Portugal
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We are a German (Franz 33) and Polish (Kasia 26) couple who both enjoyed traveling for the last years individually and together. We speak english, polish, german. We are both much interested in organic farming, permaculture and sustainable living. Franz has a Bachelor degree in Biology and we both have successfully taken part in a Permaculture Design Course program. Kasia likes to experiment with medicine plants, creates herbal teas, soaps and other products from them.
In Oct. 2017 we made our best dream come true and got the land in the heart of Portugal, where we live now with our two cats - Viking and Selma - and a cute dog, Tao. The land had already some basic permaculture principles in its design when we bought it, but there is still a long way to go to turn it into what we imagine. We are setting up a food forest, doing some natural building and planning to restore our ruin in the future. At some point we want to be a permaculture education site, hosting PDCs and different workshops. We wish to create a place, were people can learn and enjoy life while being more connected to the nature and themselves.
Our land is about one half terraced land with grapes, olives, citruses and many other mature and young fruit trees/bushes. The other half is pine and mimosa forest. We have already set up a vegetable garden and the yurt in which we live currently. Warm water for the shower runs from a compost heater and from a solar collector. For the outside kitchen we built a beautiful wooden geodome. We constructed a rootceller underground storage for keeping our harvest fresh.
There is as well a greenhouse built on the granit rocks, that gives extra heating mass to the plants, so we can experiment with tropical plants and different veggies.
Gardening
Building
Cooking / shopping
Farmstay
Help with Eco project
Language practice
Art project
Help with Computers / internet
It is a good opportunity to see how the little farm evolves in it's early stage. We are here second year and it taught us a lot of many practical skills, that we would never imagine before getting the land. We can show you our current challenges and share excitement about starting a permaculture farm.
We can teach many permaculture tecnics and solutions, specially from practical side.
It is a perfect place for those, who wish to reconnect with nature and with themselves. Who wish for peace and are hungry of knowledge.
We can share our traveling stories and experiences since both of us made long journeys before getting established here ; )
What work may we expect from you:
GARDENING (weeding, planting, mulching, harvesting, watering)
PLANTS PROPAGATION (sowing the seeds, repotting plants)
COMPOSTING (collecting material for the compost, turning compost, applying on the garden beds)
LAND CLEARING (chopping down shrubs we don't need, taking away brumble bushes)
FOREST WORK (we will not ask you for using heavy machines unless you had experience with them and you feel comfortable with that, but you might help with loading wood on the trailer, pruning the trees, or taking away dry ferns)
HELP WITH MAKING FIREWOOD (assisting us while we are cutting the wood, storing it, bringing to the kitchen)
COOKING (If you enjoy cooking, you are more than welcome to make dinner or bake. We always cook on the firewood, so energy is for free and you can bake as much as you want ; )
HELPING WITH UPCOMING NATURAL BUILDINGS (we are building up, so this year we will do some timber and clay work)
Type of help always depend on the seasons, on what do we have to do at certain time and also on your personal skills and prefers.
We would consider 5 hours of easy going help for 5 days a week as a fair deal for tasty food and accommodation through all the days of your stay. Usually we let volunteers prepare what do they like for breakfast and lunch and then we have a shared dinner together. Most of the time we cook, but if you are happy with cooking, we might also ask you for that as a part of your helping hours.
english, german, polish, basic of portuguese and spanish
For our guests and helpers we just have built cosy wooden cabin. It has a lovely view on the land and wood burner to stay warm in the frosty nights during the winter.
In case if the wooden cabin is occupied we have nice old style canvas tents. You are able to see them on our pictures. If you have certain preferences about type of accommodation, tell us in the private message.
Also there is a lot of space to park a van, pitch your own tent or set up your hammock. If you bring your own accommodation, we don't need to save space for you and you are generally welcome any time you wish!
What do we recommend you to take:
OCTOBER - MAY
good rainproof jacket and shoes
warm clothes for chill evenings
torch
environmental friendly soap/shampoo
JUNE - SEPTEMBER
hat or anything that protects you from the sun
your own sleeping bag in case if you will be sleeping in the tent
torch
environmental friendly soap/shampoo
SPECIAL WARNING TO SMOKERS
Since we are situated in the area with very high risk of fire, we want to make sure, that you are very conscious about that. We will ask you to always take care that you put your cigarette leftovers to the jar that is closed afterwards. Remember, that your one mistake could costs us loosing our land and creating a big danger to our neighbours.
We provide food for all the days of the volunteers stay.
For your free time:
we have a lovely river close by to swim in the summer time or you can also hop in the water tank to cool off ; ) There is also a good possibility for hiking, mushroom picking, biking, fishing and getting to know the portuguese village life and local festas. We are 10 minutes drive from Tabua as well as Olivera do Hospital and about an hour drive from Viseu or Coimbra or the Serra de Estrela. The farm itself is nicely remote to be private but lays in 10 min walking distance to the village. There you can find a café, some bars and a little shop for the most necessary things. Close by we have two different yoga teachers and taekwondo. We are surrounded by plenty of similar projects/communities and farms like us. This creates a beautiful feeling of building a better future among friends and neighbors, who take great care of the nature and want to live a healthy, responsible and happy life. There are few local flea markets and other nice social event happening from time to time.
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
More than two
Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week
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