seeds.
The agriculture project is consisted of four steps as to establish farmers markets to start and improve ecological agriculture, to found producer unities, association and cooperatives, to improve agricultural products as industrial end-products and to discover local seeds. Can Yucel Seed Center staff goes on excursions to the villages to find out local seeds kept in wooden chests.
On such an excursion in 2011, Can Yucel Seed Center team found a special wheat variety called Topan Karakilcik. These wheat seeds were planted and after five years of struggle, there were enough wheat to be harvested and grinded into flavor in the traditional mill of the village. The hundred percent pure flavor was made into pulp by women in Turgut and Ulamis and cooked in stone ovens in Beyler. This natural bread is now on sale in Seferihisar Bakkali of the Municipality located at Seferihisar Center and Sigacik.
Seferihisar Belediye Başkanı Tunç Soyer, stated that Karakilcik seeds are in danger of extinction, what’s why the Municipality paid special attention to this variety. He said: “A village elderly of Godence village presented us old seeds. We struggled for years for these seeds for sprout and finally last month we had managed to grind 1 ton of flavor out of these seeds. These sourdough breads are healthy and intensely delicious. The sales of the bread would also contribute to the well-being of the village population. ”