More than a hundred kinds of herbs, such as chicory, wild radish, leaf mustard, mallow, ivy, blessed thistle and mind-your-own-business, growing in the meadows of the Aegean region with the spring rains, have become the pioneers of gastronomic tourism as well as being the biggest source of income for Aegean women.Herbs, which offer special flavors of Mediterranean cuisine, grow in fertile soil in late February at the beginning of the rainy season. Herbs prepared in the form of salads, boiled, cooked with olive oil or as meat dishes, have been recently included in the sauce and dessert recipes of the most famous chefs.The Aegean herbs, which have been cultivated due to the increase in the interest in healthy living culture and Mediterranean cuisine, have become the livelihoods of many women living in the rural areas of the region.Women who sell the herbs in neighborhood markets also sell them online through social media sites. Some women try to increase the added value of their herbs by preparing sauces with olive oil.Nuran Erden, a resident of Germiyan village in Çeşme, is one of the participants of the Alaçatı Herb Festival, one of the leading festivals that have influenced the growing interest in herb culture. Erden noted that they are of nomadic origin and that herbs have a very important place within their culture.Pointing out that that aside from consuming herbs as a meal, they also use them for treatments of headache, nausea, and wound healing, Erden said, "People did not use to know anything about greengrocers, and they tried to live with whatever they had. Herbs were more important back then. People consumed the herbs they gathered by roasting with eggs for years, but nowadays young people do not pay much attention to gathering herbs. They do not know most of the weeds." Stressing that the bond with the old culture is broken, Erden said people have become used to ready-made things, saying 'Let's order online and have food home delivered.'" "They work, so they are right as well," Erden added.Many people who are curious about old cultures come to the villages to learn about herbs, and travel agencies have also been organizing herbal trips and thus trying to spread this culture.Stressing that there are days when they receive intense demand from hotels and restaurants and gather herbs on order, Erden stated that some herbs can be collected all year round, but the months of February-May are accepted as the richest period."'Aladiken,' patience dock, wild radish, wild asparagus, chicory, blessed thistle. Every season has its own herbs. Even some change taste by season. For example, when the chicory first comes out, it tastes bitter and then it gets sweetened. There are people who love it either way. It's good for headaches," Erden said, informing that wild asparagus is also known as ivy and "tilkişen" in the Aegean region. "It is a very valuable plant. It grows naturally and contains no additives. People are interested in herbal meals because they know this."Erden said that many women living in the villages in Çeşme gain their livelihoods from the herbs they gather and that the herbs that run out quickly in the neighborhood markets have received demands from the big cities like Istanbul and Ankara, highlighting that they are trying to gather and send the herbs to those who reached them.Şermin Tunç, one of the residents of Ovacık village, said that she has been sharing information about herb culture on a blog that she created online, and that she has been recently gathering herbal products such as thyme, sage, rosemary, chamomile, centaury and laurel, extracting their oils, preparing breakfast sauces and selling them online.In addition to Alaçatı Herb Festival, the herb festival in İzmir Urla attracts thousands of people every year. The festival, which takes place in Özbek village, brings together local people and tourists for two days. Organized for the seventh time this year, the festival has recently ended. Throughout the festival, Aegean herbs are gathered together with the naturalists by introducing herbs to the participants guided by women of Özbek village and experts on regional herbs.Tolga Kamiloğlu, the chef at the Department of Culinary Arts and Management at the Izmir University of Economics (IUE), also said that the Aegean herbs, which have been cultivated due to the interest it has attracted, are being grown, and that the commercial value of the herbs has increased.Noting that the use of Aegean herbs in menus has become a fashion, Kamiloğlu said, "The number of renewable herbs reaches 400-500. In our geography, close to 100 herbs are gathered in the spring. The herbs, accepted as a must for the Aegean cuisine, has recently attracted the attention of the world-famous chefs." Noting that there is already an escape from heavy meals in the world, Kamiloğlu said herbs offer significant flavor alternatives. "For example, we see that herbal mixtures are used too much as garnish beds under meat, and more herbs are included in the cold dishes. In recent years, there have been some people who tried herbs such as blessed thistle and mind-your-own-business in desserts."Kamiloğlu informed that chicory, wild radish and mallow are consumed as salads, while blessed thistle and mind-your-own-business are used in meat dishes, noting that with a program they have launched within the scope of the university, they visit Aegean villages and collect the old recipes in a book.Recalling that they first sent these recipes to the chefs working in the restaurants opened with franchise method in London and Tokyo, Kamiloğlu said, "The interest in heavy meals is gradually decreasing all around the world. While the French cuisine falls back, the reason behind the rise in the Italian cuisine is the usage of fresh fruits and vegetables. Turkish cuisine can also come the fore with its herbs in this period."