So half way through her first school year in Latvia my wife decided she wanted to retire when her contract ended in June, 2020. We have lived near the ocean pretty much our whole lives, but didn’t want to go back to the States. We also wanted a warmer climate having grown up in Southern California and raising a family in Miami. We had so…
So half way through her first school year in Latvia my wife decided she wanted to retire when her contract ended in June, 2020. We have lived near the ocean pretty much our whole lives, but didn’t want to go back to the States. We also wanted a warmer climate having grown up in Southern California and raising a family in Miami. We had southern Spain or the Algarve region in our mind as we both speak the languages. So during her winter vacation in Feb 2019 we came to the Algarve to check things out with the idea of getting ideas of where to rent before we decided where to buy. Right away we saw we didn’t want to live in the south coast of the Algarve, way too developed. So we asked the realtor we had engaged to show us some places near the ocean, ideally with a little land for a garden. At first she showed us places up in the mountains near Monchique, but we told her we wanted closer to the ocean. She said that a property had just come on to the market and it turned out to be a 3.85 hectare (9 acre) flower farm about 1 mile from the ocean. She said if we were interested we had to act quick as properties like this didn’t come on the market very often. After about a week of thinking we said, what the hell, we wanted to be out in the country and although it was a lot more land than we were thinking of we could always sell it if things didn’t work out. So we made an offer in mid-March, 2019 and it was accepted. We closed on the place in Sept, 2019 (we delayed it to allow the sellers, who own 26 acres right across the road from us, to take advantage of the summer rental of the attached guest house). I came here in early Feb 2020 to supervise some renovation work and got stuck here due to Covid restrictions. My wife moved here in July 2020. It’s turned out to be one of the best decisions of our lives.
The flowers grown here were/are different types of proteas and also some ornamental eucalyptus. However, the protea plants are on the back side of their commercial lives and we have since taken out at least ½ of them. We are starting to replace them with lavender. We planted about 1500 plants in Sept, 2022 and just had our first harvest this summer. We are probably going to plant about 500 more this spring along with some vineyards, olive trees and pinion pines. It’s all pretty much a hobby farm, we sell some but definitely don’t make any money although I am hoping that in 2-3 years we might break even. But it’s all good, it keeps us busy and that is the most important to us. And it’s also about 3 miles from one of the best beaches in Portugal, Praia de Odeceixe and I get to play around in the waves on my bodyboard from time to time. If you are ever down this way you have to stop by.
So half way through her first school year in Latvia my wife decided she wanted to retire when her contract ended in June, 2020. We have lived near the ocean pretty much our whole lives, but didn’t want to go back to the States. We also wanted a warmer climate having grown up in Southern California and raising a family in Miami. We had southern Spain or the Algarve region in our mind as we both speak the languages. So during her winter vacation in Feb 2019 we came to the Algarve to check things out with the idea of getting ideas of where to rent before we decided where to buy. Right away we saw we didn’t want to live in the south coast of the Algarve, way too developed. So we asked the realtor we had engaged to show us some places near the ocean, ideally with a little land for a garden. At first she showed us places up in the mountains near Monchique, but we told her we wanted closer to the ocean. She said that a property had just come on to the market and it turned out to be a 3.85 hectare (9 acre) flower farm about 1 mile from the ocean. She said if we were interested we had to act quick as properties like this didn’t come on the market very often. After about a week of thinking we said, what the hell, we wanted to be out in the country and although it was a lot more land than we were thinking of we could always sell it if things didn’t work out. So we made an offer in mid-March, 2019 and it was accepted. We closed on the place in Sept, 2019 (we delayed it to allow the sellers, who own 26 acres right across the road from us, to take advantage of the summer rental of the attached guest house). I came here in early Feb 2020 to supervise some renovation work and got stuck here due to Covid restrictions. My wife moved here in July 2020. It’s turned out to be one of the best decisions of our lives.
The flowers grown here were/are different types of proteas and also some ornamental eucalyptus. However, the protea plants are on the back side of their commercial lives and we have since taken out at least ½ of them. We are starting to replace them with lavender. We planted about 1500 plants in Sept, 2022 and just had our first harvest this summer. We are probably going to plant about 500 more this spring along with some vineyards, olive trees and pinion pines. It’s all pretty much a hobby farm, we sell some but definitely don’t make any money although I am hoping that in 2-3 years we might break even. But it’s all good, it keeps us busy and that is the most important to us. And it’s also about 3 miles from one of the best beaches in Portugal, Praia de Odeceixe and I get to play around in the waves on my bodyboard from time to time. If you are ever down this way you have to stop by.
Wow!!!!