Help us run an eco farm in Umbria, Italy

Details

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  Description

  Hi, we are Jordie, Yasmine and Nour.
  
  Five years ago Jordie returned to the central Italian countryside after almost 20 years away and abroad working as anthropologist, documentary filmmaker, reporter and transmedia author. After leaving the countryside at 18, he lived and studied in Rome, then left for the UK and during those years also lived shorter periods in Peru, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Madagascar, Cape Verde and Belgium. After many travels he decided to come back here, to Ficulle, where he grew up, a little medieval town of 1600 inhabitants in the Umbrian hills.
  
  Yasmine, from the port city of Livorno, is a professional artist printmaker with extensive experience in Italy and the UK. She studied art in Florence and in London where she lived for the past 10 years. Two years ago she started to build her life with Jordie here where she fell in love with him, the dogs, the cats and the place, so she decided to move here.
  
  Nour was born in August 2022, a beautiful baby who's story still has to write itself :-)
  
  Italy is a beautiful but sometimes complicated country to live in, but here is where we decided we want to live a life geared towards quality, surrounded by nature, animals, organic homegrown food and so on.
  
  We live in a country house and run an organic farm. We grow hazelnuts, spelt, truffles, olives, hemp, artichokes and much more, we have a vegetable garden running all year round and a fruit orchard. The place is surrounded by woodland and a river runs just hundred meters away. The house and surroundings are slowly shaping up, but work is always around the corner and we are looking for a few people that want to spend spring, summer and autumn here to give us a hand :-)
  
  Having travelled and lived abroad for a long while we now fluently speak Italian, English and Spanish, Jordie also speaks German, his French is decent and he has some basics in Portuguese.
  
  Unfortunately we can only accept workawayers willing to stay for at least one month, as it always takes time for everyone to adapt and we think shorter periods will not allow for the right time to have a fruitful exchange for both hosts and workawayers.
  
  We give priority to workawayers that come as a couple and usually host one couple at a time, but sometimes, in busier periods of the year when we need some extra help, we might host up to 4 people.
  
  We have 1 lovely dog, 4 cats and 10 chicken. We prefer not to host people with pets, so it doesn’t get too crowded.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Babysitting and creative play

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance

  Help with Computers/ Internet
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Here we hope to share the cultural identity of these hills and valleys shaped by medieval city states in continuous war with each other, leaving a landscape dotted by castles and forts, walled towns sitting on cliffs and antique churches a bit everywhere. Squeezed among the Tuscany of Florence and the Lazio region of Rome, Umbria, dubbed the green heart of Italy, inherits the cultural and architectonic influence of the better know cities and the rolling hills famous in Tuscany, but in our opinion is more authentic in its agricultural traditions, customs and relationship with the land.
  
  We will share all our knowledge regarding living in the coutryside and different things can be learned depending on the season and the work that needs doing. Work can go from gardening to hazelnut harvest, from tending the growing hemp to preparing limoncello, from collecting wild edible vegetables to cooking the best lasagna ever. Moreover Jordie has a 15 years experience in the media environment, while Yasmine is a brilliant printmaker, so we definitely can share a few professional tips.

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  Projects involving children

  This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.

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  Help

  We constantly need some help with a bit of everything, tending the vegetable garden and the animals, pruning, general maintenance, cooking and cleaning, gardening, chopping wood and get stones off the fields, welding, carpentry, photography and web design for some projects we have in mind and sometimes a bit of babysitting if you're up for it.
  
  Living and working in the countryside often means to go with the seasons and the weather. Being here in spring, summer or autumn will change the tasks at hand.
  
  At the moment the main work revolves around a new truffle plantation we are preparing. Preparing the fields, finishing the fences, removing stones, planting the trees and building the irrigation system.
  
  Unfortunately we can only accept workawayers willing to stay for at least one month, as it always takes time for everyone to adapt and we think shorter periods will not allow for the right time to have a fruitful exchange for both hosts and workawayers.
  
  We give priority to workawayers that come as a couple and usually host one couple at a time, but sometimes, in busier periods of the year when we need some extra help, we might host up to 4 people.

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  Languages spoken

  German: Fluent
  English: Fluent
  Spanish: Fluent
  Italian: Fluent
  French: Intermediate
  Portuguese: Beginner

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  Accommodation

  We have 2 extra big rooms with private bathroom that are available for workawayers.
  Food is obviously provided and usually we all eat together as a big Italian family :-)
  We are vegetarians and the food we offer is often from our garden. We don’t mind if you want to eat and keep meat or fish in the fridge, just we won’t offer it on our menu.
  We usually ask workawayers to cook for everybody for dinner and keep the kitchen tidy, while we cook for everyone at lunch. So we can all contribute to our shared meals and share recipes and our culinary cultures.

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  What else ...

  Being in the countryside, having a car is a plus, so that you can be independent. If you have no car it is easy to get here by train to the Fabro-Ficulle train station, which is a 10 min drive from our place and we can easily pick you up. We can obviously drive you to town when you need.

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Can host digital nomads

  This host has indicated that they love having digital nomads stay.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  This host can provide space for campervans.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  Hours expected

  5 hours a day, 5 days a week - totally flexible

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