This week we all squeezed into our car, with the trailer filled to the brim with shovels, pick axes, and pre-made sandwiches and headed out to El Gozo in Caspe to offer our assistance to a sister permaculture project in need of some helping hands.
It is easy to get carried away describing the beauty of the Farm and the valley; the views across to the mountains, the olive and almond groves, dotted with the ruins of fincas from time gone by. What makes this place really special however, is how, amongst the spectacular landscape, Max and Nic are working to make their own place from scratch. We have really appreciated their down to earth and relaxed nature, and their thoughtfulness in sharing their space and introducing us to their way of life.
Throughout all the hard times we’ve had on the mountain, the thing that has kept me going was a feeling of awe and gratitude that we can live in this spectacular place and I think that feeling truly came alive that first night, seeing the Milky Way through the tent flaps and realising there was nothing better than this.
We are planting up a hugel mound with Mouse repelling plants.
Here is the recipe for my 90min olive bread.
When we began our off-grid adventure two years ago one of the things we were really looking for was to live “closer to nature”, what that meant exactly I don’t think we knew back then and so far what it has turned out to be was not what we expected.
Once we arrived in Spain our adventures really took on a whole new level of exciting and difficult.
I am overwhelmed by how naive we were, carried along by our sense of this journey as a great adventure but with absolutely no idea just how great the adventure would turn out to be.
Many hands make light work, especially when those hands are Dutch!
Terrible news! The cauliflowers and brussel sprouts that I’ve been growing up and just this week planted out into my hugel mounds have come under attack.