The first episode of our farm series. Anita and Tiago walk land that's been untouched for thirty years and share the vision for a regenerative food forest, eco farm stays, and authentic Azores experiences on São Miguel.
Some pieces of land tell their story slowly. On a quiet morning in São Miguel, we walked acreage that hadn't been worked in more than thirty years — and what looked at first like overgrowth turned out to be something else entirely. Rested soil. Mature trees. A landscape that had been waiting for someone to listen.
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When a piece of farmland sits long enough, it stops being neglected and starts being something else. The soil layers down. The microbiology rebuilds. Trees that were once saplings become canopy. What you inherit isn't a problem to solve — it's a foundation to work with.
That's what we found on this stretch of São Miguel. Volcanic soil, deep and dark, untouched by industrial agriculture for over a generation. Stands of mature trees we'd never want to cut. A topography shaped by wind, rain, and the slow patience of the Atlantic. It's the kind of starting point most regenerative farmers spend years trying to create.
"You don't restore land like this. You learn from it, and then you build alongside it."
What we're building from here is a working regenerative farm — one that grows food, restores ecosystem, and welcomes guests into the rhythm of it all. A food forest planted with intention. Gardens that feed our kitchen and our visitors. Cooking classes that start with a harvest. Farm tours that walk the same paths we walked on that first morning.
Permaculture and agroforestry are the foundation. Every decision we make — where to plant, what to plant, how to build, where to leave wild — comes back to those principles. The farm has to function as an ecosystem before it functions as a business.
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There's no version of this project that happens quietly. Building a regenerative farm in the Azores — from a piece of forgotten land into a place where guests stay, eat, learn, and leave changed — is a multi-year undertaking, and we want to document every part of it. The wins, the setbacks, the planting plans that work and the ones that don't.
If you're planning a trip to the Azores and looking for somewhere different to stay, or you're simply curious about what it takes to bring a piece of resting land back to life, this is the series for you. New episodes will drop as the farm evolves.
Watch Episode 1 above. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to follow the transformation as it unfolds.