We just wrapped up our 4th edition of the Flower and Garden Retreat! This was a super special group. Each participant was a solo traveler. The group meshed together beautifully! I’ll share photos in a few posts because we did so much, while at the same time, we slowed the schedule down this year to allow more restful time and spaciousness for our guests. Some of our guests request privacy so not everyone will appear in photos online.

The retreat started on Tuesday as the guests trickled in, we greeted them with Portuguese snacks: salgados (salty snacks like empada and croquete), local cheese, nuts, fruit, bread with Portuguese goat butter. jam, fresh strawberries, and cured meats and cheese. 

Each participant received a Portuguese basket with a locally made apron, a special booklet for the event, flower clippers, and a special hand-printed Herbarium notebook to take pressed flowers home. 

After settling into their small cottages, the guests gathered in our outdoor floral studio for an exploratory workshop in flower arranging. After giving a few small tips on working with flower stems, I let the students explore on their own without constraints, rules, or guidance. The vases we used were by the José Franco pottery studio. José Franco, was the grandfather of Diogo, the owner of Aldeia da Mata Pequena where we stay the entire week.

After the flower class, we walked up to the windmills together at sunset to forage flowers. We returned to the main house to eat a dinner created by Teresa who created a fresh pea soup and a chickpea curry with fresh toppings of herbs and yogurt. Curry is a very popular food in Portugal with many variations stemming from the former colonies and this was Teresa’s version which pulls ideas from her Portugal and Macau roots and uses her homemade curry paste!

The following day, after breakfast in our cottages which includes a daily delivery of fresh wood-fired baked bread, we gathered on the main terrace for a workshop on native flowers and flower pressing with plant biologist, gardener, and native plant expert, João Cunha Ferreira. 

After the workshop, we gathered on the upper terrace for a sun-drenched lunch created by plant-based cook. Marta Toscano Rico. Lunch was light, seasonal, and beautiful with seeded crackers, fresh pea spread,  cashew lemon aioli, ricotta and mushroom parchment bags, with cauliflower rice and pesto. Egg salad with fresh chives, and salads with Queijo do Ilha! 

That was just the first 24 hours. I look forward to sharing more posts about this year’s retreat. 

A huge thank you to our beautiful group of guests and of course Paula Guimarães who makes it all happen along with our production assistant Paula P.

If you’d like to join us in 2025, we actually only have 3 spots left! Book here or send me a message to register your interest or ask more questions.