Kitchen & medicinal gardens
Start with manageable beds, a nursery, compost, and plants we can use and observe every day.
Santa Elena · Costa Rica
Land & living intelligence
A productive landscape where food, animals, water, energy, and observation support each other.
Property archive · Reading the land
Grow
A food forest, kitchen garden, and medicinal nursery.
Connect
Animals, compost, water, and energy in one system.
Learn
Field notes and AI tools that make experience useful.
Start with the land
Open grassland, established trees, forest edges, and flowing water shape our 2.3-hectare homestead. The growing plan connects kitchen gardens, a food forest, and carefully managed pasture.
Pasture & small-batch dairy
A taste of this place.
Vivid grassland near the river is the starting point for our dairy vision. What cows graze can influence the aroma and character of their milk—a connection between landscape and flavor that we want to explore.
We plan to make dairy produce in small batches: kefir, cultured butter, yogurt, and seasonal experiments. Freshly made, carefully cultured, and shared around the table.
KefirCultured butterYogurtSmall-batch experiments
Help shape our pasture & dairy work →A productive mosaic
Food forest
Build in layers, selecting crops and support species for the local climate, soil, and available care.
Pasture & animals
Connect forage areas and small rotations with animal care, manure composting, and soil improvement.
Learning plots
Small growing trials help us learn what thrives here.
Demo story
Growing / Planting to harvest
Follow a bed all the way to the basket.
Our gardens are part of the farm plan. Follow a sample growing cycle: 18 lettuce seedlings, one bed, six weeks.
In SoilJournalPlanted 20 July 2026. Expected yield: 5.4 kg. A wilt observation becomes a care task, then a follow-up. The harvest stays linked to the same planting.
What happened31 August: 4.2 kg harvested, 1.2 kg below the plan. The next trial compares afternoon shade instead of quietly overwriting the original expectation.
The next stepCreate one bed and one planting. Give it an expected yield, then return with what actually happened.
Water and sunlight
The Peñas Blancas and its forested banks are part of what drew us here. Water storage, thoughtful irrigation, and solar form part of our plan, with hydro potential to explore as we learn the site.
Demo story
Water / Manual readings
A dry bed gets a return visit.
In the demo, Bed 01 shows afternoon wilt on 27 July. A manual moisture reading is 18%.
In SoilJournalLand area: Bed 01. Dated soil-moisture readings: 18% on 27 July and 24% on 4 August. A field note keeps the conditions beside each number.
What happenedThe follow-up records less wilt and a higher reading. Next, compare the same bed through another growing cycle.
The next stepTake readings at a consistent time and depth, note the weather, and compare the next cycle before changing the wider watering plan.
A memory of the land
SoilJournal keeps growing records, maintenance, and observations in one place. Future AI tools will help us notice patterns and explore practical improvements.
Open the homestead workspace →Observe. Try. Learn.
Walk the land, choose one useful improvement, and return to see what changed. Small discoveries become part of how we care for the whole.
BuenaVida / Living principles
Principles in practice.
Obtain a Yield
At BuenaVida
Explore this principleGardens and small-batch farm produce will bring the work of the land to our table.
Produce No Waste
At BuenaVida
Explore this principleCompost, useful repairs, and shared tools keep resources in circulation.
Use and Value Diversity
At BuenaVida
Explore this principleA layered food forest and a community of different skills bring variety to the project.