Balyolu - Walk The Honey Road

Merhaba!

We are Balyolu (Bal-yole-uu), a holistic incubator for rural food entrepreneurs, funded by tasting tours socially conscious consumers (YOU!). Our name means “the road of honey,” because we’re busy building the world’s first honey tasting trekking route, based on ancient Silk Road paths. For us, food is more than a product. It is the heart of a local culture, the seed of a rural enterprise, and the start of a wild adventure.

With Balyolu you don’t buy a product, you live it.
So come join us in 2013, social good has never tasted this sweet …

Learn All About Balyolu In 90 Seconds

About

We started off by asking…

How can we build exciting environmental jobs in rural Turkey that put women in charge, that tap into ancient food cultures, and that connect global travelers with rural entrepreneurs to taste some of the best local food in the world…? What if we could build the Napa Valley of honey? What if we could use food culture to transform economic ecosystems?

In 2012 (last year!) we launched a Kickstarter Campaign – to raise $35,000 in 30 days to fund our first four honey tasting pilot trips in Northeastern Turkey (and to cover our startup costs). With the help of 273 incredible backers from around the world, we raised over $41,000!

Soon, we were off to compete at the GSVC and MIT business plan competitions as semi-finalists, even winning audience favorite – twice! – all the while preparing for our very first trips!

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Trips

Balyolu offers a variety of unique trips with travel standards unlike any other you will find in the industry. All of our trips are capped at 6 participants to ensure an intimate personalized experience connecting you with the local food, culture, and traditions of Turkey’s Northeast.

Our trips are also locally and socially good! We work with local guides, operators, villages, and TURSAB certified Sinir Seyahat to ensure your experience is one that spreads good throughout the local community. More than 70% of your trip cost goes directly to local entrepreneurs, villages, and women leaders.

We have an exciting line-up of trips and experiences for summer 2013!

For starters, we have partnered with professional photographer David Hagerman (who photographs for New York Times, Travel+Leisure, Food & Wine & more…) to offer special photography tours! We also are featuring long weekend tasting trips, as well as honey and trekking expeditions.

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Products

In 2013-2014 Balyolu will start marketing and selling products from our local community artisanal producers.

We give community members start-up grants and we offer marketing, distribution, and facility resources, taking 20% of the final product revenue to cover our fees.

Some of our unique products include cosmetics with ingredients sourced from our all-natural entirely locally grown honey and wax. We will also be offering a wide variety of honeys, sourced locally and from beekeepers we work with and know personally (and would like to introduce you to!).

We have a number of other great products we are preparing for you. Stay tuned and check back in for product updates and more.

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Media

Since our founding in 2012, Balyolu has received incredible press coverage from over 30 online and print media outlets, most notably National Geographic & National Geographic Weekend, The Guardian, Tree Hugger, Today’s Zaman, and the Green Prophet.

In particular, we would like to thank RedMint Communications, our PR partner for helping us get some of this wonderful attention.

To learn more about some of our work or to inquire about writing an article, come check out our Media page.