The most interesting man in . . .

. . . the world? Well, maybe a man with the most interests in the world(!). Frank and I met Charlie on our Maltese Rural Tour. It was such an interesting day!

I’ve mentioned that Malta is tiny — just 17 miles long by 9 miles wide. Thus, farmland is limited. Farmers usually live in a nearby town and commute to their land.

Plots of land are divided by these hand-crafted stone walls.

Farmers often own scattered parcels.

For Christmas, Nick and Maddie treated us to an Olive Oil Tour. It was a wonderful chance for us to get outside the city to explore the rural side of Malta. Christian from Merill Tours picked us up at our apartment.

We found that this fairly small farm had much more than just olive trees.

Pomegranates and carob trees. The dark brown pea pod of the carob tree is a sweet and healthy substitute for chocolate.

Gotta love January daffodils!

And January cherry blossoms!

Fragrant herbs were everywhere.

Christian introduced us to Charlie, the landowner. We learned that many Maltese have multiple jobs. In addition to his tour company, Christian is a musician and organizes events. Charlie is no different. In addition to raising all the different trees and plants on their farm, Charlie’s main passion is his work as a diver . . .

and he is also a beekeeper . . .

and he raises poultry.

Charlie also just started raising snails!

Another passion is splicing different plants together to create new plants!

He learned how to do this by watching YouTube!

Charlie’s wife Bella had a nice lunch waiting for us after our walk. We tasted their olive oil (delicious!), as well as some other local products.

We enjoyed taking part in a tour that promotes conservation of the environment and empowerment of rural communities, especially land owners like Charlie and Bella. And it was fun to meet some new friends!