Portugal
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My name is Miguel. I am a musician, a clown/magician, a juggler, a massage therapist and an all-round great guy :-), but what pays me the bills is my Professor job at the University.
I live in a small house with a huge garden where I have been doing organic farm for 15 years. The property has been with my family for almost 70 years now. I'm trying to be as friendly to the environment as possible without losing quality of living. With the volunteers we created a beautiful and productive garden and also managed to build a music studio, sauna, Jacuzzi, and a few really comfortable rooms. We love music and art - especially circus (it's near some circus schools and we regularly host artists)!
What are we looking for?... Open minded, proactive, eco-conscious and fun people are really welcome at our little project (but please read the whole profile!)
What we offer: Accomodation in a private room and breakfast. Other meals are not included but there's free access to all the fruit and vegetables in the garden. The volunteers are supposed to cook and participate in the house chores. The best for last: peanut butter is unlimited :-)
The farm is in Ermesinde really close to Porto (45 mins by bike or 20 by train) and the national park (we regularly go there for hiking, horse riding or swimming, check the pics).
We have around 20 fruit trees (oranges, lemons, kiwis, plums, persimmon. arbutus, mandarine, grapefruit, peach, pear, apples, cherries, medlar, quince, berries) and a few vegetable patches (cabbage, chard, garlic, onion, spinach, tomatoes, etc.). And a few chicken (fresh eggs!). Chicken jokes are welcome!
Most of the garden work is related to fruit and veetable picking, weeding and general maintenance,
Our little project is all about cultural exchange and a lot of music! Volunteers are really encouraged to use the music studio for their projects of any type, including rock, folk or electronic music.. I'll be happy to help - I love to mix and produce.
We regularly do mountain trips where we try to help with tree planting, cleanup of forests and nature in general. So, active people with hiking or climbing experience are really welcome.
Even if the project is small, I feel the conditions we offer are really good! I will be happy to give you a WhatsApp virtual tour (video chat) of the farm if you wish.
I don't eat meat and we mostly cook vegetarian but volunteers are welcome to cook and store anything they wish.
Important:
- We are not a business, just a small cultural and farming project. It's not a job or a country club :-). We then expect volunteers to be independent and proactive. We prefer open minded problem-solving people instead of problem-finding complaining volunteers.
- If you are a smoker (even eventual) please don't send a request (read below the reasons).
Gardening
Building
General Maintenance
Cooking / shopping
Help with Eco project
Help in the house
Animal care
Art project
We look for chill and open minded, proactive people really interested in learning about productive non-nonsense organic farming.
We also love musicians, circus artists and creative people in general.
Musicians can use a full studio anytime. We're super happy to share music influences and organize concerts or street performance.
The work will be mostly in the garden around 2h every day plus sharing house work, like cooking and cleaning. Farming depends a lot on the time of the year, of course. In general we get to do all the work in the morning so afternoons and evenings are free.
If you are a chef or a massage therapist don't bother telling the story of your life. Just mention that on the subject line and we always say yes (subject to availability of room) 😁😁😁
(Fluent) English Portuguese French Spanish (Basic) Italian
Private room. There's some really nice sociable cats that will volunteer to sleep in your room if you leave the door open.
We get to travel a lot to the national park and nature in general. Our favorites are hiking, swimming and horse back riding. In our trips we try to do a bit cleanup so we will offset the impact of the travel. We generally travel by bike or electric car, charged partly with solar power (hope one day it'll be 100% solar).
Volunteers can use the bikes. Porto is really near. There are amazing bike rides along the coast. Porto is a vibrant city very welcoming to street performers and other kind of artists. There are many cultural events in Porto the whole year round.
Sadly, we cannot host smokers, mostly for reasons related to organic farming. The tobacco plant absorbs dangerous toxic metals (mostly from fertilizers, pesticides and additives) and the ashes contain considerable amounts of these chemicals. Plants are not able to eliminate these heavy metals so smoking is not compatible with organic farming and a environmental friendly lifestyle. The majority of smokers are not careful or polite enough to not throw their ashes on the soil. And would you like to eat fresh eggs from chicken that feed on toxic ashes? In case you wonder, the so called "natural tobacco" has the same amount of dangerous chemicals than "normal tobacco". Also remember that tobacco is GMO, and the tobacco industry has a huge environmental impact (similar to the meat industry - deflorestation, destruction of traditional agriculture - for every 300 cigarettes a tree is cut down).
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
More than two
Maximum 3 h/day, or 15h/week. Other arrangements may be discussed.
These are extra optional ratings when members leave feedback. The average rating left for each option is displayed.
Accuracy of profile:
(4.9)
Cultural exchange:
(4.8)
Communication:
(4.6)
