Born in 1954, Nardane Kuscu is a former elementary school teacher who changed her life around when she reached retirement. She and her family now operate a farm in the Kandira district of Turkey’s northwestern Kocaeli province.
Kuscu became a school teacher in 1972, and got married two years later to a military man. She remained in Istanbul, teaching in less advantaged areas. She says she relished being around children and exchanging ideas with them. Nardane Kuscu now has 1,200 seeds in her possession, having collected them over decades. She says she doesn’t trust hybrid seeds. “A horse and a donkey may have a mule together,” she comments. “But the mule can’t give birth to either a horse or a donkey.”
Narkoy is the family farm. It serves as a corporate retreat and also as an educational opportunity for students to visit and stay for research purposes. Kuscu says that they are protecting natural habitats by keeping their carbon footprint as small as possible, carrying out their workshops in the open air is one way of doing this.