Blog
For reading and inspirationWelcome to our blog of news, articles, knowledge, sharing and poetry.
Thirteen Moons
For the past ten years, we have been developing ways of accelerating soil health, to revitalise soil ecology, improve biodiversity, and in turn create more food sovereignty and food security. One of the outcomes of this research is a soil enhancing medicine, called...
Planting by the Moon
Planting by the Moon We are in the first planting moon here in Portugal, which corresponds to the ancient rites of Imbolc, which is the lunar ceremony during this moon. In the contemporary era, it is marked on 1st February, but the lunar ceremonies are not on...
Compressed Earth Blocks
Unearthing the Benefits of Compressed Earth Blocks: A Sustainable Building Solution In the quest for sustainable and eco-friendly construction, one ancient building material is making a remarkable comeback: Compressed Earth Blocks (CEBs). These blocks, made from...
Together we are Stronger
Greetings from Vale das Lobas, a valley in the highlands of Portugal, where we are creating a nature and health sanctuary to touch the heart and inspire the soul. It began as a dream in 2006, and lead to a quest. In the dream was a river valley, above 400m, with no...
Solar dos Girões
The Solar dos Girões was constructed more than 400 years ago as the family home to the noble Beltrão – Soveral dynasty. In those times, the lands were controlled by feudal lords, and subsistence farmers were in service to the land owners. That era is still in living...
Nature Spa Experience
Each of us has a story. It begins with the precious gift of life, a limitless, unbounded self, and a sense of wonderment, grace and magic. From this origin at birth, we begin the journey of emergence, which necessitates a separation and forgetting. We must incarnate...
Biodiversity
Once Upon a Time..... ...there was a valley high in the Beira Alta region, in the foothills of the Serra de Estrela range, the highest mountains in Portugal, and it was known as Vale das Lobas. It is at the eastern edge of the Dão wine region, and the main products...
Samhain
We want to share with you how our Samhain celebration was, so we wrote text and took pictures, with testimonies as well.
Fermentation
Fermentation is a thousands-year-old technique for preservation and enhancement of food. With the abundance coming from our vegetable garden, more than we can eat and share (since everyone’s garden around here is overflowing with courgettes and tomatoes as well ihih), we are exploring several alchemical ways of keeping the vegetables nutritious for longer.
Open Morning
On Saturday, July 10th 2021, we opened our doors and welcomed you on our first OPEN MORNING. We wanted to meet our friends, the local community, the youngest and the eldest of the villages and towns and cities around Vale das Lobas and beyond.
Lagar Restaurant
As we neared the restaurant, fate met us on our way, taking the shape of José da Cruz and Joaquim, two villagers born and raised in Sobral Pichorro. And so, we had the most incredible guided tour of the building, for Joaquim the lagar where his dad worked all his life, and he as well during adolescence. For Zé da Cruz, a trip to his childhood days, in a reality which we, born close to the new millennium, almost won’t believe to be true.
Spring
I step out the door. The sun is hot, bright, facing me as I face it and greet it good morning. There is a strong breeze blowing, reminding me of the ending of winter. Two dogs greet me, wagging their tails happily and lazily as they bask in the morning light. Their fur is soft and very warm. After weeks of grey overcast, it’s stunning how this sunny day can lift up my mood. I feel energised, light, social, happy.
The Daycare Centre
The Daycare Centre of the village, which is run by ALASP (Association for the League of Friends of Sobral Pichorro), is made up of the most loving people, that every day are in charge of cooking the meals for the older inhabitants, delivering them to their homes, cleaning their houses and caring for the elderly. They are just a handful of female employees that do it, and many times they are the only people that the elderly sees all day, day after day. It is the reality of abandoned inland and generation, but courageously kept by those that stay for the love of the land, with all that she has.
The rebirth of stone
There is something absolutely beautiful about seeing a building being built out of the same materials that compose the landscape. Sure, marble and mahogany island kitchenettes are fun, but have you ever picked up rocks from the ground and made a wall out of it?
Tadelakt
Tadelakt is a very good word. I heard it for the first time a couple of weeks ago and since then I’ve said it or heard it every day. And what is it after all?
Pruning Chestnut Trees
At Vale das Lobas, in the area above the village of Sobral Pichorro, there is an incredible forest of tall, thin trees, with light-brown trunks covered in green, fluffy lichen, whose floor is now covered in a bed of leaves representing autumn hues. They are chestnut trees…
Vortex Turbine – 2
“So, let’s have a look inside!” Dino and I walk into the restaurant through the open door by balancing on a metal platform over a thin water channel…
Vortex Turbine – 1
“The beauty of the hydropower is of course that it’s running 24h a day, which is very different from solar.… So especially for these kitchen equipments like fridges, which need power continuously, they are ideal to be powered by the hydroturbine…
SKIPPY
Skippy was who you would first meet on a visit to Vale das Lobas, ever since there was a Vale das Lobas. He would greet you on the doorstep, and if you went for a walk, he always lead the way, a white fluff with two blueish-white beacons for eyes and a heavy undulating tail.
Biodiversity Park Update
We are thrilled to announce that the Biodiversity Park initiative is now ready to progress beyond the boundaries of the Vale das Lobas project. Associação Serra Lusa A community based not-for-profit association, called Serra Lusa has been formed with the objective of...
Lagar da Ribeira
With the end of 2020, also comes an ending and new beginning here at Vale das Lobas. The Restaurant "Lagar da Ribeira" has been transformed from a derelict, almost forgotten Olive Mill, as seen in the header picture, into a beautiful restaurant building. In the past...
Evolution at Vale das Lobas
Restaurante Lagar da Ribeira Spring flowers are popping up in the meadows around Muxagata river and at the same time we see a beautiful building arising. Join our excitement as we are reaching the highest point of the Restaurante Lagar da Ribeira with astonishing...
Natural Building
All the constructions and reconstructions at Vale das Lobas are being crafted from natural and sustainable materials wherever possible. We have researched very carefully the traditional and innovative methods and we have come up with solutions that provide optimum...
Forest Garden
The plan to plant a forest garden in the old vineyard was hatched in 2012. It is a beautiful area of around one hectare, between the Roman Road and the ancient chestnut forest. It is protected by mature cork trees to the east and to the west, and the south aspect is a...
Consciousness
Science has been aware for more than a century that burning fossil fuels causes global warming. It became big news thirty years ago, but we have not halted the progression. Now we are being warned that we are in “decade zero” and the continued burning of coal, oil and...
First Stone
On 29th July 2019, we marked the official commencement of the reconstruction of the Solar de Girões, a 17th century manor house and chapel in Sobral Pichorro, with a traditional ceremony of Placing the First Stone, attended by The Secretary of State for...
Biodiversity Park
Biodiversity Park The Vale das Lobas Biodiversity Park is the cornerstone of our strategy for ecological and economic regeneration. We have developed the following Regeneration Protocol in partnership with The Camara Municipal of Fornos de Algodres, The Hunting and...
