We have been blessed (by choice) to be buffered by properties that are to a certain point, abandoned.
after 5 year on the farm, we are slowly learning the many benefits this brings.
our farm is located 2 kms. away from the nearest village, a distance made up of a tapestry of family size farms due to the vicinity to the village.
traditionally in Portugal, people owned farms in close vicinity to their villages where they had fruit trees, veggie patches, kept animals and normally had a building in which tools and other equipment was kept.
people lived in the villages and used a labyrinth of public paths (wide enough for Donkeys) to access their patches.
our farm is bordered with a Cork Oak plantation to the North (which is a good fire barrier)
one neighbor to the East
two neighbors to the South
and a public path to the West, which is fairly overgrown and hardly ever used.
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a side note:
by Portuguese law, an immediate neighbor must inform you in case he chooses to sell his land and you have a priority to purchase his land over others.
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one of our neighbors still maintains the old way. living in the village, he often comes to his farm to water his veggie patch, harvest and prune his Olive trees and do general maintenance.
another, lives in Lisbon and visits the land only once or twice a year. since we first met, he offered us the use of one of his water wells and we usually give him plenty of the Quince fruits that grow on our land in return. his family loves using them for marmalade !
due to the high risk of fire in our area and the threat of high fines for terrains that are not properly cleaned before summer, most the owners have their properties cleaned by a local farmer who comes in, cuts down the weeds and makes hay bales that he later takes away to feed his cows with.
Quinces.
the obvious benefits of our surrounding buffer are privacy, tranquility and being submerged by a nearly undisturbed nature.
wildlife is abundant. wild boars, mongoose, foxes, the occasional dear and many many birds, many of which nest all around us.
Pears.
our neighborhood is a large outdoor pantry.
most properties around us were cultivated in some point in the past and hence are full of fruit trees.
Olives being the main tree grown and one we have enough of our own in our farm.
Brambles.
highly valued by the many birds in our area, their seeds spread far and wide and are a typical characteristic of the abandoned. they play a special role in devouring entire properties with their features and trees to be rediscovered by those who dare to venture and face the arduos task of cleaning them.
they are a favorite on our "before breakfast" excursion to later be eaten with the meal.
walls of brambles and grapevines marking roughly where properties start and end. swallowing in their path traditional stone walls and more modern wire fences.
Figs.
Plums.
more Plums.
white and black grapes.
a page from one of our favorite children´s book called "the figs are for whoever passes" (Os figos são de quem passa").
describing a world without private ownership where natures abundance belongs to whoever passes at the right time.
besides foraging for foods we also source some goods.
the occasional construction material, a long cane..
I collect seeds and cuttings from the old varieties that are way more adapted to our exact local conditions and have been around for many years doing just that.
an Elderberry I use as stock for cuttings.
Stinging Nettles. they are hard to find in our summers and I found many here that I use for our Stinging Nettles Tea.
we are currently considering making an offer to one of our immediate neighbors, to lease his land long term (at least 20 years), with the option to buy it, in order to use it for extra pasture for a few animals we would like to have as cleaning helpers, to use it for a commercial plantation of nuts and to care for it properly and stop the destructive practices used on it.
this is a win win situation where he can no longer worry about having to clean it each summer and earn some money from it and gives us the extra space including access to the 3 water wells on it for watering of the plantation without putting extra stress on our own sources. plus, we get a guaranteed long term buffer.
there is no need to own land in order to use it and it just takes good will and innovation to find more ways to use it while caring for it and improving it.
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I am daily making the change I want to see in the world.
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this post has been published on July 31st. 2023 at 17:17