Hi, we are so glad to see you here!

You clicked on this page – we are impressed and a little surprised! The best way to get to know us, though, is to get in touch!

Grow With Us

Where Regeneration Meets Community: Experience sustainable living in a family-led food forest on Portugal’s Silver Coast, where your participation directly contributes to building a resilient multi-generational ecosystem.

Alo Land Strategy Summary

Alo Land is a regenerative initiative by us – Petru and Inês. We are former tech professionals who moved to Portugal with our two children. We currently manage a 1-hectare plot with a food forest and own an additional 2.5-hectare undeveloped plot nearby.

Vision and Goals

  • Land restoration using regenerative practices
  • Supporting holistic well-being (physical, emotional, spiritual)
  • Cultivating eight forms of capital (financial, material, living, social, intellectual, experiential, spiritual, cultural)
  • Building community resilience

Current Challenges

  • Overwhelming workload maintaining the food forest
  • Potential for more social connections, particularly for the adults
  • Gaps in food production despite potential
  • Restrictions on travel due to land care responsibilities

Strategic Approach

The family has shifted to an incremental growth strategy that focuses on:

  1. Leveraging existing resources and activities
  2. Attracting people to the land (as participants or volunteers)
  3. Creating a volunteer pipeline 
  4. Thoughtful development of their 2.5-hectare plot

What's with the name?

From Wiktionary: alō (present infinitive alereperfect active aluīsupine altum or alitum); third conjugation

    • I foster, I nourish
    • I raise (as a child, an animal, etc.)
    • I feed, I maintain, I develop

From our visual diary...

Duck treats.

Duck treats.

Duck treats.Following a suggestion from the Duck Chronicles, we have been sprounting some seeds for our ducks.The interest so far had been null, but this time we let the seeds sprout a bit longer, until the leaves are big.After some initial hesitation, they now devour...

Deli cotta with strawberry purée.

Deli cotta with strawberry purée.

Deli cotta with strawberry purée.Feeling a little creative these days, perhaps because there is more energy. Or maybe it is the other way around.In any case, here is another healthy treat: it is similar to panna cotta, but plant based and free of refined sugar.

Flowering myrtle (murta / Myrtus Communis).

Flowering myrtle (murta / Myrtus Communis).

Flowering myrtle (murta / Myrtus Communis).Only planted last autumn in a difficult (so far) spot on the duck pond edge, this one seems to be unexpectedly thriving.

pt_PTPortuguese