Farming and homesteading are a big part of my life and of my blogging content. The past couple of years I have written a lot of posts related to that but of course no one has read all of them so when 
1. Olives
The majority of my land is dedicated to olives. I live at Crete, in Greece and olives are part of our diet and our culture for ever. Not far from my home there is an olive tree that is more than 3.000 years old and next to it, a Minoan settlement. Among the archaeological findings there is an olive mill, indicating that people valued this exceptional fruit since the ancient times.
Producing extra virgin, high quality, organic olive oil is a complicated and yet fascinating occupation and I am glad to get more into it year after year!
Olives harvesting and olive oil extraction.
Edible olives. Harvesting and curing recipe!
2. Fruit trees
Scattered around the olive trees there are many fruit trees and nut trees that add to the biodiversity of the farm land and provide for our home delicious and valuable food!
When the time comes almonds, walnuts and carobs, lemons, oranges and tangerines, peaches, apricots and pears, figs, pomegranates and grapes, berries, apples and loquats, they are all in the reach of our hand!
Tangerines
Blooming almond tree!
3. Vegetable garden
Growing our own vegetables to cover our home's needs, was a must do, since we embraced a rural way of living. And even though we had our generous share of failure in the beginning, we are learning from our mistakes and gradually increase our self sufficiency.
All the plants are from local varieties that we grow from the seeds that we keep each year or we find from other farmers.
Squash
Zucchini
Tomato
Okras
Happy new month / December 2019
4. Bees
The first time I attended a hive inspection was five years ago and it was thrilling! Bees are amazing creatures, the perfect example of collective work and much more interesting than anyone, that isn't familiar with them, might think. I was astonished when I realized that every hive has its own character that changes when a new queen bee comes! Over time I could tell if something is wrong by their sound and I could understand if a day is just not the one to annoy them!
My first bee hive come as a present during a dinner party where I expressed my interest about them. A beekeeper that was there offered me one of its own even though we have never met before! Just one more taste of the Cretan hospitality!
5. Chicken
The chicken coop is the latest addition to our homestead and as it turned out when the first chicks were born, the most fun one!
Our hens are from local breeds and they can hatch their eggs on their own, so we just provide for them a safe environment and leave nature (and the rooster) to do what is meant to be done!
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It is amazing to watch those tiny feather creatures. It is even more amazing that they already have character individuation! The white one, for example is way more fearless and much more of an explorer than the rest.
6. Herbs and foraging
The herb garden is my partner's kingdom! Fotini is very keen on growing our own herbs and collecting from the ones that grow on their own at the rewilded edges of the farmland.
Hopefully the pictures talk for themselves
7. The dream
All the above are the result of 6 years hard work from us but it could never had happened if our ancestors hadn't cultivated that same land and planted all those trees that now flourish under our care. Our dream though is to gather all the local flora and introducing some new one, in one place, creating a food forest.
That was our goal from the beginning of our rural adventure but the first attempt was a flop. Of course we may never achieved the desired result from this specific attempt but we gained in knowledge and experience and I like to think that it was part of the path that we had to walk to find ourselves to the point we are today!
The hugelkultur beds are my latest project and I have to say that I am excited with the first results. The picture above is taken at the end of April, when I finished it and the ones below a couple of days ago. In between I watered it just one time! And let me remind you that we are talking about the Greek hot summer. I have watered the regular vegetable garden during the same time more than 20 times. This is truly revolutionary!
And my Moringa looks so happy among the vegetables :)
Can you spot it?
All the pictures and the words are mine.
Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.
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