It is difficult when one is aging hahaha... your in-laws did the right thing. Perhaps, I made it unclear..it is actually a set up Vienna-Andalucia. In the beginning, we bought a finca complete with 300 avocado trees. We became farmers, built a large 100k liter water deposit and had an automatic irrigation... We kept it for years, when we were away from the property, a neighbor took care of the farm. Everything was ok. But then, the cost of the water, caretaker and the feeds were enorm. We sort of got the property with the trees, and in an instant became farmers when all we wanted was to have an easy life.
Farming avocados was interesting, I got to know the varieties. We had some agents who picked-up the fruits harvested.. But we had to pay the people harvesting then we got cheated at the last delivery of 4k kilos by around 3k Euros. We normally came with the agent delivering to the wholesaler because of the counting, sizes, quality of the fruits. This time we trusted the agent and we didn´t go with him because I was so busy since I had around 10 friends from Germany and Holland who participated and wanted to have fun at harvesting, which they didn´t do before. There were so much work to do, we lived in that finca for 7 years, had it renovated, extended. But the maintenance of the farm consumed my energy and I had back problems.... so in the end we sold the finca and built a new house about 5 kilometers from the old house, this time no trees. You can see my succulent garden here
But as I have said, getting old is not cool, lol! We downsized two years ago from our row house with 4 bedrooms and moved to a 2 bedroom flat. Glad it has no stairs and no garden to maintain. Now we only stay in Andalucia 3-4 months of the year. With the pandemic, I guess we´ll have a difficult time selling the property...nobody would dare to invest ATM. Sorry for the long reply...lololols! Have a nice weekend!
Ah okay, half Vienna and half Andalucia. I presume you're able to enjoy the weather by escaping the cold winters of Austria by being in Spain? Thank you for sharing your farming story. 300 avocado trees are a huge undertaking. That's a lot to manage and physically exhausting I can imagine.
I watched a documentary that you might have seen on Netflix called Rotten about the green gold, the avocado war in California, Mexico, and Chile. It gave me a glimpse into avocado cultivation and the technological, political, and water problems farmers face. Fascinating that you were able to experience the avocado industry firsthand with lots of memories on the farm with your friends.
You also had an interesting journey downsizing. Hope a good buyer comes along and the transition is smooth. Thanks again for sharing your story and happy Saturday!