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Description
Overlooking lake Bolsena, we are in a beautifully isolated spot, three km from the nearest neighbour. Our farm has been kindly described as a “laboratory of the possible.” Our aim is to conduct natural agriculture as a form of happy resistance. We exhaustively source ancestral seeds from all over Italy and the world, cultivating over 1500 ancestral varieties of vegetables and 200 different varieties of heirloom tomatoes on volcanic soil untouched since the ancient Etruscans by chemicals or industrial methods. We have two main activities: Thanks to a subsidy from a humanitarian foundation we are building a museum of living heritage. We cultivate our seeds and bring them to farmers from Palestine and Lebanon to Senegal and Benin, from Georgia to Sicily and to our neighbours across the lake. Our second focus is the cultivation and transformation of tomatoes into preserve jars in highly limited editions.
We start from seeds in the nursery and then transplant in 12 different plots on 4 hectares in a regenerative polyculture practice inspired by Fukuoka, aided by four goats, 2 ducks and dozens of chickens, cats and dogs.
Guests are housed in a custom built Yurta or large tents in summer, with an adjacent enclosed full bathroom and outdoor kitchen In March and April, we're frequently in the greenhouse seeding and looking after the growing plants while the major transplanting goes from April to June. The spontaneous biodiversity coexists harmoniously with our multiple cultivations (which include vegetables, fruits, grains and legumes), rotating the presence of the goats who de-weed, prune and fertilise in specific areas. From July through October, we divide time between cultivation, harvesting of hundreds of vegetables and the laboratory.
The passion shared at this farm is for the unspoiled beauty of the surrounding nature where walks to the swimmable lake are easy as is swimming in our 25 meter long biolago in the middle of the property. We adore cooking and eating well and we share not only our own vegetables for our guests to cook by themselves but easy access to our local artisanal friends who produce every kind of organic cheese, ethically raised animals for meat, natural wine and natural beer. Occasionally there are shared meals.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
Farmstay help
Interests
Culture
Farming
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
As the farm is run by two native Italians, a half Brazilian-half American who have lived in Italy for much of his life and an Italian educated German, we feel we can communicate the pioneering work we're attempting from many different cultural perspectives. One of us is a chef, another a former art curator and another a former film director. Above all we offer a crash course in the rigours and joys of natural farming as a way to rethink (and act !) some the world's pressing problems related to climate change.
Help
We need help in all the seasonal activities of the farm-museum with the exception of our tomato production in jars, which is a separate activity reserved for full time collaborators. Instead you might seed, transplant , deweeding, archive seeds or help harvest seeds, vegetables and fruits. We ask for five hours of unpaid help from Monday to Friday with weekends off in exchange for food, lodging and an education in natural farming and ancestral seeds.
Languages spoken
German: Fluent
English: Fluent
Spanish: Fluent
French: Fluent
Italian: Fluent
Portuguese: Fluent
Greek: Intermediate
Accommodation
Either a 7 meter wide Yurt or individual tents of a very good size for who wants more privacy, all with adjacent full enclosed bathroom and semi enclosed fully equipped kitchen.
What else ...
Easy access to the beauty of the medieval town of Orvieto, to all the major Etruscan (pre-Roman) sites as well as the wildlife splendours all around us down to lake Bolsena.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
