When we came to this land, it had been abandoned for years.
Once-fruitful olive trees had grown into unruly bushes, brambles choked the forest, and the land had rewilded, allowing the subtropical ecosystem to restore itself.
The presence of wild oregano signaled that no chemicals had been used here for many years. We saw prey birds, baby turtles, snake skins, and a huge praying mantis. We were fascinated by the abundance of pollinators — dragonflies, butterflies, and bee varieties we had never encountered.
This led us to a question: how can we meet this place?
How can we leave a positive footprint, support its diversity and wilderness, while also cultivating it, making it accessible, and growing food?
Our goal is to live from the land as self-sufficiently as possible, while
supporting biodiversity and the health of the ecosystem as a whole. We draw on regenerative and permaculture principles: intentionally leaving parts of the land wild, avoiding heavy machinery and chemicals, using goats to naturally clear brambles and fertilize the soil, planting an organic vegetable garden, rotating crops to build soil health, making mulch from pruned trees, running on solar power, and using compost toilets to create humanure that enriches the soil.
What grows here - wild and cultivated - becomes part of shared meals, small batches of extra virgin olive oil, and herbal preperations, extending the landscape's rhythms into dailyrituals of care.
Once-fruitful olive trees had grown into unruly bushes, brambles choked the forest, and the land had rewilded, allowing the subtropical ecosystem to restore itself.
The presence of wild oregano signaled that no chemicals had been used here for many years. We saw prey birds, baby turtles, snake skins, and a huge praying mantis. We were fascinated by the abundance of pollinators — dragonflies, butterflies, and bee varieties we had never encountered.
This led us to a question: how can we meet this place?
How can we leave a positive footprint, support its diversity and wilderness, while also cultivating it, making it accessible, and growing food?
Our goal is to live from the land as self-sufficiently as possible, while
supporting biodiversity and the health of the ecosystem as a whole. We draw on regenerative and permaculture principles: intentionally leaving parts of the land wild, avoiding heavy machinery and chemicals, using goats to naturally clear brambles and fertilize the soil, planting an organic vegetable garden, rotating crops to build soil health, making mulch from pruned trees, running on solar power, and using compost toilets to create humanure that enriches the soil.
What grows here - wild and cultivated - becomes part of shared meals, small batches of extra virgin olive oil, and herbal preperations, extending the landscape's rhythms into dailyrituals of care.
