Besides the mill, our family estate includes our family house and our garden. The garden feeds us and our guests, and here we grow wide number of local species, from spices to vegetables and fruit.
The fourth generation of family Dubelj lives today in Orašac. We came here more than 80 years ago. The family owns olive groves and the garden with our house. The groves number around 200 olive trees that are regularly maintained and harvested. The garden has surface of 1500 meters. Here is where we grow our vegetables in three phases, so we have it all year round. Our family house has also been constructed here.
After the World War II, Mato’s parents got married and came to the village. They rented an old house. The grandfather worked in Trsteno, a village near by, and walked to work every day for 6 hours. In the meantime, the mother stayed at home and took care of the children. She also took care of the cow they owned and sold milk around the village. Mato’s father had only one thought in his mind, and always used to say: “Here we have a war going on every 40 years so I need to buy some land so my children have always their own place to plant cabagge and feed ten sheep or a cow. And so he did all his life. He followed his dream and his plan and whenever possible he bought some land.
At the time, his son Mato and his wife Anka worked in the city of Dubrovnik and had decent monthly salaries. They used to say to the grandfather to quit with the war stories, as he can see how well they lived out of their income.
Unfortunately, year 1991 came soon enough, and the shelling of the granades was here again. Suddenly, it did matter if your owned a piece of land, as you had water and wood as well. Now we see how our grandfather was right all along, as here in Orašac nobody was hungry during the five years of war. All thanks to our land.
At the moment of reservation we arrange menu choice for every visit, group or individual. We have available menus for vegans, vegetarians and allergy sensitive persons.
