Hi there! I am Joseph.
I have been an immigrant, or expat, living in central Portugal along with my beautiful girlfriend Mariana for six years now.

Together Mariana, my father Clinton and myself, would like to show you a bit of the daily goings on around our Portuguese farm / homestead / smallholding and all of the work we are doing whilst renovating, starting building projects, working with our livestock, DIY and trying to grow our little families own food!

In this episode we welcome you to join us in Spring time as we visit and give you a virtual tour of one of our favourite mountain villages. Today we visit the village Alcongosta in central Portugal.

Mariana and I begin by introducing ourselves in a stunning cherry orchard, looking out over the valley on the north side of the Gardunha, towards Fundao.

We discussed the village a little bit and we walked around the granite lined cobbled streets, ivy cascades down the stone walls and peoples washing is hanging out of their windows, drying in the gentle spring breeze.

We took a turn up a beautiful alleyway which had a sign pointing to the ‘Rota de Cereja’ or the route of the cherry. So we decided we would follow the trail and see how far we could go. The trail is 9.9km and we did not fancy taking the whole mountain trail, so we did about half.

Following the trail we made it up the top of the mountain, we climbed approximately 200m altitude from 700m to 910m, over about 3km up to the glamping site, Natura Glamping. It is a beautiful site situated right at the very highest point above Fundao. We took a little walk around and admired the amazing views.

After that walk we were hoping there would be a ice cold refreshing drink at the top, unfortunately there was no cafe or bar at the top, so we made our way down to the village again where we found a few cafes, we sat there a while, relaxed and had a nice beer.

Batteries recharged we took to hiking across the village, through Fundaos famous cherry orchards and up the next hill to a beautiful viewing spot called Pedra d’Hera, the ivy covered stone. Once there we looked out over Fundao and tried to point out a few easy to spot landmarks!

We made our way back to our farm, a few villages away and I headed into the farmhouse kitchen. Chloe joined me at the table in her new high chair, I speak a little bit about how Chloe has had her first real food in the last couple of weeks, she has tried baby rice, baby fruit paste and some homemade soups from Mariana and my lovely neighbour. I believe she is going to be a little foodie, just like her daddy.

I was gifted some lovely goat kid meat, cabrito, from my friend in our village this week, as it is traditional to eat goat or lamb for Easter (Pascoa) so this week I attempt to roast the cabrito in a Portuguese traditional manner.

After the beautiufl meal which the whole family ate I take a little stroll around the farm, where I show you all the vineyard and how the buds on the vines are beginning to burst out of the winter sleep and unfurl their beautiful new leafy green jackets. I talk a little about the farms goings on this week and about the family too. We weaned all the lambs and sold our first lamb, Annie, she went to live her life on my dear friends farm, Georgiana, she has a weather friend named Sid who is about the same age, apparently they are both getting on great, I am so pleased for little Annie to be living her best life.

Thank you all so much for watching and I hope you all have an amazing week, see you all again next week!

See our journey to self sufficiency / permaculture / organic farming as expats living in Portugal, trying to produce as much of our own food planting vegetables, growing fruit trees as well as looking after all our animals, such as our chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks, quail, rabbits and sheep – Shortly pigs too!

Hobby farming in Fundão
– Growing vegetables, raising meat and foraging on our cherry farm in Portugal’s Beira baixa.

Follow us on Instagram @farmerforfun

IF YOU ARE PORTUGUESE OR TRYING TO LEARN PORTUGUESE PERHAPS CONSIDER TURNING ON SUBTITLES FOR THIS VIDEO, MARIANA & I HAVE CREATED SUBTITLES IN PORTUGUESE, MAYBE THEY MIGHT COME IN HANDY WITH LEARNING A WORD OR TWO! CLICK THE ‘CLOSED CAPTIONS’ BUTTON ON THE VIDEO AND THE SUBTITLE OPTIONS WILL APPEAR.

PLEASE HELP US TO CONTINUE CREATING THIS CONTENT BY CONTRIBUTING TO US ON PATREON

source