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Permaculture retreat with good organic food on our self sufficient family homestead in Vojnic, Croatia

Availability

  2025 

 Min stay requested: at least 3 weeks

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Details

  • Description

    Description

    You're welcome here in the green hills in the heart of Croatia!

    We are looking for nature lovers who want to help us set up a village-community on our 12 hectares of terrain where we live a sustainable and self reliant life in the countryside. The projects for this year are:
    - hiking trails (2, 5 and 8 km) on and around the terrain,
    - small natural pond between food forest and garden,
    - making the (no-dig, polyculture) garden accessible for guests, documenting the techniques and finding creative ways to explain our permaculture garden
    - setting up another greenhouse (including watering system)
    - building another shepherd's hut

    Our vision is to grow our permaculture homestead into a community (that we call village) with like-minded people in an edible landscape. We think that living independent, in harmony with nature, growing your own food and growing connections with people is what the planet needs.

    We are looking for chefs who would like to farm-to-table cook with our son Nol (21), and we're looking for hands-on handypersons to help Peter build another shepherd's hut.

    We cook on wood, we like to ferment (kombucha, kefir, waterkefir, kvass, sauerkraut, kimchi, turshya), bake bread (also sourdough), smoke meat and fish, we have made our own sausages... Cooking here is fun!

    About our family: we live a simple, healthy, holistic lifestyle as practical realists. We use permaculture principles and design to develop our terrain and our life. We care for the earth, for the people around us, for the future and we like to share our abundance.
    We aim to make the world a better place by living as sustainable as is practical for us, and we are using permaculture design to setup our systems.

    You need a certain amount of independence, curiosity, flexibility and fun. 
    We welcome you as you and we don't appreciate advocates for a battle that doesn't need to be fought here. Who you are matters for us; not what colors your skin has, what gender you identify with or who you prefer in your bed. That is not an issue here. We have hosted warriors who dominate the atmosphere with what others can or cannot say. We enjoy a light atmosphere and we might not be "politically correct" because we don't believe in politics. We believe in us all being humans and caring for the world.

    Please write a PERSONAL message (to Peter and Barbara) about you, what you want to learn, why, what we can learn from you, your skills and your dream future, so we can setup a good stay for you.
    We normally get more than 400 requests a year so you need to make it personal with your motivation!

  • Types of help and learning opportunities

    Types of help and learning opportunities

    Help with Eco Projects
    Gardening
    DIY and building projects
    Animal Care
    Farmstay help
    Creating/ Cooking family meals
    Help around the house
    General Maintenance
  • Interests

    Interests

    Sustainability
    Pets
    Self development
    Farming
    Charity work
    History
    Art & design
    Books
    DIY & crafts
    Music
    Plant care
    Photography
    Languages
    Gardening
    Cooking & food
    Blogging
    Drawing & painting
    Carpentry
    Animals
    Yoga / Wellness
    Nature
    Camping
    Outdoor activities
    Hiking
  • UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

    UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

    UN goals
    No poverty
    Zero hunger
    Good health and well-being
    Quality education
    Gender equality
    Clean water and sanitation
    Affordable and clean energy
    Decent work and economic growth
    Industries, innovation and infrastructure
    Reduce inequality
    Sustainable cities and communities
    Responsible consumption and production
    Climate action
    Life below water
    Life on land
    Peace, justice and strong institutions
    Partnerships for the goals
  • Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    We like to share and exchange recipes, music (we have a piano, guitar, wooden flutes, djembe, cajon), inspiring movies, ideas, insights... Peter used to be a blacksmith, Barbara likes to work with wool (spinning, felting, knitting, crochet) and she makes our own herbal health care (tinctures, oils, teas), body care (face & hand creams) and cleaning products (with soda, vinegar, borax, salt, essential oils and such).
    Barbara has her permaculture Diploma and is a (social) permaculture and Cultural Emergence facilitator. Peter coaches people to make (natural) steps in their lives, so you can learn about permaculture and personal development as well.

  • Help

    Help

    We are homeschooling our son Nol to become a chef and we definitely need help with that, from professional cooks! We have hosted chefs from Costa Rica, the United States, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Chili and England and we are very grateful for their contributions in our kitchen.

    You can also help us with your skills in wood working. So if you are good in furniture making, you can help with the animal housing, the interior of our shepherd's hut or a traditional wooden house. If you are experienced in construction work, Peter would be pleased to build cool stuff with you. A reciprocal roof is also on the agenda.

  • Languages

    Languages spoken
    English: Fluent
    Dutch: Fluent
    German: Intermediate
    Croatian: Intermediate

    This host offers a language exchange
    Želimo "level up" u Hrvatski jezik pa izvorni govornici hrvatskoga molim vas dođite i pomozite nam!

  • Accommodation

    Accommodation

    Volunteers stay in a camper van, caravan or in a room in the house, depending on the season.

  • What else ...

    What else ...

    We're situated on the top of a hill, inland Croatia. The village Vojnic is on a 5km/50 minutes walk distance. In Vojnic there are bars with wifi and there are shops for groceries.

    On Saturdays we sometimes go to the farmers market, to buy things that we don't produce ourselves (yet).

    When it's hot, we go swimming in the river Korana (or Mreznica).

    On a day off you could visit Petrova Gora, Rastoke (beautiful old, wooden village on the river) or the Plitvice lakes & waterfalls (UNESCO monument), or the nice city Karlovac (half hour bus drive). Also the capitol Zagreb is visitable (just over an hour with the bus). The Croatian coast is under 2 hours by car.

  • 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

  • Can host digital nomads

    Can host digital nomads

    We have good internet and we can set you up with a desk and flexible hours to work.

  • Space for parking camper vans

    Space for parking camper vans

    On our 12 hectares we have some excellent spots to put your vehicle!

  • Can possibly accept pets

    Can possibly accept pets

    Friendly dogs can play with our labrador-retriever Nina or with our border collie Nelson.

  • How many Workawayers can stay?

    How many Workawayers can stay?

    More than two

Host ref number: 125849582927

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