The elements belong to everyone; friends, lovers, a distant neighbor, and can sometimes form a challenge.

A sleeping river
The last few weeks we have been very busy with the river. Unfortunately, we have to share with you that the river has run dry at the moment. Having thought out and prepared almost everything to the last detail, we did not predict that the river would run dry. The river gave us water to drink from, to shower with, to build and to water plants, in short, the life source of the project. When purchasing the piece of land, there were words that the river would retain a (little) amount of water all year round. As you can see in the picture, there is no water left in the river bank. We have of course investigated solutions such as a (large) pond, a borehole or water tanks in the region. Unfortunately, our budget turned out not to be sufficient to implement one of these options.

Location
We were able to learn a good lesson about water & trust and together we made the decision to find another location for the farm. The adventure doesn’t stop here for us. We found out that we really want this. The hard work, the challenges and the deep satisfaction this gives us brings us life energy. With this energy we will go on a research journey for a period of time, hopefully with a suitable location as the outcome.

The project to start an organic herb farm takes an unexpected turn in the form of a move. A move of which we do not yet know the exact location. Leaving our piece of land in Portugal was bitter, but we are confident in the future and look forward to what it has to offer us.

A difficult choice
We write this message after a period of mourning, acceptance is taking place more and more each day and new courage moves us forward. The elements, our budget and many other factors guided us in our final decision. The decision to leave the location was not an easy one. After making difficult considerations and asking difficult questions to each other and ourselves, the following emerged; the place was too raw to set up a running farm on our budget.

Our next steps
We left the place in Portugal tidy. It was important to us not to leave a mess and to minimize our traces. Through sales and donations we have been able to give most items a new home. After closing everything in good order in Portugal, we flew back to the Netherlands with two suitcases and two backpacks. At the moment we are taking a small break in the Netherlands, serving as a stepping stone to our further adventure. We have a number of potential places in mind for this, we will share more about this later.

Setting up the farm with a speed has had advantages and disadvantages. We opted for a fast pace from which we learned a lot, so we now know exactly what we need when setting up a farm, but also what we can do without. We plan to use the advantages of a short route in the context of a longer route when building the farm in the future. Think of a financial income (however small) while building up the farm.

We have learned a lot in a short eventful period. The experiences we have had cannot be described in words. nor can a price tag be attached to it. We see this turn of our story as an event that will be indispensable to the successful establishment of our farm.

Until the next update!