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Join our permaculture farm and learning community on Madeira island, Portugal

Portugal
Last activity : 31 Oct 2025

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Host rating
100 %
Last replied
30 Oct 2025
Reply rate
100.0 %
Usually responds within 3 days
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4
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Availability

2025

Min stay requested: at least 2 weeks

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What's this?

Details

Description
OUR STORY
Eight years ago our founder Markus began restoring an abandoned terraced valley in Tábua, Ribeira Brava. What started as one person rebuilding stone walls has flourished into a 7-hectare permaculture farm and intentional community on Madeira’s sunny south-west coast.

WHO WE ARE TODAY
• 3 resident adults, and an ever-changing circle of volunteers
• A menagerie of cows, pigs, chickens, ducks, dogs, bees—and the wild birds that visit our food-forest edges
• Multilingual household (English, German, Portuguese, Spanish) that enjoys shared meals.

OUR VISION
We exist to demonstrate and teach regenerative living. That means:
– Natural building projects using cob, SuperAdobe and reclaimed wood
– Holistic animal care with daily rotational grazing and compost systems that close the nutrient loop
– Self-directed education for the kids, with volunteers welcome to share skills or languages

WHY COME?
If you’d like to swap screens for soil, learn hands-on permaculture or test your natural-building muscles—while living in a friendly off-grid valley ten minutes from the sea—you’ll fit right in here. We share knowledge freely, cook hearty vegetarian food, celebrate successes and laugh at our mistakes.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Art Projects
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
Creating/ Cooking family meals
General Maintenance
Interests
LGBTQ
Events & social
Vegetarian or vegan
Sustainability
Pets
Culture
Van life
Self development
Farming
Plant care
Music
DIY & crafts
Books
Art & design
Photography
Languages
Gardening
Cooking & food
Architecture
Drawing & painting
Carpentry
Animals
Yoga / Wellness
Nature
Camping
Dancing
Mountain
Beach
Outdoor activities
Hiking
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
...
...
What's this?
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
Living at this place is an immersion into Madeiran village life and hands-on permaculture. You’ll:

• Learn practical regenerative skills – compost making, food-forest design, natural building (cob & earthbag), holistic animal care.
• Experience community living – weekly circles, consensus decision-making.

• Share knowledge both ways – volunteers often teach yoga, music, languages or fermentation.

• Explore outdoors – we map secret levada trails, cliff-top sunsets and surf spots, and lend camping gear for weekend adventures.

• Language & culture exchange – practice Portuguese with locals & residents.

Whether you’re a novice gardener or seasoned builder, you’ll leave with a toolkit of regenerative practices, new friendships that span continents.
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Help
☘️ YEAR-ROUND CORE TASKS
• Animal care – morning feed/water, moving cows to fresh pasture, checking eggs, muck-out and bedding change.
• Food-forest maintenance – mulching, pruning, turning compost, planting support species.
• Community chores – keeping common areas tidy, sorting recycling, weekly infrastructure day (tool shed, water lines, compost toilets).

🌱 FEB–OCT (GARDEN SEASON)
• Preparing and maintaining garden beds, sowing & transplanting seedlings, daily harvest and post-harvest washing.
• Building compost systems (thermophilic hot piles, Johnson-Su bioreactors).

🏗️ NOV–MAR (NATURAL BUILDING SEASON)
• Landscaping terraces with stone and living retaining walls.

🍲 KITCHEN & COMMUNITY
• Help cook a vegetarian communal lunch and wash up.
• Fermentation projects – sourdough, kombucha, kefir – if you’re keen.

⌚ TIME COMMITMENT & RHYTHM
Approx. 25 h/week, Monday–Friday. We usually start at 09:00, finish by 13:00 so you have free afternoons to explore or rest. Tasks rotate so you won’t be doing the same job every day.

🤝 WHO FITS WELL
• Physically able for outdoor, hands-on work (terrain is steep).
• Communicates clearly in English (other languages welcome).
• Enjoys community living, takes initiative and respects shared spaces.
• No prior farm or building experience needed—we teach everything.

What you contribute keeps the farm thriving; what you learn can travel with you anywhere in the world!
Languages spoken
German: Fluent
English: Fluent
Italian: Fluent
Lithuanian: Fluent
Portuguese: Fluent
Accommodation
Volunteers are accommodated in the two converted container bedrooms, they come with beds & all bedding provided, although we do recommend you bring your own sleeping bag.

Accommodation on the land, use of shared facilities (kitchen, bathrooms, laundry etc) and vegetarian meals are provided to all volunteers. During workdays Mon-Fri, at 13:00 lunch is served in the shared kitchen area, by our resident farm cook.
For breakfast and dinner, and also during the weekends, everybody manages independently. The kitchen space can be used for preparing meals, storing food etc. Usually, it's our social space, and we get together to cook and share food and laughs.
What else ...
Madeira island (& island of Porto Santo) is part of the Macaronesian bio-region, with mild sub-tropical climate, dramatic landscape of volcanic origin, and endemic Laurisilva forest- an UNESCO world heritage site.
In your free time, there's abundant hiking trails all around the island, black sand beaches and swimming spots to explore, cultural events and a rich digital nomads & expats community to connect with.If you'd like to understand the process of designing your own project or joining a larger community, we're happy to share what we've learned so far about project design, community management, Permaculture farming, soil & water management, animal caring, bio-housing, alternative education etc.
A little more information
- Internet access
- Limited internet access
- We have pets
- We are smokers
- Can host families
Can host digital nomads
We manage independently with the internet, some of us have MIFI/ pocket wifi device, it's a portable mini-router that gives you wifi on the go, it worked for us so far. The shared kitchen area can be used for computer work, it has a seating area indoors & outdoors, and most of the time there will wifi available there.
Space for parking camper vans
Campers, caravans, motorhomes, more than welcome- 7 hectares of land you waiting for you.
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
My animals / pets

Host ref number: 866549972224

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Chat with Workawayers who've visited this host

Feedback (3)

16 Sep 2025

Left by Workawayer (Heike) for host

I experienced this farm as a volunteer as a very heartwarming and real place. Beautiful souls living there, with inspiring views of life, nature and human being. So many good idea excist on this piece of land but nice people are missing to make them happen: So, visit this place, fall in love with it and make good happen there! Thanks for having… read more

(Excellent )

31 Mar 2025

Left by Workawayer (Pablo Armando & Ana Rita) for host

My experience as a volunteer at this ecovillage was intense and transformative. I spent almost seven months immersed in the daily routine of the place, surrounded by breathtaking nature and incredible people who truly made a difference. However, the management and organizational environment left much to be desired.

Since the arrival of a new… read more manager at the end of 2024, the atmosphere changed drastically. No one knew that his intention was to take over the management, and if I had known that last year, I would have left much earlier. Unfortunately, his leadership proved to be inflexible, authoritarian, and unwilling to engage in dialogue. The environment, which once had the potential for collaboration and learning, became exhausting, leading many volunteers to abandon the project.

Additionally, project management is extremely flawed. The owner and the manager constantly start new initiatives, but few are ever completed. During my stay, I observed a pattern of disorganization and lack of planning, which resulted in wasted time and resources. Despite my efforts to suggest effective project management methods—based on my practical, technical, and academic experience in the field—almost nothing changed. The lack of structure and commitment to finishing projects led to frustration and demotivation among volunteers.

When we announced our departure, we expected at least some level of consideration and dialogue from the owner. However, what we received was a cold and indifferent response, focused solely on logistics and replacing volunteers, with no empathy or genuine interest in understanding our reasons. It felt as if volunteer well-being was not a priority—only maintaining a workforce. The manager, in turn, did not even bother to ask why we were leaving.

While some accommodations were acceptable, there were extremely poor conditions in certain cases. Since my arrival in September 2024, the site had deteriorating structures, and some volunteers had to sleep in yurts in terrible condition, lacking proper hygiene and even infested with rats.

I am giving a neutral rating because, despite the challenges, this experience was a true school of life. I learned a lot from the good people I met, and through the difficulties, I developed resilience and strength. If management valued volunteers more, improved basic conditions, and implemented more efficient administration, this could truly be an inspiring place.

(Neutral )

7 Feb 2025

Left by Workawayer (Diana) for host

The highlight of this experience for me was the wonderful people I've met at the farm, who became dear friends. The most important experience I've gained there was starting a mushroom farm from scratch, and soooo much learning along the way, the research, the experimenting. Our interest in mushrooms brought us together with Markus, but we did so… read more

(Excellent )

6 Feb 2025

Left by host for Workawayer (Diana)

Diana is very reliable has excellent self management skills and is a hard worker. She is also very efficient at using her permaculture knowledge and applying it in practice. She is very good at gardening, working with animals as well as working with children.

(Excellent )

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