HI WE ARE NIELS, STEPHANIE and the rest of the rebels
I’ll tell you how we ended up on a farm with an olive grove in the Montes de Málaga.
But to explain it all, I have to start at the very beginning.
I first saw Niels at the airport in Alicante. He was playing with his little brother, and I was watching the scene unfold. And I thought, no joke, that’s the man of my life.
See how Spain is a recurring factor in our story ;-)
Long story short, once back in Belgium, I suddenly started seeing him everywhere. I never had the courage to approach him, until one of my best friends, about six months after I’d first seen him, decided enough was enough. She went to ask him if he had noticed me back then too.
The answer was NO, hahaha. That was awkward. But it didn’t take long before Niels was standing next to me, and we started talking. All the important topics in life came up.
And to be honest, the idea we had back then of what our life together would look like is nothing like what it has actually become.
I was studying law, and he was studying product development. And, as so often happens, we got caught up in the rat race.
We had four children, bought a house in the green outskirts of Antwerp, Niels became self-employed in construction, and I worked as a lawyer. But no matter how hard we tried, something just didn’t feel right.
At some point, we became so disconnected from ourselves that it began to take its toll, and we could no longer ignore the feeling.
We had always dreamed of moving abroad. I still remember the first time it clicked. It was as if I had never realised before that I was free to choose where in the world I wanted to live.
They say that people only change when they experience something profound. For us, it was the loss of my best friend.
Suddenly, everything became clear.
We were no longer clouded by distractions. And it was actually very simple. All you have in this life is time. Time is our most precious possession.
It wasn’t just the catalyst we needed to follow our dream, but it also made us aware of many other things.
We realised that most of what we buy in the supermarket is highly processed and often contains harmful additives.
We dreamed of finding a place in nature and where we could grow our own vegetables and herbs, living as self-sufficiently as possible.
A place where we could simply be, where we could find peace and unwind, preferably somewhere the sun shines often.
When we first visited this house, it was love at first sight. We both felt it.
It came with an olive grove, like an unexpected blessing on our journey.
And so, we were given the chance to be part of the much-needed revolution in the food industry.
The more we learned about olive oil, the more we started to love it.
And then there's our home...
our other project.
A place of abundance, peace and inspiration where food and herbs grow.
We renovated this house, designing each corner together to bring our dream to life.
The result is a farmhouse, simple and elegant, where you feel like time is your friend rather than something that always seems to slip away.
Wanting to share our safe haven with others, we rent out the house during a selective period of the year.
And we keep dreaming... always creating.