A 400-year-old stone farmhouse in Umbria and the 400-plus olive trees that came with it. The guest house is up but far from finished, and we have a long list of things still to learn, starting with how to prune.
The novel · Coming Winter 2026
A romantic comedy inspired by this farm
The farm was my husband's find. He came across a neglected 400-year-old stone farmhouse and its olive grove, and he restored it right before we met. I never expected to be an olive farmer. I fell for someone who came with 400 olive trees. Family and friends in Umbria keep pulling us back. For now we split our time between South Florida and Umbria, but the plan is to be here full-time.
There's still plenty to do. The guest house is up, but finishing it has been slow going, and we've been filming it since the foundations. When it's done, it will be for family and friends, and for guests who want to stay at the farm.
I've learned Italian along the way. Pruning is next. We share all of it on YouTube and Instagram: what goes right, what doesn't, and what the grove looks like at harvest.
Some people fall in love.
Javier fell all the way to Umbria.
Javier Martinez is 45, weary, and fluent in the language of terrible first dates. He is ready for a very long break from the apps.
Then comes one drink with a charming stranger, and a question that changes the course of his life. Before he knows it, Javier is far from Miami, in the middle of a harvest he is wildly unqualified for, surrounded by a family with plenty of opinions.
Funny, tender, and every bit as unhinged as modern dating, The Accidental Olive Farmer is a love story about the person you never saw coming, and the life that comes with him.
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Published by Olive & Boar Press ↗
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Almost everything we post falls into one of three areas.
Everything starts with the olive trees. We farm organically, and the wild boars that root through the grove do our tilling for us. We follow the trees through the year, from pruning to harvest to the mill.
My husband restored the main house before I came along, keeping as much of the original stone and character as he could. Now we're building the guest house, and this time it's on camera.
Our neighbors, Lake Trasimeno nearby, and the towns, markets and food around us. It's what everyday life in Umbria looks like when you're not on vacation.
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