Al Bufeira
No, we are not mentioning the famous tourist location in the Algarve, south of Portugal. An Al Bufeira is an artificial dam that is filled with water. Though the last couple of years in Portugal the lakes of the dams where almost empty. You could see the trees again...
Van Life
Everyone who loves camping dreams of being in a beautiful quiet place in an olive grove. Well we do too and although we have been on very beautiful spots before, we are so much enjoying the beautiful views on the many olive trees on the land. And certainly if you are...
Blue berries turn blue
So nice to see the first blue berries turn blue. Not all berries like it here. Goji berries were one of them. But the blue berries like the acidic ground here. All the effort of planting them pays of. They are still small, but they are enthusiastic to grow. Tomorrow...
Exploring the Estrelas day two
The contrast of the lush and abundant nature a couple of hundred meters lower and the bold granite stones high up in the mountains makes the Estrelas a really interesting place to go. The vegetation is completely different and we did not had a lot of trees today where...
Exploring the Estrelas day one
From cloudbursts and 15 degrees in two weeks time to 36+ degrees and the famous HOT Portuguese sun. So time to explore the Serra da Estrela. And we found this amazing hiking route where we constantly had the river flowing next to us. And the cherries on the cake were...
Beautiful new wooden gate
We are not the only creatures who love fruit and nut trees. Sheep, goats and deer love to nibble at the leaves. Wild boar love to eat the bark, push over the young trees and eat their roots. If the trees are mature, it is not a real problem. But it is not ideal if you...
Olive trees are blossoming
Last year we had a lot of work to free all the olive trees on 'Lago' from the brambles and to prune the old branches. The result is that they are in beautiful bloom this year. Now we can only hope for a huge yield.
Phenomenon
Yesterday evening we had a stunning sunset. Where we are the sun is not setting into the ocean, but behind the Serra da Estrelas (the highest moutains of Portugal). At some point a beam was rising up from the sun and it stayed for really a long time. And also the sun...
Hiking, cycling or swimming
It is easy to be busy on the land all the time. Especially since we could only enter the land with the van 2 weeks later then we planned due to the heavy rains in Portugal. But the weather has changed into beautiful summer weather and next to working a lot, we also...
First spring in the food forest
Of course we were very curious to see how the land would look after planting all the trees and shrubs last autumn. We were happy to see that 90% of them were blossoming. Some literally at the moment. Funny to notice that most trees we took from the Netherlands were...
Cloud bursts
In general the tendency in Portugal is that the land is becoming dryer and dryer. Slowly turning into a dessert where the reservoirs are almost empty. It is possible to change the weather patterns by planting trees. And that is what we did last autumn. That it had...
WWOOF
WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) promotes living and learning on organic farms worldwide for all ages. We recently joined WWOOF Portugal as a host. For us it is a win-win situation. People work together with us as volunteers and we can share our...
Olive tasting
One of our dear friends was very enthusiastic about receiving the freshly preserved olives. With Christmas eve she spontaneously organised an olive tasting celebration with her family. Ten people tasted on taste, firmness, salt-bitterness balance, whether the stone is...
Olives going viral
It is so nice that the first year we can already eat so much olives from the land. After picking them it was a process of weeks, but all the olives are in the recycled jars. Besides from the ones we have already eaten of course ;-). So beautiful to taste how the...
Regenerative farming projects NL
It is always nice to see other projects working on regenerative farming. This documentary shows some projects in The Netherlands that are finding new ways to run an agricultural business. These passionate innovators are not swimming against the currents. They are...
All trees are planted
It took some muscles but over 100 trees and 90 berry shrubs that we wanted to plant this year are in the ground. Well we wanted diversity, diversity it is. Not only have we planted different species, like apple, pear, cherry, citrus, nuts etc., but also per species we...
The olives are in
Picking olives was fun to do. Very quickly the buckets were filling. Apparently this year was a 'bad' olive year and indeed we did not pick enough to bring them for pressing them. But we will preserve them to eat. For 10 days we are soaking them in water and then we...
Friend of the land
Our old neighbor and dear friend from when we lived in the south of Portugal paid us a visit. His presence lightened up the rainy moments. So impressive that at the age of 84 he still travels around in his camper van that he just renovated himself. And he is always in...
Cubism in nature
The compost toilet itself was already in place since May, but it did not need a roof at that time. Now the weather is a bit different, it was time to have some more protection and privacy. Since we did not have all the wood we wanted, the design is not the way we...
The first tree in. Argan was the winner
Since the land is quite big, it is difficult to find a place to start. For the argan tree we knew it needs to have a place more uphill in a more dry place. So we decided that this one went in first, followed by many others. If you wish to receive our news updates,...
Counting sheep
If we would have sleepless nights, we can count sheep literally, because the shepherd guides the sheep over our land. Sometimes just before it gets dark. Even now there are many lambs born and they are so cute. And some love the olives that we still need to pick, so...
The first organic plants
Everyone loves his own favorite fruit. We as well. Therefore we brought about 50 pieces of organic apple, pear, cherry trees, argan, carobe, blue berries, cranberries and red current from the Netherlands. So for the ones who donated one of these trees, they are in the...
Thank you, thank you, thank you
When we posted a message on LinkedIn about the Florago project we received many generous donations and we are very grateful for it. We really feel supported and want to thank everybody to make it possible to transform Florago into a sustainable and divers food forest....
Behind the scenes
Still a couple of weeks to go and then we will be heading for Florago again. From experience we know the evenings can be a bit chilly and we did not really had a comfortable place to sit, so we decided that the van is the perfect place for it. We designed and...
Inspiring book
A very inspiring book I recently read is: Restoration Agriculture: Real World Permaculture for Farmers of Mark Shepard. (ISBN 9781601730350) It is about planting trees instead of chopping them down for one year crops. The book is a mix of the writers own experience,...
Kitchen 2.0
Since the kitchen 1.0 was a bit small, unstable when there was wind and not very comfortable, we are preparing already in the Netherlands a little upgrade. Good preparing makes living on the land so much easier. We only have to install things in Portugal and we have...
Our Soil Test Results
Take care of the soil and the soil will take care of you. This is one of the basics of regenerative and organic farming. To find out what the characteristics of the soil on Florago is, we took some samples and had them tested. See the results in the table (in Dutch...
Keylines permaculture
Keyline design is a landscaping technique of maximizing the beneficial use of the water resources of a tract of land. The "keyline" is a specific topographic feature related to the natural flow of water on the tract. When looking at a YouTube of Andrew Millison about...
Connecting Floresta and Lago together to Florago
At the borders of each land there are a lot of brambles and broom and they are dividing the 2 pieces of land that we bought. (we call them Floresta because of an overgrown forest of cork, olive trees and arable field and Lago because of the little lake on it). We are...
Banho Termal
In the area there are several thermal bathes. This because there is a lot of healthy clean water in the area from the mountains and it contains a lot of silicium. So after weeks of hard work on the land, it was a treat to have a relaxing afternoon bubbling in fresh...
Storm
Amazing view and also a bit scary in the open field if you see a sky like the picture entering. The tent we sleep in was not a problem, but our sunshade kitchen tent had a hard time and was not ready for this storm, so next time there will be a 2.0 version of it. If...
Serra da Estrela
Since we can see the snow white mountains of the Serra da Estrela from the land, we wanted to experience the snow in person. It was amazing to be in the snow in May and to find a wooden chalet restaurant that looked like we were in the Swiss Alps. If you wish to...
Before and after
In the autumn it is time to pick the olives, but some of the olive trees are completely overgrown by brambles so that we cannot even reach them. Now the olive trees get a lot of tender loving care by liberating them of the brambles. And sometimes discoveries are done,...
Camper van, traffic jam
So nice when friends come over. And it also makes us want to take a look at the surroundings. There are so many nice idyllic places in the area. And because we are close to the Spanish border, there are also many old forts. If you want to receive our news updates,...
Handcart
What equipment to buy for practical reasons? One that we use a lot on the land is the handcart. We use it to transport tools from one place to the other, displace water containers and to collect stones from the land. One of the lessons learned: do not walk downhill in...
Solar power working
After a week we had the solar power in place. Our lives changed to a new level. We could have the camping fridge working and we could load our laptops and phones. Still off grid living, but with luxury as well. If you want to receive our news updates, please send us...
Lago
What a blessing that we have such a beautiful lake on the land. According to calculations the lake will provide us with 600.000 liters of water and it will be the source for our drinking water, for watering the plants and of course to take a dive into it on a hot...
Wild camping
Wild camping on the land is amazing. We live in a sea of wildflowers and no sounds other than crickets, frogs and birds. The first week we did not even have electricity because the solar system was not in place yet and no water yet from the lake for the same reason....
Stuck
Although we took the road with the tiny bridge to enter the land, we thought it would also be possible to take the road crossing the little river because it was already May. Not a good idea, because we got completely stuck, even before we reached the little river!!!...
Entering our land
After months of preparation and thinking about what to take to the land and what could fit in our van, we entered the land on a bright sunny day in May. Because we only had seen the land on a cloudy day in winter time, we were surprised by the stunning view on the...
Preparing for solar system
Already in The Netherlands we prepared for the solar system. It was really a jigsaw puzzle. And how glad we were that we finished it, because one wire was missing. That would have been problematic if we would have noticed it in Portugal! If you want to receive our...
Nursery
Because we need lots and lots of plants and trees we are already starting a nursery in our garden in The Netherlands where we will grow the fast growing species. It also saves a lot of money if we can grow a part of it ourselves. We even have some sunny seeds in the...
Looking for land with an estate agent
When we entered this piece of land a fox did show itself and left. We were in awe. Not only about the fox, but also about the vastness of the land. The next day we went back to have a look again. This time walking from the village and crossing a little river. Mmm, do...