Habitat Natural

This project is located in the Alto Minho region of this country and is based on the concept of Slow Food. It is trying to counter the trend towards the phenomenon of mass, rapid and standardized production of fast food. Slow food means eating better, and sitting at a table to appreciate a real meal, in peace, in the company of friends; it means making the act of eating into a gratifying experience that gives you pleasure; it is about discovering flavours, appreciating the shapes and colours of fresh foods, and understanding the relationship between what we eat and the environment that surrounds us. The key pillars of this concept are the preservation of the original flavour of the foodstuffs that are grown at their natural pace and in their natural location, people sharing experiences, respect for nature, and rescuing the biodiversity of flavours.
For this concept to make sense, Habitat Natural, 80 km north of Porto, always bears in mind that produce should be consumed locally, outside the complex distribution chains. They show that, apart from sophisticated gourmets, there are the menus of those who truly appreciate good and abundant food who eat for pleasure and for the flavour, who are fans of tasty forkfuls, of sighs and exclamations of satisfaction: be it when eating a chunk of corn bread, or a succulent slice of cachena beef with rice made with tarreste beans.

They rear the indigenous breeds cachena cattle, bísaro pigs, chickens (pedrês, amarela, branca and preta lusitana) and grow regional varieties of maize, tarreste beans, galega cabbage, and various aromatic and condimentary herbs.

Habitat Natural has rural accommodation for visitors who want to take their time enjoying this fantastic world of traditions and biodiversity.

About the author

Uwe Heitkamp, 53 years old, started working after university in daily newspapers and from 1984 on in public tv broadcasting companies such as WDR (Collogne), NDR (Hamburg), SDR (Stuttgart/Baden-Baden) in the ARD (first programme), wrote several books and directed the cinema movie about the anti nuclear movement in Germany in 1986 (Wackersdorf). After emigration in 1990 he founded 1995 the trilingual weekly printed newspaper “Algarve123” and later the online edition www.algarve123.com. Heitkamp lives for 25 year in Monchique, Portugal. He loves mountain hiking and swimming in streams and lakes, writes and tells stories of success from people and their sustainable relationship between ecology and economy. His actual film “Revolutionary Roads” tells the 60 minute story of a long walk crossing Portugal. 10 rural people paint a picture of their lives in the hills of the serra and the hinterland. The film captures profound impressions of natural beauty and human life. Along which path is the future of Portugal to be found? (subscribe to ECO123 und watch the documentary in the Mediatec)