updated   Last minute

Low-tech living in a forest garden in Bazsi, Hungary

  • Favourited 911 times
  • Last activity: 28 Mar 2024

Availability

  2024 

 Min stay requested: at least a week

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Details

  • Description

    Description

    We are Krisztian and Julia, hungarian - polish couple in our thirties. We are obsessed with nature, gardening, alternative ways of living, arts, specially music ( creating and listening as well... all kinds, from electronic through piano music to bird singing ). We also love to travel, we spent a few years traveling around Europe before and after we met each other.

    Our place is on a hill and it's totally melted together with the huge forests behind. Ideal for lovers of nature. The land is 1.5 hectares big, mostly forest, quite diverse one mixed with fruit and nut trees. A smaller part is a fruit orchard with old fruit trees and newly planted ones. This part we want to turn slowly into a forest garden. There are many kinds of fruit and nut trees like: apple, peach, plum, pear, cherry, mirabolan, apricot, peach, chestnut, hazelnut, walnut etc. But the forest part needs more observation to identify more and more plants, specially the ground cover ones.

    There are also lots of animals, seeing squirrels running around on the branches of trees is a normal, almost everyday thing. The bird music goes on all day long and at night after the last songs of the birds the bats take over and fly around quietly. While walking to the back of the garden you can see messy clear spots without grass, hm a boar was digging here looking for food... The dear deer also visits the garden sometimes and if you go down to ground level to check out what's there, if you have luck you can spot spiders with crazy patterns and colors, and of course more crazy creatures :) We met with a lot of deers and boars so we got kind of used to each other :) Although the boars can be a bit annoying sometimes when they dig where you don't want them to dig but it just means that our soil is full of life and it's a good spot for them to get the best bites :D

    At a festival Krisztian did also a bit of land art stuff which he would like to continue but now in our garden!

  • Types of help and learning opportunities

    Types of help and learning opportunities

    Art Projects
    Gardening
    DIY and building projects
    Creating/ Cooking family meals
    Help around the house
    General Maintenance
  • Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    You can experience a slower, more simple and quiet life closer to nature without the noise of the outside world. You can learn about gardening and preserving, seed saving, harvesting rainwater, and how to build with very low budget. We can show you edible wild plants and we can find and identify new ones as well. If you are into music, arts and we are on a similar wavelength we can create music. Krisztian has also a lot of knowledge about and experience with dreams, also lucid dreams so he can give tips in that if you are interested.

  • Help

    Help

    Projects for the season 2024:
    - all kinds of garden projects: seeding, planting, making compost, planting trees/shrubs.
    - inoculating logs with shiitake mushrooms.
    - building an extension for our house, with strawbale building techniques.
    - there is a wooden cabin in our forest which needs insulation and floor.
    - building a small roof above our clay oven.
    - collecting wild edible plants, tons of fruits and mushrooms. Preserve them: drying, making jam, pesto, vinegar, kimchi and other ferments. Julia is a ferment junkie.
    - collect herbs and dry them.
    - garden maintenance, harvesting veggies.

    The work is calm and relaxed, we are not "clock-watcher's" but we try to have a loose time-frame for the daily work for volunteers because we ourselves sometimes just work the whole day. We are flexible to set up a schedule what suits everyone. But for example in Summer when it is really hot during the day we prefer to work early morning until it gets hot and late afternoon when the temperature drops.

    We are really interested in the idea of a forest garden and permaculture, guerilla gardening and growing mushrooms. The garden is quite experimental. We know many things and have lots of experience on this field but in the same time we are also learning and trying things out.

    Other stuff:
    - We are happy if volunteers like to cook then we can take turns with cooking and washing dishes. If you are really not into cooking then you can help more to keep the space clean.

  • Languages spoken

    German: Fluent
    English: Fluent
    Spanish: Fluent
    Hungarian: Fluent
    Polish: Fluent

  • Accommodation

    Accommodation

    There is a house with beds, mattresses where you can sleep. In that house there is no electricity so take a torch and be ready to spend your evenings with candle light. In the cold months you need to make a fire in the woodstove if you want to keep the room warm. In the warm months if you prefer the forest with a tent that's also possible.

    Conditions are a bit basic yet, which means for example: the toilet is a compost toilet. There is an outside shower which is quite nice when the weather is warm :) It is very basic: a bucket of water and a jug. Usually it is usable from end of March/ April, until than it is heating up water in pots and figuring out your way of showering. We don't have a washing machine so washing clothes is only possible with hands. There is internet but it's quite slow and limited, so it's only for checking mails. Washing clothes or having a shower might be slower than usual.

    For the shower please take organic soap because the water goes back to the soil directly and we don't want to have chemicals in the soil. Thank you!

  • What else ...

    What else ...

    Our budget is limited so the food costs would be in a shared way. We eat vegetarian, simple but wholesome and most of the volunteers is very happy with it. You can learn how to prepare things from scratch rather than buying them, like bread, yoghurt, sauerkraut, kombucha, wine etc. Our goal is to limit shopping to the minimum and enjoy lots of fresh stuff from the garden. If however you have very different needs, we will try to sort it out:)

    In Summer we like to visit some festivals where you're welcome to join but if you are not an "outgoing" person you can also stay at home and enjoy it on your own, it's up to you. We have many nice friends, neighbours - random parties, fire gatherings here in summer.
    We like to spend time together on work and leisure, but of course everybody needs some private time and we would like to ask you to respect that and be ready to spend some time alone (often evenings after having dinner together). We are very chill-out and flexible folks and don't like to mentor anybody, but we like to have clear communication about everybody‘s needs and likes. So please tell us if you feel uncomfortable with anything:)

    Please only write if you are serious about your stay and would really like to get involved! We prefer people who would stay at least few weeks or longer. If you write that you come than please really come, we got people before who never showed up even though they said they will come. It's good to know in advance if you change your mind because other volunteers who would love to come would have this opportunity.

    Things to see: Nature is amazing around here, the area is perfect for hiking. There are three castles very close and on the hill a Buddhist Stupa with a meditation hall only one hour away by foot. The lake Balaton is only 25-30 kilometers away, it's easily reachable by bus or hitchhiking. There are also very nice markets nearby! One of them is a kind of messy, trashy gypsy market with all kinds of things. Another one is very mixed, there are creative things, bakery stuff, organic food, soap, antique stuff etc.

    Krisztian has lots of instruments as well if you want to play: kalimba, guitar, bass guitar, didgeridoo, mouth harp, midi controller for electronic stuff.

  • A little more information

    A little more information

    • Internet access

    • Limited internet access

      Limited internet access

    • We have pets

    • We are smokers

    • Can host families

  • Space for parking camper vans

    Space for parking camper vans

    This host can provide space for campervans.

  • How many Workawayers can stay?

    How many Workawayers can stay?

    More than two

  • ...

    Hours expected

    4 hours/day. 2 days are off

Host ref number: 516252823244

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