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?

The hens are laying again. We are back up to 17+ eggs a day. We also had 11 new chicks hatch and then a sparrowhawk decided to have three too many snacks. Art had to build a new chicken run over the mama hen condo to protect them from aerial assaults. The enclosure was a success. It prevented another attack and all eight chicks are accounted for. Mama hen is recovering from the trauma. Art continued building... a frame for a new greenhouse to add to the garden. The frame is

A little raki brewing from our grape mash after we finished the last round of drying persimmons. It took four days to finish off the mash to make about 50 liters of raki. If you've ever had raki you know it is a sip not a shot kind of slow burn liquor. Very similar to moonshine that my late great Hatfield ancestors cooked up in the hills of North Carolina. Raki from Grapes We had a few wonderful visitors stop by and tour the homestead and had a few guests stay over at the Or

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

The seven year itch living in Albania

Vine to wine season has begun and fall is here to stay. The temps are falling to perfection. We love this time of year. Why you ask?...

Here at Homestead Albania we do a fair amount of canning. And this year we stocked the pantry with various versions of tomato based...