We have been busy bees in the last months, on the top of our daily routine in the garden, on the property, our main projects were :

• Small garden cottage renovation
• Planting trees
• Chicken house creation

With a help of our ‘tree specialist’ friend, we planted 20 cherry blossom trees, 20 walnut trees and 10 oak trees so far, but there are many more to come! Before Easter we also managed to make our small garden cottage pretty & ready for our family, the chicken house is still under work and we can’t wait to see it ready!

THANK YOU FOR OUR FRIENDS & VOLUNTEERS FOR ALL YOUR HELP!

Whenever my sister, Veronika is here, she spends most of her time building some amazing furniture from bamboo. So far she has made some bathroom shelves, a bench, trays… she is unstoppable and we seriously think that she was born to make this !

Rocket / Ruccola pesto made from plenty of fresh leaves & buttery garlic from the garden, lemon, walnuts, sunflower seeds, olive oil ! We made four jars today 🌱

I really wanted to capture day by day our garden, to follow how everything grows, flowers but the last thing I take there is my phone.. So which ones are ready now to eat and how do we use them?
Rucola: the leaves are huge now, we will pick all of them this morning and prepare a rucola pesto which can be preserved for long. They also go well on pizzas, salads, with parmesan cheese of course!
We prepare lots of salads, we have dark purple, green and curly leaved ones and they never seem to get less and less…
Beetroots  – which are used to make pickled beetroot or with vinegar sauce for fresh salad.
Carrots (some of them have two legs, looking like a dancing ballerina), fat radish – we made radish butter with herbs, between these rows some persil, dill standing proudly.

Some more spicy herbs:
Basil, loads of basil & mint! , thyme, lemongrass, lavender, rosemary…  these are the essence for cooking, soups, teas, sauces, and smoothies!
We can’t wait the tomatoes to become red, in a couple of days we will be able to taste them!

In only one month, almost all flowers have blossomed, showing their unique colours which dressed our surrounding perfectly. At the same time the garden is already providing us vegetables and fruits with full of energy and a lot of taste , now it’s the season for sweet blackberries, crunchy carrots & healthy strong radish , and it’s only the beginning!

Since we arrived, the level and the current of the Santa Lucia river has changed so much. The sensation of looking at it however have not changed at all, it is absolutely the best feeling to be able to walk here every morning from your house in four minutes. A month ago the water came up until the middle of the trees, in 3 days it dropped down 8 meters , leaving us nice sandy beaches. We also have now our fishing spot ready which we tested yesterday at sunset!

Our progress with the organic garden in such a short time! It takes a lot of work and time to prepare the best soil and perfect beds for the seeds .

We are making larger garden beds and smaller walking path to maximise the amount of veggies and plants.

Our garlics are out coming out already  & we have rocket / ruccola too, many more to come !!!

We are so lucky to have met Valentina and Gerardo in this September, they have amazing characters, they come up with so many new ideas – making this place better and better every day!

This lovely couple from Chile joined us shortly after our arrival, it is incredible how quickly they become part of our family! They will be staying with us for two more weeks and we are already planning their part of our project in the future!