August was here and gone in a blur. We've been busy hosting guests in the Orchard Guard Tower, an engagement party (congrats to Art's cousin Denis and Melisa) and had a few relatives drop in from out of town. We are lucky to have some big fans of our little corner to share in the abundance of love flowed over to the food forest. We've been picking figs, apples, plums, and grapes all month and still have so much more. The weekly decisions on what to jam, dry or juice became mo

Woah! July came and went in a flash of guests, harvests, and new shelf staples. Art and I were interviewed by Kevin and Wendy for their YouTube channel. Big shout out to Secret Destinations with Kevin & Wendy. They create content with transparency of their expat journey and passion to help others planning to make their big bold move. Garden and food forest were in peak harvest mode. The pears, tomatoes, peppers, watermelons, figs, and zucchini kicked into overdrive. Our garde

June for us was full of ripe, sweet and plump wild yellow and red plums, near perfect potatoes, and juicy pears. It's the first year we've had a zero frost damage and a successful harvest of wild plums. We've made several rounds of plum suko (juice) and wild vanilla plum jam. Plus an amazing bounty of picking and eating straight from the tree. For several visitors and guests of the Orchard Guard Tower it was their first time trying these varieties and they came back for more.

It's been a little sticky around here. Would you stick around for mulberry season?

March came with warm temps and loads of sunshine but also some very curious pigs. Let me set the scene. We were busy weeding the garden until about dusk and I went to feed and let in our pigs. And they were not snorting impatiently at the gate. I called for them and nothing, no pigs. I hollered at Art and after zero signs of them after searching the woods, hillside, fields, and door knocking on the homesteads nearby. We went to bed without the pigs tucked safely inside their

November was a bit gloomy but we still had a productive and beautiful month

The seven year itch living in Albania

Welcome to fall aka the JUICY season here at Homestead Albania

Wrapping up August in three words: HOT, DRY and FIGS. Our watering game was constant to keep our plants and orchard alive. In the garden...

Our homestead's transition to May came in strong with new baby chicks, an epic mulberry season, sweet plums, nectarines, and is ending...