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Host rating
100 %
Last replied
6 Jan 2024
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87.5 %
Usually responds within 31 days
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Description
Welcome! We are a Permaculture Farm. A couple of Indian-Australian-American hybrids living the natural life on our 1 acre plot in the beautiful Sahyadri Range (Western Ghats) in Maharashtra, India. We’re the globe-trottin’ type and bring the world’s seeds, artifacts, guests, ideas, and experiences to our land.
Our property is a homestead, permaculture farm, production house and workshop space.
Thanks to the help of dozens of amazing Workawayers in 2019, we created something from nothing -- building soil, stair cases, a greenhouse, a composting toilet, a chicken coop, garden beds, a rocket oven, lots of wooden furniture; laying drip irrigation and digging trenches for water; painting murals and signs and beautifying spaces; brewing kombucha and kicking off our Rise Up Kombucha enterprise and more!
**Please note: Kunal and I are on & off the farm; our head kombucha brewer, Rohan, is on the farm along with other rotating folks. We are looking for volunteers who have previous experience on farms! If you have ZERO experience, it is not the best time for you to come because we won't be able to support you to the fullest. In the times we are off-farm, we will still teach and guide you virtually :)
**ALSO NOTE! We are HIRING for a full time farm manager. Ideally you are a permaculturist or natural farming enthusiast that is wanting to get their hands dirty & practice & learn but don't have land of your own. We are open to a single person or a couple. Get in touch with us if you think this is you!
Current responsibilities / projects on the farm are:
- general farm work (sewing seeds, tending to plants, weeding, harvesting, turning compost, prepping garden beds)
-creating an extensive grey water system
-doing some major building projects using only earthen materials (cob, earthbags, stone, bamboo etc)
-creating a food forest on our lower 1/4 acre
-working on our Rise Up Kombucha brand
Our farm is located in Panchgani, Maharashtra -- a beautiful hill station 4 hrs SE of Mumbai. The town is small but very popular for tourists and the region is densely forested, great for hiking, trekking, biking, and relaxing.
We are looking for awesome guests -- people who are excited about life, open minded, positive, and have gifts to share -- be it food, music, natural building, farming, art etc. We are both trained in Permaculture and will teach you all along the way. Please write to us about what projects you are interested in / what you bring to the table and how you can aid our mission :)
While we are still open to hosting short term volunteers (2-4 weeks); we are now more interested in hosting long term volunteers (3+ months).
Come grow with us!
We speak Hindi, English & Marathi.
Cheers!
*️️️️️*️️️️️please note that we cannot accept anyone with a serious PEANUT ALLERGY! We manufacture peanut butter and always have them around the house!!!
Types of help and learning opportunities
Art Projects
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Farmstay help
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
Kunal is Indian-Australian and Laura is American. Together we have trotted this whole globe and live to travel and explore. We have lots of life stories from all over the world to share.
The cultural benefit you will receive here is a taste of life in a small(er) Indian town; Marathi/Hindi language and food, working with villagers and enjoying the slow pace of rural Indian life.
Help
General Permaculture Farm Maintenance:
-Seedling propagation
-Nursery Maintenance
-Planting, Weeding, Harvesting
-Compost
- Planting beds
-making natural Fertilizers (jeevamruut)
Creative Projects:
-Painting murals/art on walls
-Tiling/Mosaic
-Making art to hang up
Building:
-carpentry skills to build chicken coop, green house, tool shed, composting toilet etc
-If you have the skills, we could build a bamboo structure together — looking to build 3 small huts on our lower plot within the next year.
Permaculture Skills:
If you are trained Permaculturist and/or designer, you may have the opportunity to participate in leading workshops/classes and participating in creating designs for other farmers.
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Hindi: Fluent
Spanish: Beginner
Accommodation
Types of Accommodation:
1. A bedroom treehouse loft that sleeps 2 (bunk bed) with its own separate bathroom and shower.
2. If the loft is full of other volunteers -- In tents in the front lawn (we have 1 large tent, you can also provide your own)
Food:
We will feed you delicious food three times a day with chai/coffee etc. We eat a lighter breakfast (eggs, smoothie, toast etc) with a coffee/chai and head out for farm work, then come in around 2 pm for a big delicious long lunch (seasonal sabji, daal, rice, roti etc), have some kind of afternoon chai, then usually have a lighter dinner around 7 or 8 pm.
We cook and eat vegetarian food on the farm but are not STRICT vegetarians, and thus don't have any rules on how our volunteers choose to eat.
What else ...
In your time off (weekends), you can travel to Pune, Mumbai, Goa -- all a bus ride away. Panchgani is a tourist spot so there is lots of available transportation to major city hubs.
*️️️️️*️️️️️please note that we cannot accept anyone with a serious PEANUT ALLERGY! We manufacture peanut butter and always have them around the house!!!
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
Hours expected
6 hours a day, 5 days a week
Feedback (8)
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Cultural exchange:
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They are committed people, dynamic and full of skills. they taught us a lot about permaculture and like to share their knowledge.
In addition to their professionalism, they are really fun and we never… read more
Tracy and Laura spent most of the first week 'planting out' the prepared vegetable areas and flower beds.
Kunal and I repaired various areas of masonry which were in need of attention.
A stone 'holding wall' had been knocked down by a JCB and needed restoration first, followed by… read more
