Make life more fun and share experiences on our off grid hobby farm near Granada, Spain

Details

• 

  Description

  We have a hobby farm in the middle of nowhere in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Granada.
  Over the last 15 years we have hosted over 400 people.
  
  If you look at our reviews you can see that most people have had a great time.
  
  Our farm is not commercial and we don't earn money from having the farm.
  
  We are retired and as long as we have fun we don't care that our farm is unprofitable. (sin animo de lucro)
  
  We enjoy, cooking, growing vegetables and trying to be as self sufficient as possible.
  
  Our farm is now almost completely carbon neutral apart from a little bit of gas for hot water when the sky is cloudy.
  
  All our electricity for cooking, living, hot water etc is solar powered. We have an MG4 EV which is almost 100% solar powered.
  
  Our farm is in the middle of nowhere and we are sociable people so we like to have volunteers to make life more fun and to share our experiences.
  
  This is not like a job it is a cultural exchange. We like to get to know the volunteers. We are over 60 years old so maybe we are like cool grandparents. We never had children and we like to think we can get along as friends with anybody irrespective of age, race etc. We love to meet people from all over the world.
  
  So our farm is like a cultural exchange where you can learn about growing food, self sufficiency alternative technologies etc
  
  Many of our volunteers have gone on to put into practice what they have learned here.
  
  We currently have dates with the following fixed arrival and leaving days:
  
  AVAILABILITY:-
  
  SLOT D
  Mid July until End of August. You choose the dates minimum 2 weeks.
  As we are high at 1300 metres it is much cooler and less humid than most of Spain. We start work early to avoid the heat. Most of the work is just keeping the garden going. Tending to the tomatoes. We tend to crack nuts under a big tree in the hottest hour.
  
  SLOT E
  Tue 8th Sep 2026 - Sat 26th Sep 2026
  The principal activity is making wine, picking, processing, pressing etc. There is a lot of food processing. Canning etc.
  
  OLIVES
  Tue 10th Nov 2026 - Sat 28th Nov 2026
  Picking olives
  
  IMPORTANT: Please state your DATE or arrival and leaving:
  
  You can request a longer period. In theory, longer stays of over a month are possible but only after a successful short stay.
  
  NOTE:
  Every word of our profile is a true and an accurate description of reality. We also require that your profile is truthful.
  
  Many volunteers write the same message to many hosts without reading their profiles. If you mention the dates you want to come or make it look like you have read our profile you are more likely to get a positive reply.
  
  Please don't use AI to write to us and please don't us AI to write your profile.
  
  The volunteers that we might be interested in would have these characteristics: interested in growing food, self-sufficiency and alternative technologies; don't mind about being isolated and in the middle of nowhere; and sociable and fun to be with.
  
  We will be planting, growing and harvesting vegetables and preparing to be as self-sufficient as possible.
  
  ABOUT US:
  We are an English couple who have lived in Spain for over 30 years. We spend our time between Granada, the coast and our off-grid cortijo in the mountains. We are mainly interested in help up at the mountain house.
  
  We have 36,000 m2 with about 160 olive trees, 800 grape vines, 100 almonds, almost all the fruit trees you can think of, a vegetable plot, about 5 springs, solar-powered electricity, solar water heating, and 10m x 5m swimming pool.
  
  We are 1300 metres above sea level. The nearest village is 6 km up a non-asphalt road. We don't have any children but have a dog named "Shep" and a three kittens called "Zeberdee, Brian and Dylan".
  
  We have hosted more than 400 workawayers over the last 16 years. We welcome people who like being in a beautiful, remote mountain setting. It is especially important that you are a pleasant sociable person with a good sense of humour who likes good conversation and can appreciate eating good healthy food. Although we are off-grid we have a good hot water system and life is fairly comfortable.
  
  Note: If you are a French, German, Spanish or Italian native speaker we might ask you to do translations into English.

• 

  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Language practice

  Help with Eco Projects

  Light gardening

  Creating/ Cooking family meals
• 

  Interests

  

  Cycling

  

  Fitness

  

  Dancing

  

  Videography

  

  Sustainability

  

  Technology

  

  Politics / Social justice

  

  Pets

  

  Movies & TV

  

  Farming

  

  Events & social

  

  Writing

  

  Photography

  

  Plant care

  

  Music

  

  Languages

  

  Hitchhiking

  

  Drawing & painting

  

  Gardening

  

  History

  

  DIY & crafts

  

  Cooking & food

  

  Carpentry

  

  Blogging

  

  Books

  

  Astronomy

  

  Animals

  

  Outdoor activities

  

  Camping

  

  Hiking
• 

  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  If you have any question about the Spanish language, we can give you a good answer because we are fluent in Spanish and also have spent many years as language teachers. If your level of Spanish is good enough, you could speak to us in Spanish however the main language at our farm is English. We have our own hiking group and we often organise hikes at the weekends when it is not too hot for hiking and there are usually around 15 Spanish people for you to practise your Spanish with. You will probably learn a lot about growing your own food and self sufficiency.

• 

  Help

  The most important thing is that you like gardening and helping outside.
  
  Here are some examples of the help. Skim the dead insects off the swimming pool, sweep up the terraces, weed the flowerbed and vegetable plot, plant out lettuces, go with me to collect mulch, plant trees and bushes, pick peaches and other fruit, staple paper bags around the apples to stop the birds eating them, clean out the barbecue, cut the grass on the lawn, pick walnuts, crack almonds and walnuts for the muesli. Pick broad beans. Plant seeds. Let the chickens out. Shut the chickens up. Collect horse manure. Teach us something we don't know.

• 

  Languages spoken

  English: Fluent
  Spanish: Fluent
  French: Beginner

• 

  Accommodation

  There are 2 self-contained independent apartments for the volunteers and we shuffle the people around to get the best combination.
  We also have a couple of tents which sometimes people prefer but tents are always optional, you can always sleep in a bed.
  
  For breakfast, we normally eat our delicious healthy muesli which has our own nuts and dried fruit in. For the midday meal, we try to eat stuff that we have grown ourselves with either fish or meat. In the evenings in the summer, we have gazpacho or other ways of eating the abundance of really nice tomatoes, pepper, aubergines, etc. that we grow. We often cook outside on the barbecue. We have a wood oven for pizzas, bread and roasting etc. We eat mostly vegetarian food but we are not strict vegetarians. If you have special dietary requirements, you must tell us when you contact us. We don't take vegans or people who don't eat eggs.

• 

  What else ...

  The cortijo is 6km from the nearest sleepy village which has a population of about 1000. We have a good internet connection. Free Wifi is available in the main lounge and in outside areas but not everywhere. There is 4G coverage almost everywhere and if you have your own data there are nice places to sit to speak with your family etc.
  
  As the electricity system is solar you have to be careful to switch off lights and not waste electricity. There are lots of interesting walks all around the mountains. It would be very unsuitable for a city person who hates the countryside.
  Andalucia is very hot in August but as we are at 1300 metres, it is much more pleasant than lower down.
  
  IMPORTANT: There is plenty of time to connect to social media and keep in contact with your friends via Internet when you are here. However, if you are so addicted to using your phone that it prevents you from interacting with new people, then please don't come here. Using your phone at the dining table is not OK.
  
  Very shy, introverted people who almost never say anything don't tend to enjoy it much here. If you are in that category, you should choose a less sociable workaway place. We have volunteers to make life more fun. There is nothing wrong with being a very quiet person but we are looking for sociable people.
  
  What you can do on your days off? As most of the workawayers don't have their own transport, we often take everyone out on excursions. You don't really have to think about what to do because we always do a hike with a walking group on Sundays and on Saturdays we usually go for breakfast somewhere and then go somewhere like Guadix to do shopping and you can have time to explore. The walking group has lots of Spanish people and this is the time to practice your Spanish with native speakers.
  
  It is necessary that you like eating vegetables. We don't take people who don't like tomatoes, who can't eat perfectly good things just because of the texture or are fussy eaters in general.
  
  We don't take volunteers with pets or children.
  
  Almost everyone who comes here leaves more healthy, more relaxed, fitter and happier than when they arrived.

• 

  A little more information

  • 

    Internet access

  • 

    Limited internet access

  • 

    We have pets

  • 

    We are smokers

  • 

    Can host families

• 

  Can host digital nomads

  This option would only be a good idea for long term stays.

• 

  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

• 

  My animals / pets

  

  Zeberdie Dylan and Brian (1 year)

  Zeberdie (red) Dylan (green) and Brian (blue) are brothers from the same litter. They wear coloured collars because without them they are identical. They are very affectionate and they love humans.

  

  Shep (12 years)

  Many of the volunteers take her for walks which she loves. If you ever go on a walk ask Shep if she wants to come. She loves running after sticks but she never gives them back.

Website Safety

Chat with Workawayers who've visited this host

+125

Feedback (134)