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Host rating
100 %
Last replied
15 Sep 2025
Feedback
34
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Description
Greetings from our family-run small permaculture farm, our community-NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation that is non-profit) and eco-campsite in the heart of Croatia. Together with our children and neighbours, we are creating a place where people, nature, and creativity come together in a very hands-on way.
Volunteers join us as part of a small group of volunteers in our NGO. We live, learn, and work alongside each other, sharing daily life on the land. Typical activities include gardening and light work in the (11 years old) food forest, developing our edible landscape, caring for animals, maintaining forest trails, and helping with (non-commercial) everyday tasks around the farm. (WorkAwayers will not help with any business activity)
While being here, you will:
- Experience permaculture ethics and principles in daily practice and real-life decision making
- Take part in varied, hands-on activities such as working in food forests, simple natural building tasks, fermentation, brewing, herbal preparations, and other seasonal projects
- Enjoy a simple, nature-based lifestyle at our eco-campsite, with access to hiking trails, forest spaces, and plenty of hammocks under the trees
We welcome people who:
- Enjoy contributing, learning by doing, and exchanging ideas
- Are comfortable with a mix of outdoor work, practical tasks, and shared community life
- Are independent, curious, flexible, and enjoy a sense of humour
- Appreciate a respectful, relaxed atmosphere where cooperation matters more than opinions
Food: we prepare hearty, home-style meals, using fresh produce from our garden whenever possible. We eat with the seasons and locally sourced. That means no coffee, chocolate, bananas or avocados.
We can provide vegetarian meals but we are not able to cater for a vegan diet.
Life here is lively, sometimes muddy, always close to nature, and best suited for people who enjoy simplicity, curiosity, and a bit of adventure. Please note: living close to nature also means insects are part of the experience.
Bogata Šuma (“Rich Forest”) is a LAND demonstration site with the Permaculture Association Britain. Barbara holds a Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design, and permaculture thinking naturally weaves through daily conversations and activities.
Interested?
Please send us a personal message (to Peter & Barbara) telling us a bit about yourself:
- What attracts you to staying here
- What you enjoy doing and can contribute
- Your interests, experience, and anything that helps us create a good stay together
We look forward to hearing from you.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Charity Work
Art Projects
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
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
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, salt, essential oils, EM1).
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.
Registered charity
This host is a registered charity in their country and is looking for volunteers to help with their project(s).
Help
We usually have a bigger project and a few smaller ones to work on, and some skill exchange in between (permaculture, blacksmithing, welding, fermenting food... what are your skills?).
When it rains we can do indoor activities like processing dried herbs and making herbal teas and tinctures with them, or making birdhouses (also for owls, bats and hedgehogs).
We like to match your skills to our projects. Maybe picturing the garden and its elements for a "The Garden Speaks" tour, or mapping and documenting hiking trails, weaving branches and making dead hedges to prevent erosion, building a small natural pond, natural building projects and upgrades of current natural structures... so tell us about your skills and interests!
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Dutch: Fluent
German: Intermediate
Croatian: IntermediateThis host offers a language exchange
Želimo "level up" u Hrvatski jezik pa izvorni govornici hrvatskoga molim vas dođite i pomozite nam!
Accommodation
Volunteers stay in a camper van, a caravan or in a room in the house, depending on the season and availability.
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 shops for snacks or other drinks than what we provide.
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
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Space for parking camper vans
On our 12 hectares we have some excellent spots to put your vehicle!
Can possibly accept pets
Friendly dogs can play with our labrador-retriever Nina or with our border collie Nelson.
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
My animals / pets
Rabbits
Bees
Caught from the neighbour's wild apple tree
Eggbert, Eggnes, Eggward Scissorbeak, Shelly, Yolko Ono, Cluck Norris, Chick Jagger
Lasagne
Antenna
Ellie (6 years)
Ellie (with her husband Henk who died) is the mother of Antenna and Lasagne. She loves humans, she hates other cats.
Eep (10 years)
Eep is the aunt of the other cats. Her brother Henk (died) is the husband of Ellie and father of Antenna & Lasagne.
Nelson (8 years)
Nelson we picked up from the school yard* when we got sheep, so he could help us with them.
The school yard is the local alternative for an animal sanctuary. You drop of your animal and it will be fed and petted by the school kids! Animals usually find a new home (with 1 of the kids) within 1-2 days.
Nina (8 years)
Joyful labrador-retriever that can always be "bought" with food. Food is her favorite dish!!
Chat with Workawayers who've visited this host
Feedback (11)
Lulu has many skills and she works precise and thorough and always with good mood. She works well in teams and she is full of initiative, (but not boundary crossing). And when a minor thing went wrong, she immediately owned up. Lulu has a refreshing adult… read more
Barbara n Peter are amazing people, there are authentic persons with a very interesting view of the world ! You can learn many skills and discover many new thing ( about garden, cooking, woodwork... ) ! You are more connected with nature and can easily be yourself!
You can have a big fun with fleur n nol too :)) !
If… read more
Both of them have many, many skills and if you want to get some work well done, these are your people. They ask because they're genuinely… read more
Photos
Chat with Workawayers who've visited this host
Feedback
These are extra optional ratings when members leave feedback. The average rating left for each option is displayed.
Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(5.0)
Communication:
(4.9)
Lulu has many skills and she works precise and thorough and always with good mood. She works well in teams and she is full of initiative, (but not boundary crossing). And when a minor thing went wrong, she immediately owned up. Lulu has a refreshing adult… read more
Barbara n Peter are amazing people, there are authentic persons with a very interesting view of the world ! You can learn many skills and discover many new thing ( about garden, cooking, woodwork... ) ! You are more connected with nature and can easily be yourself!
You can have a big fun with fleur n nol too :)) !
If… read more
Both of them have many, many skills and if you want to get some work well done, these are your people. They ask because they're genuinely… read more
Marcus is hard working, flexible, independent and reliable. He is a realistic idealist, actively working on a better world, starting with himself.
It was a joy to host her!
We had a good time in the garden, sowing, planting, fertilizing, mulching and harvesting, hunting bugs and garden bed maintenance. They also worked in the food savanna and in the nut orchard, cared for the plants and trees and processed… read more
Barbara, Peter, Nol and Fleur are an incredible family with a fantastic vision for how they want to live life now and in the future. There were 14 of us in total including our family, theirs, and the other volunteers. We all shared… read more
This family is great company for good conversations, good food and they bring good energy, love & joy to the world around them. They are passionate about health and good food but not dogmatic. They are… read more
We think that Debora is really cool and courageous because she left a safe job to search for a more meaningful life in nature.
She works hard and learns quick so that we could team her up with new volunteers… read more
They were interested in our life story, life projects, and learn from our culture as well. They shared lots of life stories. We eat the most natural food ever (most of the food was from their garden). They took us to the river a couple of times which… read more
We did a big variety of tasks with them, like gardening, animal care, paving a terrace, piling a wood stack and processing the harvest. And cooking! Camila is a good cook and she taught us some… read more
You're welcome back Philipp!
Unfortunately, because of COVID-19, she had to leave earlier than planned but Camille is welcome back any other time.
They work hard and they work well together. Both are practical AND very creative so what they make is beautiful. Lou painted fantastic ornaments that she designed herself, from examples/style indications that we gave her. Théo constructed the front and the back of a gypsy wagon, and Lou made some… read more
Thank you for coming here and enriching our lives! We really enjoyed your stay here, our talks about Toltecs and ancient wisdom, your music, your delicious influence on our food...
You are 2 lovely, positive warriors for a better world.
Love,
Peter & Barbara
Fabio is a lovely, gentle man with a great eye for detail. He is funny and light, and at the same time serious with everything he does. He is not "just a helper", he is TRULY helpful!
Sofia is a great… read more
Leandra helped us get the garden ready for spring (and we did various other things) and David helped Peter with making furniture for our event. What a valuable contribution that was! We had fun and we learned from them too.
The entire family (including… read more
What a joy to host you! Thank you for choosing our place. We had fun with you, interesting conversations, and you left a lot of physical memories with the things you did here.
Thank you very much and we wish you a lucky, bon voyage!
Barbara, Peter, and kids are a wonderfully welcoming family; supporting and fostering creativity and free thought.
Work Overview:
The work here is varied, and dependant on the season, and also your abilities.
Whether you’re interested… read more
You're welcome back any time, Sarah!
They are a lovely couple with a good sense of humor and good cooking skills.
They quickly found their way… read more
