I wanted to share some of our meals and flower arranging (not in chronological order!). We had a freestyle arranging workshop, where the attendees found vintage vases in their cottages and arranged in them after a demo from me, walking through my philosophy for bringing an arrangement together. After that, we created low bowl compositions in Portuguese terra cotta with compostable mechanics. We gathered our centerpieces and linens together  for a community created table styling in our outdoor floral studio. We had a lovely meal by Marta Toscano Rico featuring seasonal carrots, pumpkin, rosemary crackers, soup, and veggie tart.

On Saturday morning, we created large arrangements in Portuguese terra cotta pots that were traditionally used to cook in fires or to cure olives. The students get to take home all of these special vases made in Portugal. 

Afterwards, we did little photo shoots in each attendees cottage so that we could capture their large arrangements on camera. The cottages are so charming and provide beautiful surfaces and textures to style the arrangements. The houses also tend to be darker and cooler, so they are perfect for keeping the arrangements fresh during the week and the provide us relief from the sun and heat as well.

We had another gorgeous picnic style meal created by Marta, and that evening we were joined by the lovely Catarina Seixas who ventured to Mafra to guide is through a couple of workshops! 

Catarina fired up the stone oven in the kitchen early one morning. It was a bit too hot to go foraging but a few of us gathered wild fennel to add to our flower pizzas!  We each made our own individual pizzas, cooked in the fire oven, and topped them with flowers from Fernanda Botelho’s garden.

We added a wild green sauce, from Catarina’s book. She guided us through the process with a wonderful mix of herbs and toasted hazelnuts and Portuguese cheeses.

And soon I’ll share our days in Lisbon and Sintra as well as our herbal workshop with Catarina! More soon! If you’d like to participate in a retreat, we have just 2 spots left for next year! Click for details and booking.

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.

Honeysuckle season is here! I procured a few cuttings to plant in pots several months ago and they are finally taking off and climbing up the wall. I am now just awaiting buds. In the meantime, I have foraged many fragrant, wispy stems and in combination with the sweet peas I am growing right now, they are perfect. These photos are an older arrangement I did with honeysuckle, oat grass, and wild oregano. Photographed by Sanda Vuckovic for Gardenista.