Our story · Zee Barn

Volunteers carrying bamboo poles along a path through the land

Our story

Zee Barn was born out of a love for living simply, in balance with Mother Nature. Here we cultivate and co-create a living dream: recreating the garden of Eden.

From damaged land to a thriving community hub

Envisioned as a functional food forest and ecological centre, Zee Barn is already a beautifully transformed space on previously damaged land. Peppi arrived here in 2018, following the cues to a piece of land that was calling for Zee Barn's vision to manifest.

By then Peppi had already transformed other landscapes and created projects around the world, including the Bahrija Oasis in Malta, an award-winning Mediterranean oasis he developed over 18 years. The site near Ericeira had been a construction company's yard, full of building material and junk, but Peppi saw its potential and felt its calling.

Peppi preparing a garden bed with a rake

From vision to reality

Peppi first planned to run the Bahrija Oasis in Malta and develop Zee Barn slowly, but the travel restrictions of the pandemic called for a difficult decision. Letting go of an established oasis was not easy, yet the call was strong enough. At this time Peppi and Melania met, and their coming together anchored the project and its focus on co-creating the dream.

This co-creation includes permaculture and regenerative design, forest gardens, yoga and meditation, and connecting with other Earth-friendly beings. We also love to journey with sound and breath during retreats and immersions designed to restore body and mind.

Cornflowers and herbs growing in the forest garden

A paradigm shift in sustainable living

Zee Barn is designed to mimic a healthy ecosystem: productive yet diverse, beautiful yet functional, delicate yet resilient, earthy yet colourful. It shows how land can be restored, soil rejuvenated, water harvested and structures integrated, and how humans can become collaborative stewards whose actions leave a positive impact on nature.

Yoga, sound, permaculture and forest gardens, meditation and other holistic disciplines come together here to bring vitality, connection, health and a sense of purpose to our community.

Guests gathered around a fire under the tipi at night

The team

Meet Peppi and Melania

The core team is made up of Melania and Peppi, with lots of friends and helpers who support the vision in many ways.

Peppi

Founder, ecological designer, musician

Peppi is a visionary from the island of Malta: a certified ecological designer with a Master of Science in Ecological Architecture, a certified permaculturist, alternative farmer, teacher and consultant, and the founder of the Permaculture Research Foundation for Malta.

He discovered permaculture at 21 while travelling in Australia, after a theft left him without passport or money and he found refuge on a permaculture farm in northern New South Wales. Back in Malta he spent 18 years turning a dry, rocky outcrop into the Bahrija Oasis. In 2018 he came to the coast near Ericeira, and together with Melania he founded Zee Barn.

You will find him planting the forest, saving seeds, growing food, teaching, playing music, consulting on other projects, and sometimes surfing.

Melania

Yoga teacher, cook, gardener

Melania is from Tuscany, Italy, with a nomadic soul. Her parents took her to India when she was two, and she grew up with Oriental culture, Indian traditions and a macrobiotic diet and philosophy. Since 2008 she has worked on permaculture projects around the world.

At Zee Barn she looks after the gardens and the kitchen, cooking creative, colourful macrobiotic vegan dishes decorated with edible flowers, and turning plants from the land into teas, remedies, oils and soaps.

Melania completed 800 hours of yoga studies at the Byron Yoga Centre in Australia in 2017 and is training as an Iyengar teacher. Her classes draw on Purna yoga, yoga therapy and Ashtanga, with a mindful focus on breath, awareness and alignment.