Every drop of olive oil used in Roots Kitchen comes from Huile Sauvage, a farm in a small mountain village named Şenköy overlooking Lake Bafa.
Noyan and Gizem tend to an ancient grove of over 5000 hillside trees of the local olive variety Memecik. Gizem used to work for the Turkish Ministry of Economy. Noyan came from France for work before falling in love with the region; his previous life as a lawyer ending in pursuit of the humble olive. They decided to take over the then-abandoned grove in 2019. For two years the two-person team came and went from Izmir, camping during harvests before finally making the move to Şenköy permanently in 2023. Noyan learnt about trees, agronomy and aromatic plants and now gives lectures on agroecology and regenerative agriculture applied to olive farming. Gizem has opened a micro bakery inside the farm and makes sourdough bread from selected ancient varieties of wheat. Maya, being born in November, is still confined to the motivation team but she’s doing a wonderful job there! Their extra virgin olive oil has won international awards for quality in both organic and monovarietal oil categories.
