QUINTA DAS ABELHAS · EST. 2017
My living laboratory.
In 2017, I purchased an abandoned pine monoculture farm in Central Portugal. My dream, to create a honey bee sanctuary and restore a mixed forest.
With no previous experience I put myself on lots of trainings. I soon realised observing natural systems and all species is the best way to learn. I have a particular love of the honey bee, who for me, are a mirror to our own human potential.
I believe social systems aligned with nature is our way back to health and vitality. Below is the story of my journey over the years, thank you Quinta Das Abelhas and Portugal to what you have helped me learn. Becoming a land steward brings more then one can ever imagine.
2017 Purchased & Observed
A degraded pine monoculture with two ruins, six wells, a water mine and an ancient dolmen beside it. The aquifer underneath the land is feeding the land and a spring that creates the Ribeira de São Domingos — a river that eventually reaches the Doa and into the Mondego, Portugal's largest entirely national river. We began observing the land through the four seasons and started systemic work with questions about the land to gain insights on which interventions to make.
2018 The pines made the decision
The bark beetle arrived and within three months the pine monoculture was dying. Watching several hectares of trees fail in real time is kind of shocking and, it turns out, clarifying. Maybe nature needed a different direction and not a monoculture. Pine clearing began. Food growing started, green mulching experiments for soil improvement, swales to retain water and bee hives placed on the land for their natural arrival through swarming. We have never purchased bees and they always turn up. The land was changing itself, we were doing our bit and learning.
2019 Nobody planted these
Oak, chestnut, alder, elder, cherry — seedlings appearing across the cleared ground. The land was replanting itself alongside our own tree planting. Giesta exploded — the classic pioneer plant, nitrogen-fixing, soil-building, doing the hard early work that makes everything else possible. Further water retention strategies installed, wells cleaned, water mine opened up. I was part of the facilation of Learning from the Bees in Berlin — an international gathering on bee-centred approaches to land and ecology. The log hive approach began on the land. Learning about the ecology of honey bees in trees became a fascination.
2020 Horses, hoopoes, a river, and the villages
Horses on the land and the whole ecosystem shifted gear. Bug life, mushroom life, bird life — all increased noticeably. Hoopoes nested on the land. Surrey Foundation funding arrived for the log hive programme — natural cavity homes for honey bees, bee centred, not human centred. Shortlisted for the Lush Spring Prize. Part of Ruralis — a community of connected regenerative projects across the Rio Dão watershed. We walked the full length of the river for a week to understand our watershed. I organised walking tours of the villages of Fornos de Algodres with a local collaborator — introducing people to the area, its history, its landscape, its slow life.
2021 The ruins become habitable
Renovation began on the cottages. Anyone who has renovated a Portuguese granite farmhouse will know that "began" is doing a lot of work in that sentence, it took time. The small cottage started hosting systemic work and the land began hosting people who wanted to combine land restoration with systems thinking.
2022 Cabin built for Systems Work
121 sessions - online and in person.
2023 The Portugal bee network
Lets find the free living bees! Wild bee monitoring established by the Institute of Braganca. The development of an official citizen science monitoring program through Honey Bee Watch— real data feeding a real database tracking pollinator populations across Portugal. Honey bees, being honey bees and now the science is being gathered. The Learning from the Bees conference becomes a movement.
2024 Granite renovations finished
The cottage renovations completed. The land will still be in progress for decades to come :)
2025 End of chapter 1
A party on the land, to mark the end of the first chapter — the clearing, the building, the planting, the watching, the learning, the mistakes, the noticing, the reality of living on the land. Chapter one was the internal re-progamming, chapter two is share it.
2026 A space for off-grid living
Experience what it is like to life off grid immersed in the return of a mixed forest, sit by the bees and learn about land regeneration.
The Quinta Das Abelhas main cottage and wood cabin is available for rent. See images and get in touch if interested. Rental can be short or long term.
The Land
