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Host rating
90 %
Last replied
18 Apr 2026
Reply rate
100.0 %
Usually responds within 10 days
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Details
Description
Come and spend your days on 1.5 hectares of young food forest near Paredes de Coura, in northern Portugal in exchange for you 3 hours a day. Help and get your hands in the soil and learn about food forest design. This is our way of facing the many disrupting changes facing our lives and world. We have many neighbours in the north of Portugal who are looking to a different way of living with the land and one another.
Berilay and Mathijs have been slowly, intentionally shaping Silverto. The stone house they live in is partly renovated, a flourishing food forest with some trees already establishing nicely. And there's still plenty of meaningful work ahead. This is not a finished project. If you are interested in living at the edge of the forest, being by yourself in nature, can work autonomously, Silverto might be the place for you.
Berilay, 34 from Türkiye, have been a dreamer since the day she left university. Dreaming what she could be capable of if she could live her life at full capacity. So she has touched many careers while growing, UX/UI designer, dubbing translator, photographer, graphic & marketing designer, cook, massage therapist... Since a few years after she arrived to Portugal in 2019 she used housesitting/petsitting as a way to clear stagnation and keep things novel, and also, to get to know cool people.
That's also how she met Mathijs. Now 2 years later after her arrival to the beautiful north of Portugal she is settling at Silverto with him. Mathijs is 40, originally from the Netherlands, and living in Silverto for 7 years. After spending many years in his old Volvo touring the world, looking for a place to settle, he found this lush and abundant area to build his life and vision. He loves working on Open Source software, making the world a better place: tree mapping, food forest design and apps to empower small communities. He is great at solving problems, is up for a deep conversation even if it is challenging and is passionate about shaping vision with an awareness of global issues and commitment to joyful, meaningful action.
Silverto is looking for guests who are interested in a combination of **rest, support, learning, and sharing**. In exchange for around 3 hours of help a day, 5 days a week, you get a place to stay in the forest, shared meals, and full access to everything they're building and learning. They ask for a stay of three to eight weeks — long enough to settle in, find your rhythm, and actually be useful.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
House & pet sitting
Interests
Outdoor activities
Languages
Gardening
Culture
Pets
Farming
Movies & TV
Self development
Van life
Vegetarian or vegan
Sustainability
Politics / Social justice
Technology
Events & social
Carpentry
Cooking & food
DIY & crafts
Plant care
Yoga / Wellness
Animals
Camping
Nature
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
🗺️ Learn about rural life 101, get your hands in the soil
🌳 Get hands-on with with practical tasks in the food forest
🌱 Work weekly with our dedicated forest managers and absorb years of practical knowledge
💡 Bring your own project or idea — if it fits the land and the vision, we're open to it
🍅 If you are here in August, you can learn how to make fermented tomato paste (salça) with sun power
Beyond the forest, we're part of a friendly local network. Life here includes the occasional coworking session, shared workshop, yoga class, and neighbourhood dinner. We love a deep conversation — physics, ecology, philosophy, technology, economics, social systems — and bringing creativity, care, and a seriously good kitchen. We really appreciate if you teach us a new dish, we love eating food lol. Every week we receive a yummy vegetable basket from our neighbour who practices regenerative agriculture.
Every year we celebrate the land with the **Silverto Spring Party** — this year on **May 30th**. If your visit overlaps, you're very welcome to be part of building it.
Help
⏰ About 3 hours a day, 5 days a week.
🧹 The baseline: shared household tasks —keeping common spaces tidy.
🌿 Forest help, one dedicated day a week.
🪓 Pruning, chipping, firewood prep, weeding. We are in the process of pointing some walls of the house with lime mortar, if you are interested to learn, you can do it with us.
🍳 If you can take over lunch and dinner preparation when Beri is away, it would be great help.
🐾 Caring for our two cats (one diabetic) when we travel (more on them below).
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Dutch: Fluent
Turkish: Fluent
Portuguese: Intermediate
Accommodation
Our accommodations are very much in nature — simple, and close to the land. That's the whole point.
🚐 **Guest caravan** — a cosy space with a big bed, small table, sink, solar power, and fast wifi. Your own quiet corner.
🏕️ **Forest camping** — for those who really want to wake up under the trees. Best experienced from May onwards, when the weather cooperates. We provide tent and sleeping gear.
🚐 Are you travelling with your van? We have the perfect spot for you.
🏠 The renovated **stone house** is our shared common space — kitchen, bathroom, workshop, and living room, functional and welcoming.
🚿 Indoor shower and toilet, plus a solar shower tucked into the forest for warmer months. There is also a compost toilet in the forest.
What else ...
This is a working piece of land with two people living on it, building something they believe in. The work is real, the conversations are honest, and the forest is great to get to know.
If you like the idea of slowing down without switching off — of contributing something tangible while also having space to breathe, think, and learn — Silverto might be your kind of place. We always have a video call before anything is arranged.
It's very important for us that you can work autonomously (take responsibility withhout needing constant direction), be punctual on agreed check-in times, communicate your needs clearly and empathic while hearing others.
Depending on the time of your arrival, we may or may not have more volunteers. So you need to be comfortable with the probability of being by yourself most of the time. From May to August, we tend to have more than one volunteers.
-Some practical basics that help the place function:
No smoking in the forest (fire risk).
Remove shoes in the main house.
Shared common spaces are available from 08.30 am to 08.30 pm.
If you break something due to incompetence or maltreatment, please offer to pay for it.
If you move something, put it back to its place.
Only use power tools after instruction.
Clean tools after use.
Return tools properly.
Attend morning meetings.
Only use organic hygiene products (water from shower and kitchen goes to our garden).
Don't pull a weed out or take a plant unless you know what it is and have been asked to do so.
Just so you know, this is not a business and never has been.
To show you've read this fully, please start your message with the word **strawberry**. We receive a lot of requests and genuinely won't be able to reply to messages that don't include it — thank you for understanding. 🙏🏽
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
We've excellent fibre (full wifi coverage) in the house and throughout most of the forest.
Space for parking camper vans
There is a dedicated parking area with wifi, water and electricity available for cars and small/medium-sized (camper)vans.
Can possibly accept pets
We can receive guests with *well behaved* dogs, chickens, donkeys, horses and ostriches. 😜 We are not able to accommodate cats 😿 beyond our own.
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
My animals / pets
Mina (6 years)
Mina is soft, fluffy, and quietly curious. She'll come and say hello when you arrive, on her own terms. Don't rush her — give her space, move gently, and she'll reward you with her company. She's at her most affectionate in the evenings, when she's on the lookout for a warm lap to settle into.
Freddy (6 years)
Freddy is the sociable one — curious, friendly, and immediately at ease with new people. He doesn't scratch or bite and loves a good stroke. We found out he has diabetes, this means he follows a strict daily routine of food, glucose measuring, and insulin. He's doing well, and we take his care seriously. When we travel, we need someone reliable and caring to keep up his schedule.
Chat with Workawayers who've visited this host
Feedback (19)
What we appreciate is the fact that there is freedom in everything, you decide what you would like to do, no pressure! Due to the fact that you only have to work for a couple of hours a day you got plenty of… read more
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Chat with Workawayers who've visited this host
Feedback
These are extra optional ratings when members leave feedback. The average rating left for each option is displayed.
Accuracy of profile:
(4.6)
Cultural exchange:
(4.4)
Communication:
(4.4)
What we appreciate is the fact that there is freedom in everything, you decide what you would like to do, no pressure! Due to the fact that you only have to work for a couple of hours a day you got plenty of… read more
I was a little… read more
I was in Silverto for a total of 3 weeks and mainly looked after the house with property and the two cats. It was my first workaway experience and really perfect for it.
Mathijs gave me a very good and clear briefing and was always available the when I had a question. He is very… read more
You kept our plants alive, you helped us build our chicken coop and definitely exceeded our expectations!
Hope to see you again, soon!
We stayed in the yurt for 10 days and in the caravan for another 2 weeks. The yurt was… read more
They even performed same repairs, did some small works and made us a delicious surprise. :)
Autonomous, intelligent, emphatic, hard-working and respectful, I couldn't ask for anything more!
He has very good communication skills and he is doing well with organizing and delegating tasks, always giving options on what a volunteer can do.
He shared many interesting stories from his trips and from his life in Portugal and he knows a lot about many different things.
Together with Diego, they were more than… read more
She singlehandedly did more work than we all did during our volunteering weekend, was amazingly loving towards my cats and she has amazing heart-opening abilities, truly listening and truly seeing others without judgement.
They took care of my cats for a view weeks and I hope to meet them again some time soon!
