La Granja

La Granja followed the principles of regenerative agriculture, a system that seeks to improve the land through farming by prioritising soil health. Practices such as composting, mulching and the introduction of livestock were adopted to reduce carbon emissions and improve pasture health, encouraging tastier and more nutritious crops.

The farm’s old, ridged terraces were revived, revealing a cultivated landscape with dozens of seasonal fruit and vegetable varieties in signed and labelled garden plots. Guests learned about regenerative and biodynamic agriculture through workshops, classes and community-based projects that assisted in the reactivation of abandoned agricultural lands.

Over five years, La Granja brought together a community of farmers, producers, creatives and artisans whose work engaged with slowness toward a resetting of values. Our community farm project in Portugal, Friends of a Farmer, continues this work of cultivating agrarian ethics and reviving culinary crafts.

La Granja’s design honoured the heritage of the farmhouse and its inherent connection to the land, embracing rustic simplicity, growth and decay, modesty and transience. Shadow-cast guestrooms featured earth-hued Belgian linens, free-standing claw-foot bathtubs and distressed, reclaimed furnishings in burnt wood, brushed and oiled ash, stone and slate.

To understand La Granja is to begin beneath the surface. Our multimedia feature, Encyclopedia of the Farm, traces a selection of crops as they make their way from soil to sustenance through a sustainable, zero-waste process, guided by the farmers, cooks, critters and creative minds who brought La Granja’s regenerative ethos to life.