Guide
The farm is half an hour from İzmir. Coming along the İzmir–Ankara road you turn right at the Kemalpaşa junction, continue toward Torbalı and Selçuk for about four kilometres, then take a dirt road on the right for another 800 metres. It sits on the skirts of Nif Dağı beside dense woodland of olive, pine and many kinds of fruit tree.
At the centre is an otağ. The word means a tent of hair or felt, but this one was built in concrete because it is meant for visitors and meant to stay; inside it is arranged entirely to the local patterns of the Kazakhs of Kazakhstan, and staff in Kazakh dress show and sell handicrafts.
The restaurant serves traditional Central Asian cooking, drawing on Kazakh, Uzbek and Kyrgyz kitchens: Uzbek pilav, bavursak, goose sucuk, veal with vegetables, kavurdak, şaşlık, steamed mantı, chicken legs over charcoal, çiğ börek and the soup called kespe köje. Yoghurt and cheeses made from the milk of the farm's own sheep and goats are sold as well.
Horses are the point of the place — the strongest motif in Central Asian Turkic culture, and what the valley is built around. Besides Central Asian horses the farm breeds Haflinger mares of Austrian origin, gentle animals that give a great deal of milk; the foals raised for riding are known for their calm. Visitors can ride for a fee, in the manège or across the farmland and through the forest with a guide. Those who would rather not ride walk instead, through woodland and grass full of poppies and daisies.
