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

The heat is back and in full burn mode. Several hill sides in the surrounding area have scorch marks. We've ventured to the spring fed...

September was a very busy month but oh so tasty. We've picked figs all month long. This makes our longest fig season in six years. We are...

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...

Homesteading has many challenges but the rewards are bountiful. As winter has stripped away all vestiges of life from most of the trees...

We had a very eventful October. Art decided to build a cement foundation for the hoop coop, which meant we had to move it. Cheers to old...

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?...

We've entered the wait and see stage of spring. Everything is planted and it's been a wet week of rain and even hail. The transformation...

Spring Awakens the Soul here at Homestead Albania

Here in northern Albania it's always a bit of a mood during February. This year the mood is blue skies and sunny days but super chilly...

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

We've picked, crushed, smushed, and fermented our çylek grapes. Yesterday we filtered and drained the wine from our 500 liter and 50...

In the last two weeks, we have made four rounds of plum jam, plum preserves, grape mushti (grape juice with a kick), grape pekmez...

August always comes in with a variety of colors and changes throughout the homestead. Our fig trees are on a daily full five gallon...

The mulberries are ripe and ready for picking. We laid down the plastic and my husband Art climbed up the tree. My sister in law stopped...

We wrapped up April with a very green garden with hundreds of plants in the ground and THRIVING! I asked Art if he thought we had enough...

Art and I have upgraded our scythe/shovels to a dom dom (tiller) with various attachments. It was in large part due to maintain the grass...

I politely suggested to Art that we have enough trees for 2021. Just this week we've planted 25 blueberry trees, over two hundred...

We wrapped up our raki brewing season with an additional seventy liters from our grape harvest. Art has really mastered the art of raki....

I, Kim, spent nearly two months stateside visiting friends, family and completing a small book tour. Meanwhile Art kept the homestead up...