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Host rating
100 %
Last replied
26 Oct 2024
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100.0 %
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Details
Description
We - Andreas (vegetarian) and Christine (non-vegetarian) - are a couple of a little over 50 years (feeling younger ;-)) with a lovely 3 hectare Quinta outside a small village in Central Portugal.
We would love your support on our land with vines, olive and various fruit trees, forrest (damaged by 2017 fires), liquor making (and tasting the results of course ;-)), and with various projects like natural stone walls, planting about 100 new trees, cleaning the land, a new chicken house, repairing the damage a flood did to our land in 2018 and 2019/20 and innumerable other things - whenever we look around, new stuff pops up ;-)! We are originally from Germany, started to "really" live in Portugal since the mid of 2018 and enjoy the peaceful atmosphere. Our workaways will have their own, nicely equipped apartment in the village (5 minutes walk from the Quinta) with double bed, bathroom, kitchen and free internet (30 MB), so you will have absolute independence when you are not working on the land. We have 3 cats and one of them is really shy and absolutely scared of dogs (takes off and goes missing for days...), so we unfortunately cannot accomodate you with a dog.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
General Maintenance
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
We are experts in gardening, making our own liquors and goodies from the stuff we harvest and are happy to share this knowledge with other people. We have learned how to work with natural stone, wood, concrete (as limited as possible) and will be happy to forward all the handyman skills we acquired in the past years. You will meet our lovely Portuguese neighbours who are always happy to drink a "coppo" of their selfmade wine with others. Swimming in the lakes nearby (10 minutes by car), joining the "Festas" of the Portuguese during summer, hiking alongside the rivers will in most cases create a bond to this beautyful country. Plus of course the great buildings / cities with lots of history, plus the typical Portuguese music (Fado), plus etc.
You will definitely learn about ecological and endemic reforesting, as this is our main topic at the moment!
Help
Priority # 1 are the fruit and olive trees which replace about 1 hectare of burnt forrest. Terraces have been made by machines and still need preparation for planting. This is quite hard physical work (shoving stones around etc.) but rewarding when looking at all the young trees after planting them...
3 hectares are a lot of work anyhow, but our complete forrest was badly affected by the fires 2017 and needs cleaning and an ecologically sensitive reforesting. We plan to reforrest the remaining 2 hectares (which will not be fruit and olives) with endemic trees - no Eukalyptus - these are trees that are not endemic in Portugal and take away immense amounts of water from the land (Eukies are normally used for drying out swamps...), ruin the fauna and flora through their etheric oils and are one of the main reasons for the indominable fires in the past years. In 2018 and 2019/20, we had floods on part of our land- there is still quite a lot of damage resulting from this, which needs repairing - among other things removing stones and sand from the area where we used to plant our vegetables... Otherwise there is always stuff to plant, harvest, cut - like vines that need to be pruned. Andreas will also need a strong hand to rebuild some of the natural stone walls that keep our terraced land. There is plenty of work and with just 4 hands we are a little at loss... So help is highly appreciated!
Plus we have another property which si basically ruins which are to be converted into guest apartments - a very long-haul work... at the moment still cleaning land, houses (over 1000 m² covered)...
Languages spoken
German: Fluent
English: Fluent
French: Intermediate
Portuguese: Beginner
Accommodation
Own, independent apartment (ca. 45 m²) in the village with bedroom (doublebed), bathroom (shower, wc, washbasin) and a fully equipped kitchen / living area (including a dishwasher - a luxury, which we are still missing at the Quinta ;-)) with great views and right around the corner form a café / minimercado. The apartment is a five minute walk from the quinta and has wifi (30 MB). Regarding food, we will eat together during your work at the Quinta (if you want to) and certainly have some BBQs and dinners together.
Otherwise, we will equip your fridge with food from the quinta and from the markets / supermarkets according to your preferences (vegetarian, vegan, etc.), so that you can cater for yourselves.
What else ...
Please only apply if you plan to stay for 2 weeks or longer.
We have three cats (so someone with an allergy might back off), which do not like dogs - so unfortunately, we cannot accomodate you with a companion on 4 paws...
We are both smokers (only outside the house though), so strict non-smokers might feel uncomfortable.
We still work for our living, thus we will (depending on our customers' demands) partially be bound to the house. You will thus be expected to work partially on your own. Generally our guests should be self-sufficient, as our time-schedules are quite tight. We enjoy spending time with our guests, but it sometimes is less than be both wish due to office demands. On your days off, just tell us, if you want to be brought somewhere - hiking, swimming, bus to cities etc.! We will be happy to provide you with all infos you need and advice regarding rewarding activities according to your personal interests. There is a bus-on-call from the village that brings your to the next bigger bus stations which provide a good public transport all over Portugal. We have a very nice river Zezere and lakes nearby, swimming, kajaking etc. are nice options in summer, hiking here is also a joy - there are numerous hinking paths through lovely nature around.
People coming here should be aware of the fact that the Quinta and village are really very rural and calm - there is no big parties going on, so you should be the type to enjoy peace and quiet. A rental car would certainly be a good idea (usually not very expensive here), at least for a week to visit Lisbon or Porto (1.5 hrs drive), the seaside (1 hr drive), cultural centres of the knights templar etc. Bus connections are quite good from the town of Serta or Pedrogao Grande.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
The apartment has a cable connection (fiber) with 30 MB and is thus stable.
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
Feedback (5)
Christine and Andreas are very warm, friendly and welcoming people, who do everything they can to make you feel right at home.
We learned a lot from them about life in… read more
San and Jef are extremely nice, kind persons, great company, very interested in innumerous topics, open-minded and a real support! We greatly enjoyed spending time with them: working, laughing, discussing and celebrating together. They are both very considerate, taking their tasks very… read more
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Christine and Andreas are very warm, friendly and welcoming people, who do everything they can to make you feel right at home.
We learned a lot from them about life in… read more
San and Jef are extremely nice, kind persons, great company, very interested in innumerous topics, open-minded and a real support! We greatly enjoyed spending time with them: working, laughing, discussing and celebrating together. They are both very considerate, taking their tasks very… read more
